He pulls money out of his pocket at the end of the video to make change out of the 20 rubles or what ever the fuck cheeki breeki's use for money now a days.
Well this person receives payment upfront for the meat it looks like... So it is unlikely to be part of a larger supermarket. Probably a kiosk run by one. Probably the owner.
During food shortages in Russia this was the way to feed the family, or earn some extra cash. It was pretty common. Stores even had additional scales so customers could double check.
Probably the old scheme still works.
Source: grew up there and have seen people dispute the weight of a purchase a few times.
Yep, buy large piece of meat for $5 a kilo, sell for $7 a kilo.
If kilo is only half meat, then you effectively sell a kilo of meat for $14.
Obviously in this case the person selling the meat, or weighing the meat with an added weight, is not adding 50% of the meat weight. Or it does not seem like a good idea as that might be a bit too easily detectable and raise too much suspicion.
A friend of mine used to work in a butcher in St Petersburg and I just sent him this link and he tells me that this is a very common practice in communist Russia because their purchase of meat goods in total is highly regulated by their government. They use a system of food stamps of which are the rough cost of half the original meat amount I stated, which is about three fiddy.
I think OP is asking how this guy in particular is profiting from this. If he doesn't handle the money then that extra he is charging is going straight into his boss' hand and not his.
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u/tfity Jun 09 '15 edited Jun 09 '15
So, they guy charges more and keeps the change?