ARTICLES

The First Supermarket

At the turn of XIX—XX centuries the shopping centre "Agafurov Brothers" founded by Zaineddin and Kamaleddin Agafurov was one of the most well-known companies of Ekaterinburg.

Starting from petty shop trade brothers soon decide to launch more civilised department store business. In January of 1887 they rented the premises on Uspenskaya (Weiner) Street, in a house #16 and organised haberdashery and perfume trade there. Later, the brothers bought a number of premises in houses #16 and #18 where they opened draper's, shoe, stationery, jeweller's, tobacco, fashion, clock, tea and other shops. Gradually, customers started to think of Agafurov department stores as of the single shop which was named the "first Ekaterinburg supermarket".

The first city supermarket offered customers all sorts of things: golden and silver bracelets, brooches, earrings, medallions, tiepins, different silver plates. A wide range of men's and women's watches was also presented there. The perfume department offered scent, colognes, creams and powders by the best English, French and Warsaw factories. The diversity of tea accessories sold at tea department is amazing even for the abundance of our time. The choice of confectionery department was also extremely rich. In short, the Agafurov supermarket sold almost every item in the world. The old residents of the city recall the Agafurov department store was one of the most visited in the city.

Not only Agafurov shops were surprisingly diverse in goods but also they held the record in the volume of production sold: in 1908 the commodity turnover in Agafurov Ekaterinburg shops was 2 391 950 roubles.

The wide-ranging entrepreneurial activity of Agafurov brothers enabled them to open similar supermarkets in Perm, Tyumen, Tobolsk, Irbit, Warsaw and Moscow and to become one of the most influential trade agents of Ural and Siberian regions.

Svetlana Korepanova