JPRS ID: 10230 LATIN AMERICA REPORT

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• Content Type: REPORTS

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JPRS L/ 10230
31 December 1981
USSR Re ~ort
p
= C~NSUMER GOODS AND DOMESTIC TRADE ~
CFOUO 7/81)
Fg~~ FOREIGN BR(~ADCAST INFORMATION SERVICE
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~
JPRS L/10230
31 Dec~mber 1981
USSR REPORT
CONSUMER GOODS AND DOMESTIC TRADE
(FOUO 7/81)
CONTENTS
CONSUMER GOODS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
= Public Catering Reorientation Urged
(V. Martynov; tjOPROSY EKONdMIKi, Sep 81) 1
CONSUMPTION TRENDS AND POI,ICIES '
, Cost, Structure of Retail Goods Turnover
(R. Lokshin; VOPROSY EKONOMIKI, Oct 81) 9
� - a - [III - USSR - 38b FOUO]
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CONSUMER GOODS PR~DUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
PUBLIC CATERING REORIENTATION URGED
Moscow VOPROSY EKONOMIKI in Russian No 9, Sep 81 pp 78-85
[Article by V. Martynov: "Planning and Managing Public Catering"]
[Text] In modern society, an ever-increasing number ~f people aach day need the ser-
, vices which organize their eating where they work, study, travel, vacati~-�, and so
- forth. Since the first days of Soviet power, rendering this kind of service iias been
viewed as one of the important tasks of the socialist state. In 1918, V~ I. Lenin
wrote in drafts of the Russian Communist Party (Bol'shevik) program that strengthen-
ing and developing Soviet power would require the implementation (along with other
measures) of "unswerving, systematic steps towr~ds..replacing individual housekeep-
ing for individual families with common feeding of large grnups of families.i1
At all stages of its development, the socialist state has been concerned about creat-
. ing the material-technical base and training personnel for public catering, with su~-
plying dining halls with food on a priority basis. Now, state public catering enter-
prises, at which more than 2.6 ni113on people are employed, are in operation at al-
~ most all production enterprises, institutions, academic institutions, recreation and
treatment facilities, and on board ships and trains. The far-flung network of public
. catering enterprises and the skilled personnel employed at them comprise the state
public catering system. Along with this, public catering pximarily among the rura].
population is organized by the consumers' cooperatives system.
The creation of the state public ca~ering system was a ma3or social and economic
achievement of our society. At the same Cime, the level of serv3ces to the popula-
tion in dining halls, cafeterias and restaurants does not fu11y meet the growing de-
mands of the workers or present opportunities. Shortcomings in t'he operation of pub-
lic catering enterprises, research has shown, are largely associated with the ex3st-
ing system for managing those enterprises, and.foremosfi with the planning, recording
and ev3luation of their activity, with poor development of overall questions of pub-
lic catering economy and organization as a branch of the social~ist economy and of
its intended puxpose in the social division of labor sqstem.
' In the opinion of a numher of economists, the main purpose of public catering enter-
prises is to produce and market output they produce themselves or so-called culinary
output, which is taken to mean practically any kind of food prod�ct. According to
1V. I. Lenin, "Polnoye sobrani,ye sochineniy" [Complete Collected Works~, Vo1 36, p 75.
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this, the primary plan indicator is trade turnover, singling out the share of output
produced themselves. This concept of the role of public catering cannot be recognized
as adequately substantiated.
It is known that the production of food products, both ready for consumgtion and in
the form of all manner of convenience foods, is the basic function of branch.es of
food industry, and their marketing is the basic purpose of trade. It Curns out tha~t
public catering is a mechanical combining, within the framework of certain enter-
prises and organizations, of the two types of activity: food indus~ry and trade.
Whereas particular types of finished products or semifinished products are manufac-
tured and sold hy et~terprises subordinate to the dining halls trus~ (food-service
combine, public catErin; office and others), the aggregate of these types of activity
is taken into account as public catering at all levels of management.
