5-&-10 Kopeks

Serious, square-headed Ivan I. Gordeeff, agent in the U. S. for Russia's great Torgsin chain-store system, proudly announced last week in Manhattan that Torgsin had taken over the U. S. 5-c--&-10-c-? store idea. Torgsin's 5-&-10 kopek stores are already doing business in Leningrad, Moscow, Kharkov and a few other big cities. They are actually 5-kopek (4-c-), 10-kopek (9-c-), 25, 50 and 100-kopek or one-ruble (87-c-) stores. Like all Torgsin stores they are designed as bait for foreigners' money. For 5-&-10 they sell knives, tumblers, toothpaste, soap, pins, pencils, notebooks, candy, sandwiches, tea, coffee. And last week Mr. Gordeeff claimed for U. S. tourists' ears that some Torgsin prices are still lower than current U. S. prices. Some prices: 1 lb. of chocolate caramels, 23-c-; 1 lb. of canned meat, 12-c-; 1/2 lb. of black caviar, $1.15; a cotton dress, from 68-c- to $3.20; a beret, 16-c-; wool mittens, 16-c-; a towel, 22-c-; a handkerchief, 3-c-; a pair of men's boots, $3.32; a frying pan, 6-c-.

In the 1,700 Torgsin stores in Soviet Russia, preferred trade is in foreign currency, preferably gold and silver, which Russia badly needs to buy goods abroad. But a foreigner may turn in his money at a Soviet bank or at Torgsin and get paper rubles and a booklet showing how many rubles he has bought. When he pays a Torgsin clerk with rubles he must present the booklet, have his ruble total marked down. Thus a Russian may not buy at a Torgsin store unless a relative abroad has sent him a money order through Torgsin. Nor may a foreigner use rubles bootlegged or earned in Russia. Founded in 1931, Torgsin last year bought $3,000,000 worth of goods abroad, sold 15,000 kinds of articles, many by mail order.

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