Old Store

Communism in Bulgaria self-destructed in 1989. At this time, we already had shortages in pretty much everything. Groceries, for example, were somehow centrally provided using an absurdly small number of stores by modern standards, which were also really tiny compared to what we have. It’s no surprise we had to wait in queues for everything and we’d need to produce our own food and only buy stuff that wasn’t practical to produce ourselves, like milk, sunflower oil, or bread.

One of the first things that capitalism brought to Sofia after 1989 was private groceries. All kinds of holes were turned into shops that would sell 5–10 things, or maybe even just bread. There was a service corridor in the local electrical substation that turned into a bread shop, and I’d go there and buy bread every day for years. I don’t think they sold anything else, it was just two types of bread.

In the photos below is a basement, converted to a shop. Now that we have shops everywhere, it’s difficult to imagine times when we actually had no shops and basements like that were thriving. The sign looks recent but I doubt this business was operational this century.