In Siberia, Shopping Malls Are Sprouting All Over

…Siberia, where Russians waited in long lines to buy food with ration cards not long ago, is the improbable epicenter of a huge mall boom. As retail businesses shrink in the United States, provincial Russian towns like this one have become targets of retailers and shopping center developers from around the world. Malls in this area are even poaching managers from as far away as California.

Across the great expanse of Russia


All that retail space is spawning a consumer culture in industrial towns that once had little of either.