Cheap Groceries in Russia!: The New Propaganda Trend

It started with Tucker Carlson but it ignores the reality behind cheap Russian groceries

If you’re relatively new to the issues related to Kremlin propaganda and how it’s affecting other countries (including the United States), I recommend reading some background posts I wrote that explains things in more detail along with links to other sites where you can read more to educate yourself.

The pro-Russia crowd are now promoting the fact that Russia is better than the US because their groceries are way cheaper. It started with Tucker Carlson when, after he filmed his interview with Vladimir Putin, he toured this grocery store in Moscow where he seemed to be amazed at how cheap the food is compared with food prices in the United States.

In the weeks since Carlson made that video, I'm starting to see more such videos poping up on YouTube talking about how cheap groceries in Russia are compared with Western countries. Tom From Texas has this video where he talks about grocery prices being so cheap that eggs cost less than US$1 per carton, and sausage costs 72 US cents per pound).

And, according to this video on Alyona K's YouTube channel, you can buy a huge amount of groceries for only US$10 thanks to prices like a loaf of bread costing only 76 US cents and beer is much cheaper than bottled water.

On the surface, those prices seem great. What gets left out of these “OMFG! GROCERY PRICES IN RUSSIA ARE INSANELY CHEAP!” videos is that the cost of living is much lower in Russia than in the US and it has declined dramatically since the war in Ukraine began in 2022 due to sanctions from other countries. Yes, the lower cost of living results in cheaper groceries and other consumer items. But here is what the starry-eyed cheap Russian groceries crowd don't tell you: the lower cost of living also results in lower salaries. If you work at a job that pays very low wages, the sausage that costs the equivalent of 72 US cents per pound becomes something so expensive that you won't be able to afford to buy (or maybe buy only for some special occasion once or twice a year) because it will take a sizeable part of your paycheck.

As this Newsweek article puts it:

According to the latest figures available from Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, the average monthly wage in Russia was about $787 in November.

By comparison, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the last quarter of 2023, the median weekly earnings of Americans was $1,142.

Carlson also showed that the total cost of his shop came to 9481.37 rubles. That comes to about 58 percent of the weekly average Russian wage, based on the monthly wage figures provided by Russia's Federal State Statistics Service.

Data from 2022 by the USDA shows that American consumers spent on average only 11.3 percent of their disposable income on groceries.

The people who benefit the most from living in a place with a lower cost of living are those who are fortunate enough to get a high-paid job that earns you a monthly income that is at least twice the average monthly Russian wage. In that situation your money will definitely go much further living in Russia. But how plentiful are those high-wage jobs really depends on factors like the industry or career field in question and finding someone willing to hire you for such a job.

My late mother-in-law had an experience when she moved from an area in the US with one of the highest costs of living in the country (New York City) to an area with a much lower cost of living (Phoenix). Phoenix’s low cost of living with the constant sunshine and warm weather have long attracted senior citizens who worked at well-paid jobs with excellent pensions so they could take advantage of the cheaper prices.

My mother-in-law was working as a children's librarian for a library in New York when she decided to marry one of her old college classmates (they were both divorced with grown children) and move to his hometown of Phoenix. She liked the cheaper food and housing costs compared to her former New York hometown. But when she decided to find a new job as a children's librarian in her new hometown, she had a difficult time finding work. Apparently the libraries she applied to in Phoenix had balked at the fact that she had made more money in New York (due mainly to the higher cost of living) than what a children's librarian made in Phoenix and they felt that she would be demanding a high wage that they wouldn't able to pay her. She ultimately worked as an office manager in her husband's office (he was a psychiatrist) a few days a week.

If my late mother-in-law had difficulty in finding a new job in her field after she moved from a high standard of living area to a low standard of living area in the same country, imagine trying to do the same after moving from one high standard of living country to a different country with a much lower standard of living while dealing with a language barrier at the same time. Unless you have a skill that's highly desired in Russia, the chances of you actually landing a high paying job are difficult. You're more likely to land a low-paying job where you'll have to struggle with paying your groceries just like the average Russian.

The bottom line is don’t use cheap groceries as the main reason to move to Russia (or any other country for that matter).

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