Under the existing procedure for planning an~d evaluating activity, dining halls (res-
taurants, cafeteria~) carry out plan assignments in terms of basic indicators, allot-
ting and organizing the consumption of prepared dishes, as well as selling foodstuffs
and convenience foods at retail (through their own stores, booths and stalls) without
rendering services in orgar.izing their consumption. The revenues received are taken
into account on a one-to-one basis. The main thing required of a dining hall is
that it sell output (goods) primarily produced by itself. The methods of sale, like
the types of output, do not play any substantial role.
Inasmuch as the first way is considerably more labor-intensive, public catering en-
terprises naturally go the second way more and more, that is, the path of increasing
sales of output at retail. Their own production is correspondingly oriented towards
convenience foods and nonportioned prepared items (cakes, pastries, biscuits, and so
forth). G~wn output is considered to be not 3ust what is actually produced in the
dining halls, cafeterias and restauraz?ts, but also bread, sausage cheese, preserves,
juice and even fruit, as well as convenience foods which are in practice often sold
without any processing at all: uncooked hens, meat, fish, and so forth.
Thus, the leaders and collectives of dining halls, cafeterias and restaurants are
paying less attention to organizing food service outside the home, to services these
en*_erprises were specifically created to offer. Dining halls, restaurants and cafe-
terias often deal in the best varieties of ineat, but prepare dishes from the worst.
They sell tons of sausages, polony, fish fillets, pel'meni, by-products and canned
goods, but none of these products or dishes prepared from them are on the menu.
At the same time, public catering enterprises' use of individual types of manufactured
food products is artificially held back. Only a couple of all the products produced
by bread-baking enterprises, for example, are used in public catering: black bread,
lo:~g loaves, SO-gram flat-tasting buns..., but pastries, rich buns, ring-~shaped rolls
and o~her items are rejected, inasmuch as these products would compete with similar
products of their own production. Recently, restaurants and cafeterias have often
refused for this reason to accept nonalcoholic beverages from industrial enterprises.
Shortcomings in the indicated system of planning and recording are manifested in the
fact that public catering enterprises and organizations create their own small pro-
duction shops and enterprises, even in large cities with developed food industry, to
produce a similar assortment of products and open their own smail trade facilities.
The bulk of the operations in such shops, enterpriaes and stores ~ra done by hand,
working conditivns are hard, so output is several times lower than for c~rrasponding
industrial enterprises and food stores.
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party an~ government resolutions have repeatedly pointed out the necessity of pro-
vidiug public catering enterprises with commercial semifinished and finished food
products. Food industry branches have been set the task of increasing the release
of :~is output and broadening its assortment. These directions reflpct the ob~ective
necessi:ty of industrializing public catering, that is, changing the branch over to att
industrial basis, foremost through the planned transfer of food output production
functions from public catering enterprises to specialized food industry enterprises,
which is an important reserve for growth in the productivitq of social labor and for
3mproving services to the population.
One would think tha~~, after such a precise orientation towards the better use af the
opportunities of industrial processing of food producCs, which means a corresponding
reduction in own production, the obsolete concept of the branch's basic function
would have been rQ-examined and naw plan indicators, a new procedure for recording
:hem, a new system of moral and material incentives, new socialist competition terms,
and so on, would have been worked out.
However, that has not occurred, unfortunately. T.'his is to be explained by the fact
that many economists and branch supervisory work~~rs, sticking to the previous view of
publ3.c catering as a bran.:h whase basic purpc~e is to produce output, and not ser-
vices, think food industry is not ready to produce convenience foods for public ca-
~ering. They claim that would not be profitable for it, r_hat the geography of its
- enterprises does not coincide with the distribution of thA popu?ation, and so "the
ob~ective necessity of forming a specialized culinary industry directly in public ca-
tering is obvious.t1
~'he resolutions of the 26th CPSU Congress state the necessity of "elevating the role
of public catering in meeting the needs of the population, antic3pating outstripping
~ rates of its development and raising the level of branch industrialization. Improve
the hot food service ~t places where workers, employees, kolkhoz members an~ pupils
at all types of insCitutions work and study. Sigrtificantly expand the network of pub-
Iic catering enterprises and raise the standards c+f service to the population. Deve-
lop the network of dietetic food-service enterpri~es."
