UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 14, 2010. Yekaterinburg’s second hand shops are as popular as ever; since the start of the recession, the number of their customers has gone up by 30% to 45% and is not going down for the time being, Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg’s Viktor Konteev’s press officer Ilona Starodubtseva reports.
A recent marketing research has shown that 67% of Yekaterinburg residents visited second hand shops at least once, and about 50% took their unwanted clothes there. Besides, over 55% out of 1,500 respondents commented on the need for the second hand trade to expand.
Clothes and footwear are still the most popular items with customers, while the demand for consumer electronics went up by 3% compared with last year. According to market analysts, today’s second hand shops are strikingly different from their Soviet predecessors in that the goods are of much better quality and sometimes are even brand new. What is more, all the licensed shops adhere to the strictest disinfection and storage rules in their maintenance of used articles.
Eighteen such shops are operating in Yekaterinburg at the moment; eight of them were opened at the end of 2009 upon the locals’ requests; the premises of these shops were converted to commercial estate from former private and municipal realty.