The Russian Market/Российский Рынок

World Mall

            I ventured to “Russian Market” on 19th Ave and Northern.  The market has food items, liquor, gifts, movies and newspapers in Russian. Posted on a bulletin board are various services such as cosmetology, all written in Russian. I read in an Arizona Republic article by Barbara Yost posted on the wall that the market owners, Abram and Svetlana, came to the U.S. in 1994 from Uzbekistan and later took over the market, expanding it to double its original size. The market serves the approximately 4,000 former Russian citizens in the valley. They also have customers from other Eastern European countries such as Poland.

            While in the market I noticed that all six of the customers there were speaking Russian and buying food items as one would in any grocer. The market itself resides in a small strip mall, nestled between a unisex salon and a Vietnamese restaurant. This strip mall has its own international flair, as there also resides a European gift store to add more global flavor to the Russian Market and the Vietnamese restaurant. Other properties within the mall include a Subway and a karaoke store. This strip mall is like a  globalization of the city, housing a variety of international business borders alongside U.S. standards like Subway.

 

Work Completed by: Stephanie Cleland
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