Additional material, financial and labor resources will natuxally be required to fur-
ther develop pubZic catering. At the same time, improving the branch managemeizt
mechanism is even.more urgent.
[~t present, accepted practice is to ~udge the level of develop~ent ~~f public catering
in terms of volume of food products so9.d through enterprises of this branch :Ln com-
parison with sales tl:rough enterprises of the retail trade network. In our view, if
the task set by the 26th CPSU Congxess concerning outstripping ~ates of public cater-
ing development is carxied out given the management me~hanism in effect in the branch,
[hen this can :Ln tiie final analysis lead only to incr,eas3ng expenditures of social
labor. In thi;; regard, the quality of services to the population in dining halls,
cafeterias and restaurants will at best not improve, inasmuch as the work will be re-
duced to sharply increasing what is already the large role of the trade function in
public catering enterprise activity. Retail store and booth sa~es by public cater3ng
~
1See, for example, V. G. Bychkov, "Obshchest~rennoye pitaniye i aktual'nyye voprosy
~ ego razvitiya" [Public Catering and Pressing Problems of Its D~velqpmenta, Izd-vo
"Ekonomika," 1978, p 123.
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enterprises require considerably higher Iabor expenditures than sales through the
retail trade network.
In our opinion, given the existing mechanism of public catering enterprise management,
which is orienting them towards producing and se113.ng outpt~t they produce them~elves
with practically no consideration of labor expenditures, it will be impossible to
raise the level of branch industrialization as anticipated by the resolutions of the
- 26th CPSU Cungress.
We need first of all to refine what is meant by public catering industrialization. A
i?umber of economists take industrialization of this branch to mean primarily measures
to centralize food productfon within the framework of.particular enterprises or or-
ganizations in public catering, from the creation of cooking factories to equipping
the most primitive specialized production shops. This cannot be considered correct,
= in our view.
The necessity of industrializing public catering stems from CPSU general economic po-
licy, which is oriented towards improving production efficiency and work quality in
_ every way possible. The rise in its level must first cf all ensure a direct and sub-
stantial savings in social labor. At the same time, the operating experience of culi-
nary factories, food-preparation dining-hall centers and other faciliCies demonstrates
that they ~re not, in view of their multipurpose nature and relatively small size, in
a position to ensure labor productivity growth at the level required to cover the ex-
penses associated with organizing the centralized preparation of semifinished and
fin.ished products and supplying them to public catering enterprises. The l~evel o�
labor productivity at such factories is several-fold lower than at corresponding
specialized food industry enterprises.
And there are other problems in the operation of culinary factories. Practice has
shown that, in delivering products to dining halls and stores, they generally prefer
stores, since the latter order products in larger lots and are less exacting as to
asaortment. At the same time, dining halls, which are interested in producing output
they make themselves, use various pretexts to re3ect the output of culinary factories,
_ just as they reject the convenience foods and many types of ready output produced by
commercial enterprises. We are aware of instances in which culinary factories, even
though they were part of plant food-service combines, have changed the direction of
their activity to adapt more to the,needs of the retail trade network, rather than .
to those of the dining halls. However, it should be said that the culinary factor-
ies really cannot adapt to the needs of ~he retail trade network either, because
their capacities are generally used poorly.
Thus, raising the level of public catering industrialization must ~ccur primarily
on the basis of planned development of the product3on of a variety of food products
at speciali~ed enterprises of correspanding branches of the agroind~~strial complex.
. In those cities in which food industry does not have produc~ion capacities, or where.
they are inadequate, they must be created and expanded to the extent possible.
The "Basic Directions of USSR Economic and Social Development in 1981-1985 and Up To
1990" anticipate: "Increasing production 23-26 percent in branches of food industry.
Develop at high rates the production of products ready for consumption, convenience
foods, culinary items, and products made from potatoes, fresh-frozen fruit and vege-
tables."
