Nostalgia has led Eastern Europeans to embrace the products they shunned in the 1990s, when the collapse of the Iron Curtain opened borders to goods from the West. From Traubi in Hungary to Inka coffee substitute in Poland and Jar dish soap in the Czech Republic, brands created to replace capitalist products are attracting consumers with disposable cash and credit cards. . . . The new appetite for home-grown food, drinks and clothing labels that were ignored after the Berlin Wall crumbled isn't based on price. Tisza Cipo sneakers, now considered an upscale product, sell for as much as $100 in chic brand stores in central Budapest. . . . Communist-era products are so popular in once-divided Germany that the consumer phenomenon is called 'Ostalgia,' a play on the German word for east. (Washington Times, Friday)
De gustibus non est disputandum.
FEE Timely Classic
Fond Memories of Communism by Stephen Browne