Comments by "E Dennis" (@edennis8578) on "Путешествие с Расселом" channel.

  1. I just found a video that was shot in the Vegas mall last August, and it was no busier. Really, not at all. So I doubt that sanctions had anything to do with it.
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  2. You don't shop, do you? These stores are so big that you could put thousands of people in them and it still wouldn't look crowded. For comparison, my high school's auditorium held 2,000 people. If I picture putting that auditorium in this store, it's just a small corner of this store. Look at how crowded the checkout lines are. There are easily thousands of people here. Now extrapolate that into this huge mall.
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  3. Russia is a net exporter of food, while the US is a net importer of food, including 50% of our fresh fruit, 20% of our fresh vegetables, and 80% of our seafood. Most of the farmland in the great expanse of the midwest, where I live, is dedicated to field corn and soybeans, most of which is exported and isn't table food. We could be food self-sufficient, but that isn't how things have worked out. Putin made sure that Russia was food self-sufficient, especially after the sanctions of 2012, so they are protected from most of the problems that we can face here.
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  4. I usually eat the crust. I like a soft, bready crust.
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  5. If they close, that leaves an opportunity for a Russian to fill that gap. Putin is offering incentives for people to start businesses, like the one that is already taking over where McDonald's left.
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  6. Supermarkets have been getting bigger and bigger. Many older people in my town complain outright that it's too much work to go to a huge supermarket. There's one in my neighborhood that's so big that it's literally a mile by the time you walk down 20 aisles, and heaven forbid that you forget something and have to retrace your steps.
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  7. I don't know where you live that your shopping malls are always crowded, but where I live (small midwestern university town) this mall looks crowded by comparison. My local mall is the only place to buy midrange priced clothes, so anyone who wants to go shopping goes to the mall. The only time it looks this crowded is right before Christmas, even during the school year when the students are here.
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  8. Russians on average only spend about 33% of their income on food. That's less than France, where it's almost 37%. In Moscow, the percentage is probably even lower because the wages are higher. I've seen many supermarket videos by Russian youtubers; the prices are reasonable and in line with the relative prices/income in most of the US.
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  9. We used to go to the local mall on Sundays here in the midwest for fun before the stock market crash in 2008. Lots of stores closed. A couple of the big anchor stores folded; there's one left. Before the crash, the mall had plans to expand and renovate. They even posted the plans for the public to see. That went away. The mall is still there, but now the stores are geared for college kids, mostly.
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  10. They're all over the stores in my town in the midwest. They haven't bothered to take them off since covid restrictions lifted.
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  11. Take your meds. And get a clue.
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  12. A lot of stores will have your purchases delivered. You don't have to carry your bags around, especially from high-end stores.
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  13. ​ @straightshooter4177 That sounds like sour grapes. It's easy enough to watch other channels from other parts of Russia.
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  14.  @anabolic-v3p  I don't think you watched the same video as I did. I saw plenty of Russian shoppers. Did that gray-haired lady in the beige coat look like she was from Kazakhstan?
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  15. Taken by Russian brands.
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  16. What are you talking about? He said that it's now Russian owned, so it has nothing to do with the German company now.
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  17. The yearly average pension in Russia is 16,900 rubles/month, or 202,800 rubles/year, or $5,001 Australian, per person. However, the Russian cost of living is about 1/3 that of Australia, and taxes are much lower in Russia. They get free healthcare and free transportation. Rent and utilities are extremely inexpensive, and many elderly people get free rent. In Moscow, the city provides an additional pension of about 4,400/month (as of 2017 figures). Pensioners who live alone will have a more difficult time making ends meet than those who live with family members, but that's true in the US, as well. And more than 25% of elderly Australians live in poverty. I suggest that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
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  18. "All" of the tech experts haven't left. The estimate from western media is that 10% will leave, and many of them were mainly afraid of being drafted. Putin just signed a law exempting tech experts from conscription, so I expect that the loss will slow down.
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  19. I don't think that the name of the store has ever stopped me from shopping there, and I've seen some weird names. Sometimes I wonder what makes people name their businesses the way they do.
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  20. @Tomek You obviously have no idea what Soviet times were like. At all. Empty grocery stores, people standing in line for hours to buy toilet paper or in the hope of buying one poorly made pair of shoes. Modern Russia is far from that. Very far. And a lot of that is because of Putin's domestic policies.
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  21. What would they call a store in the US with no employees present? Empty. Looters would grab it all.
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  22. Is Neiman Marcus a punch in the face to poor Americans? Porsche? Rolex? Who do you think you're kidding?
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  23. Malls where I lived always looked like this, even back in their heyday in the 80s, especially the middle of the day, except at Christmas time. The middle of the day was the best time to shop.
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  24.  @The_Dark_Lord-69  Ukraine is getting justice visited upon it. They can just suck it up. I hope the hurt has just begun for Ukraine.