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ltihe most important task of public catering management agencies is to orient subordi-
~iate enterprises towards maximum use of this output, to influence more energetically
work by industrial enterprises to improve its quality, expand the assortment and
mee~ delivery schedules.
The CPSU Central Committee and USSR Council of Ministers Decree "On Improving Plan-
~iing and Strengthening the Influence of the Economic Mechanism on Improving Produc-
tion Efficiency and Work Qu~Iity," which orients all planning activity towards at-
~aining high national economic end results in the name of ineeting more fully the
growi.ng social and personal requirements of the population, is of important signi-
~icance to improving the management of public cateri~g enterprises and this branch.
As was already noted, the role of the public catering system is to ensure that the
'requirements of the p~pulation are met in organizing food services where they work,
~tudy, and so on. Carrying out this complex task, which is linked to people's health
and ability to work, demands that branch enterprise and organization collectives put
forth a maximum e~fort, ski11fu11y and purposefully using the products and all th~
material and financial resources being allocated them. The primary indicator in
- planning and evaluating the operation of dining halls, cafeterias and resta.urants
must be the cost of the foodstuf~s consumed in public dining halls, both of products
produced themselves and of those obtained from production enterprises. It would be
appropriate to cr,tl this indica~or "public catering volume."
As distinct from the indicator now being used, that of gross trade turnover in public
eatering, the indicator of public catering volume must include, firsC of all, only
food ready for consumption and second, only that prepared food sold at ~he same time
�ervices are rendered to organize its consumptfon. It cannot take into account pro-
ceeds from the sale of raw material and seaaifinished products or prepared food if it
~.s sold without rendering services in organizing its consumption, that is, if it is
sold for consumption at home. Planning assignments for this indicator can be met
bnly by organizing food services for the populaCion and attracting a certain number
b` visitors ~o pubtic dining ha11s. Therefore, plan fu1f311ment for this particular
indicator wi11 be accompaniad by a sCruggle for prest3ge and popularity for public
dining ha11s, increasfng the effectiv~ness of their us~ as intended, which is to
~uiiy meet the interests of both the population and the national economy.
't'he achieved level of public catering development :in our country, the concentration
of considerable labor and material resourc~s 3.n this particular branch, and the pros-
~iects for further developing it a11 this ob~ectively demands greater centralism in
management and foremost in planning. Tn t'his connecfiion, it is necessary that public
catering volume assignments be set in current and long-range state socioeconomic de-
velopment plans similarly to the way in whiGh assignmenCs are currently set for re-
tail trade turnover volume and personal services to the population. This would sig-
nify recognition of public catexing as an 3.ndependent branch with a precisely desig-
naCed national economic function.
Inasmuch as Ch~~ production of food products at specialized industrial enterprises
~requires lower expendiCures of labor, other conditions being equal, public catering
enterprises must be oriented towards Cheir maximum use. In this cor,nection, we
should first of a11 reject the idea of priority to self-produced output when evaluat-
ing the opera~ion of dinir~g halls, cafeter3as and restaurants and work out new in-
sCructions whic'h would not allow artificial overstatement of the amounts of such
1
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products, and second, evaluate the operation of public catering ent~rprises not on
the basis of increasing profit, but in terms of level of outlays (first of all, Ie-
vel of wage expenditures) as compared with planned indicators or normatives. It
_ would also be appropriate to work out indicators for evaluating the level of indus-
trialization of public catering enterprises. In our view, one such indicator m3.ght
be a use factor for consumption of food products and semifinished products commer~-
cially produced, that is, a ratio of the amount of food ready for consumption which
is received at public catering enterprises, or semifinished food (multiplied, in
t+lrn, by a readiness for consumption factor), to the total amount of products used
_ to prepare the food.
The manufacture of convenience foods and production of products ready for sale to the
population without rendering services in organizing consumption must be entrusted
only to those public catering enCerprises which, on the one hand, have surplus pro-
duction capacities and ~an carry out these functions with no detriment at all to
their basic activity and, on the other, are capable of producing part3cular producfis
without exceeding the set maximum labor expenditures estab?ished for producing analo-
- gous output at corresponding food industry,enterprises. This activity must be viewed
only as temporary, supplemental activity and be run under a special plan and consi-
dered separately from their basic activity. (In order to evaluate the work of col-
lectives carrying out such supplemental activity, its results must be added to public
catering volume in a ratio corresponding to labor expenditures.)
