Background, Hypotheses and Methodology

Abstract

During most of the Soviet industrialisation period consumer goods enterprises and the distribution network could rest assured that almost any consumer product — any size, colour, style and quality — would be sold if offered to the public. This was a sellers’ market; the sellers held the upper hand, simply trying to fulfil their plans without being concerned about the demands of buyers. After the mid-1950s, however, both the production of consumer goods and personal incomes increased, and gradually more and more consumer demands were answered. A concern for consumer welfare was emerging. But, with the advent of some buyers’ market conditions, no longer were all consumer goods that arrived on the market automatically sold; inventories increased as did the problems of planners. In 1965 Professor Marshall Goldman examined production and consumption in order to document and explain these changes (Goldman, 1965). The objective of the present study is to analyse the domestic trade sector of the Soviet economy as it has reacted to the development of the buyers’ market and the rise of the Soviet consumer. Another major change in the economy, the 1965 reforms, presented trade the opportunity to begin to respond to the new conditions.