Store Delivers Overnight : In Moscow, Helsinki Is Place to Shop
Stockmann’s, the biggest department store in Helsinki, is known in Moscow--to those who can afford it--as Moscow’s best.
For diplomats, journalists and others in Moscow with hard currency to spend, Stockmann’s is a direct link to the capitalist world of things not available in the Communist state.
Every evening, the “Tolstoy Express” rolls out of the Helsinki railroad station, with an attached baggage car full of goodies, on the overnight run to Moscow. In Moscow, the customers wait expectantly.
“You send a telex to Stockmann’s and they send you the stuff in a couple of days,” a Westerner living in Moscow said the other day. “They don’t even bill you until later. Sometimes I wonder how we could live here otherwise.”
Catering Offered, Too
Stockmann’s offers more than just the essentials. It has a special catering service for embassy parties--everything from flowers, champagne and smoked salmon to paper napkins and toothpicks.
When Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow needed a funeral wreath in a hurry, it called on Stockmann’s. The order was placed late in the day, and Stockmann artisans worked all night to create a huge wreath that was put on board the first train for Moscow.
The store’s catalogue, illustrated and in color, is prized reading material in Moscow. It is to Stockmann’s customers there what the Sears, Roebuck catalogue was to rural Americans a generation or so ago.
Listed in it is virtually every need: fresh foodstuffs, delicatessen specialties, toiletries, baby care products, kitchenware, appliances, television sets, bathroom and bedding supplies, pet food, sportswear, wines, automobiles, books.
Photo Service
It offers jewelry and furs, too, and even a photo service.
Most heavily ordered by customers in Moscow is fresh food. Milk is the largest single item, for many Westerners in Moscow don’t like the taste of the local product. The U.S. Embassy orders more than 2,000 quarts a week.
For couples with small children in Moscow, Stockmann’s makes life much easier. It ships in baby food, paper diapers and other such necessities.
Business is especially brisk in the holiday season, and for days the Tolstoy Express is loaded with gifts and, in the coals-to-Newcastle category, dozens of Christmas trees.
“Stockmann’s is like Aladdin’s lamp,” a Russian who works for an American firm in Moscow said the other day. “Rub it and it brings what you want. But you have to pay a lot for it.”
Prices are relatively high. Export firms in Scandinavia and West Germany can beat Stockmann’s prices, but they can’t match the Helsinki store for speedy service.
The main problem for Stockmann’s non-diplomatic customers in Moscow lies with the Soviet customs officers, who are unpredictable about what import fees they will charge.
“One day they might let a Patton tank go through without a hitch,” a customer in Moscow remarked, exaggerating a bit, “and the next they’ll stop a penknife. It depends on their mood.”
Diplomats generally have duty-free privileges, but for journalists and other unofficial Americans working in Moscow, import duties can be brutal.
“They seem to make up the rates as they go along,” one journalist said. “They can run from 10% to 25% and even more. It seems to be done on a hit-or-miss basis, and it’s always a surprise. There is supposed to be a list of fixed charges, but one never sees it, nor would it be wise to insist on seeing it. They would find other ways to charge you.
Wine Taxes Standard
“The strange thing is that they weigh the wine that comes in, so they charge you the same duty for a $100 bottle of wine as for a $5 bottle.
“But you don’t have much choice. The whole point of ordering from Stockmann’s is to buy things that you simply cannot get in Moscow. So you must be prepared to pay.”
Soviet customs officers keep an eye out particularly for goods coming in that appear to be more than the customer needs for his or her personal use. These products are either turned back or a prohibitively high duty is levied.
“If, say, 10 dresses turned up for one customer, they would really get nasty,” a Western woman in Moscow observed.
Stockmann’s was founded in 1862, when the German merchant G. F. Stockmann set up shop in the Finnish capital. In 1930, the store moved into its present landmark building in the center of the city.
In 1969, the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto designed an annex to house Stockmann’s Academic Bookstore, the second-busiest in Europe. It is a structural jewel, with an atrium surrounded by browsers’ shelves and tables and a skylight flooding the space with brightness.
8 Languages Used
Catalogue sales make up only a small part of Stockmann’s trade. Most of the store’s business is with visitors to the main store and branches elsewhere in Finland. Shopping advice is offered in eight languages by salespersons wearing tiny flags to indicate the languages they speak.
In 1904, Stockmann’s sold the first motor car ever bought in Finland. Today, the company has two motor vehicle units--Ford and Nissan dealerships--plus a service garage for cars driven in from the Soviet Union.
Stockmann’s motto for customers in the Soviet Union is “If we don’t carry it, we’ll get it for you.”
Director Hannu Penttila told an interviewer in his office: “Our sales to Moscow customers have become more important. They run to $5 million a year. We ship at 5 p.m. and it’s in Moscow at 9 a.m. the next morning. That’s why we can ship fresh foods like milk and salad greens. Perishables are packed in dry ice.”
Looking ahead, Penttila would like to develop outlets in the Soviet Union, but he says the Soviets insist on a 50-50 balance of trade with Finland.
“We can’t find enough products in Russia that you can sell to Western customers,” he said.
Still, they say in Moscow that you don’t go shopping, you go searching, and Penttila would like to remedy that state of affairs. So the possibility of opening a Moscow branch is being studied despite the Soviet attitude.
“On my last trip to Moscow,” Penttila said, “I was told that the state department store on Red Square, known as GUM, had yearly sales of 1.4 billion rubles. That would be about 10 billion Finnish marks ($2.5 billion) at the official rate of exchange, or 10% of the whole Finnish national budget. Just imagine what kind of business you could do with an outlet in Moscow, run like this store. It would be fantastic!”