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  25.  @sputnikcaviar5592  I agree. As an American historian, I don't understand #1. Why so many people are acting like Ukraine is an angelic child who never committed a crime themselves. The government of Ukraine is blatantly murderous to their own people, but nobody says anything about that. And if we were in Russia's position, we would have moved against Ukraine years ago. Nobody wants to talk about that, either. #2. Putin's domestic policies have made Russia fairly self-sufficient, so we are far more likely to be seriously affected by the sanctions than Russia. Russia can produce just about everything it needs, but we don't. We have outsourced almost everything we use and that makes us extremely vulnerable. Why don't westerners understand this? I have a very bad feeling that such vulnerability will become apparent the hard way - experience.
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  26.  @Superfandangoo  Russia is one of the breadbaskets of the world. They also supply (pre-sanction) a large amount of the world's crop fertilizers. They're going to have a surplus now that they aren't shipping to the west. We're the ones who will suffer from the sanctions. American farmers bought 96% of their potassium fertilizer from Russia last year, plus a huge amount of other fertilizers. Now we're going to be competing for whatever fertilizer is available from somewhere else at massively increased prices. Biden already stated that the sanctions will cause us widespread hunger, or didn't you listen? Russia is almost entirely self-sufficient; they'll be fine. We won't.
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  27. ​ @omskpravo55 YouTube doesn't allow it. The only way to post a photo is to do it on your own channel.
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  28. Putin's domestic policies have made Russia almost entirely self-sufficient. What they can't produce at the moment they can buy from China. We're in a much worse place than Russia since almost every manufactured product we use is imported, mainly from China.
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  29. Oh, sure, they're so bad, and that's why their stock has skyrocketed in the last six months.
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  30.  @CheapSquierBassPlayer  So you admit that you won't even read his side of the argument. That's intellectually dishonest. He's telling some truth, but you don't want to hear it. smh
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  31. @William I'm puzzled why so many people think that Russia doesn't have fish, ground beef, bread, or potatoes. What's up with that?
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  32. ​​"Processed" just means that it's pre-prepared. If good ingredients are used, there's no difference between buying it pre-prepared and making it from scratch yourself.
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  33. You don't have to believe me. There's a guy who travels all over the world visiting the McDonald's in other countries, showing the restaurants, the menus, and sampling the food. I wish we had shrimp burgers here!
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  34. There are other Youtubers who do that.
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  35. There's a Russian named Sergey Baklykov, in St. Petersburg, who does many walking tours through the city and in museums, etc.
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  36.  @ovh992  Conversion rates only matter for imports. For example, the conversion rate for the dollar vs the British pound varies quite a lot, but within the UK, it only affects tourists and imports. As a matter of fact, it makes exports extremely attractive to other countries because they can purchase goods at a much cheaper price. And I know you're going to say sanctions, but not everyone is going to sanction Russia. The hypocritical west isn't the whole world.
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  37. The rabbit is traditionally a helper to Ded Moroz. Vintage greeting cards and figures often feature Ded Moroz with a bunny. I have even seen wall clocks carved with Ded Moroz and his bunny helper. Sometimes the bunny is carrying a gift.
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  38. Why would he leave? 13% income taxes, free healthcare, safe streets (no blm nonsense there), a leader who cares more about his own people than about political correctness, family values, almost total self-sufficiency within the country, stable economy, and they don't have to kowtow to anyone. We should be so lucky.
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  39. The reviews are very good. The only bad reviews I saw were from Russians who were upset at the overzealous security guards.
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  40. I don't know how that would work. I read that high end art is a big money laundering racket, because there are no fixed prices, and nobody questions why a rubbish painting was purchased for huge stacks of cash.
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  41. If the bank will exchange dollars, wouldn't it work just as well to buy $5 with rubles then sell it back for rubles? It wouldn't be even, though, because banks charge for exchanging currency. Btw, $50 is a much larger sum of money in Russia.
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  42. Ukraine should have thought of that before bombing Donbass for the past eight years and shutting off the water source to Crimea.
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  43. Where are you from, California? I was married in Iowa in 1997; we has 3 inches of snow on the first of May, right before my wedding.
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  44. The USSR no longer exists.
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  45.  @racheleraanan5133  Most people in the US live in apartments, too. People in any big city, for that matter.
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  46. Russia is so prosperous now because of Putin's domestic policies. I remember the old days when people had to stand hours in line for a roll of toilet paper and the grocery stores were empty. Now Russia is very nearly self-sufficient; they can produce almost everything they want and need. Btw, if you want the truth about what Ukraine government is really like, search YouTube for videos on the eight years of shelling in Eastern Ukraine - by their own government. There are years of European news clips. They are horrible.
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  47.  @Will-cg1jg  He doesn't just compare prices. He shows how well stocked the stores are, too. And how old are you that you don't understand the relationship between prices and hunger? When food is expensive, people can't afford it. When food is inexpensive, people don't have to go hungry.
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  48. About the 2:00 mark he says that the store changed ownership to a Russian ownership. So, they don't have anything to do with the old German company.
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  49.  @TravellingwithRussell  You were quite diplomatic to ignore the reference. Good for you.
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  50.  @smb123211  On average, Russians spend 33% of their income on food. In France, they spend almost 37%. The percentage is actually less in Moscow where the wages are higher and prices are lower than they are in less populated areas.
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