‘Our chain store used to focus on premium and middle class footwear, but now we can also offer our customers some less expensive items. For instance, a pair of premium class summer shoes now costs about 7,000 to 10,000 RUR; a pair of shoes within the middle class price segment comes to 4,000 RUR, and people on a tight budget can find some shoes for as little as 2,000 RUR a pair,’ the manager of K+C chain store Elena Saidulina informed UrBC.

‘The main change the store underwent during the recession was our discount policy. Prior to the year 2009, we’d only offer discounts during our end-of-season sales, but now we offer them on our new collections, too,’ she said.

‘In fact, the footwear sales plummeted by 30% to 40% last year, even though the number of our customers actually went up. The thing is, our new customers are people with limited income who used to pop in just to look around but who can now afford to buy good quality shoes at relatively low prices, due to the recession,’ Ms Saidulina observed.