At the same time, we need to improve the indicators describing the qual3ty of ser-
vices tn the population in dining halls, cafeterias and restaurants. Implementation
of Che following proposals would, in our view, be a substdntial contribution to the
quality control system.
In accordance with the CPSU Central Committee and USSR Council of Ministers Decree
"On Steps to Further Develop and Tmprove Public Catering" (191i7), fc,od-sanitation or
technologica'1 laboratories with the task of monitoring the quality of incoming raw
material, semifinished products and finished products, as well as t~e completeness
with which these products are used in own-produced items, have been or are being
created at~all large public catering enterprises. Observations have shown that the
results of laboratory tests on food samples are currently be~ng taken into account
inadequately when evaluating the operation of public catering enterprises. At the
same time, an ob~ective evaluation of the quality of the food being produced and of
its nutritional value is practically impossible without laboratory verification. In
our opinion, we should increase the role of the quality evaluation of products being
produced by public catering enterprises, necessitating the introduct3on of state sta-
tistical reporting on thP results of laboratory studies of food products and use of
the data from those reports both in suamiing up ttie results of socialist competition
among enterprises, trust~ and administrations, and in setting the total amount of
bonv.ses for successes achieved in ~arrying ou~ plans in terms of basic volume indi-
ca::ors.
The most important indicator of public catering enterprise services quality is the
variety of dishes offered. However, this is not recorded, so it cannot he considered
when evaluating th~ operation ef enterprises and organizations. How can the variety
of food offered by dining ha11s be determined? In our view, it can be 3udged suffi-
� ciently accurately by the structure of Che products actually used (in physical terms)
as compared with the strucrure which is appropriate under specific enterprise operating
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conditionay with consideration of enterprise type, consumption norms in effect, actual
supply opportunities and composition of the group being served. Oblast, kray and re-
public (autonomous republic) public catering administrations could be entrusted with
determining an appropriate structure of products which should be kept at maximum in
a given period.
it is known that public catering ent~rprise workers are interested first of all in
selling meat and meat-product dishes. This is to be 2xplained by the higher prices
~or meat as compared wiCh prices for a ma~ority of other types of foodstuffs. The
sale of one kilogram of processed meat enables them to obtain proceeds several-fold
higher than sales of items made from one kilogram of potatoes, vegetables, flour,
fish or other products, with the same or even lower labor expenditures. In view of
~his, Che structure of basic products should be set up in the foYtn of a ratio of
those products to expenditures of ineat and meat products.
A comparieon of the atructure of basic producta used by public catering enterprises
must be at the level of oblasts, krays, union and 3utonomous republica, or even in
a dynamic for the country as a whole.
The system of material and moral incentives and terms of socialist competition must
be reviewed correspondingly. In connection with refinement of the functions o~ pub-
lic catering enterprises, we must not only review the indicators for planning and
evaluating their activity, but also change the work methods which have evolved.
At present, dining ha11s, in becoming enterprises selling goods they produce tt~era-
selves, that is, trade enterprises, are obligated to produce output in as broad an
assortment as possible. This fact is the cause of a number of shurtcomings. First,
preparing a broad assortment of dishes, beverages, rolls and confectionery does not
permit sn efficient division of labor or ensuring the necessary level of labor pro-
ductivity. Second, the demand for production space, equipment and utensiis increases.
Third (and most important), it is impo~sible to achieve an economically effective
changeover of dining halls to supply convenience foods, since it is expensive to
h~ve a broad assortment of convenience foods delivered each day from production en-
terprises.
The tasks oF improving public catering, foremost where people work and etudy, given
a simultaneous reduction in ~xpenditures on its organization and the necessity of
raising the level of branch industrialization, demand that dining halls set up all
~heir work on the basis of planned menus which anticipate the daily demand by visi-
tors for a comparatively narrow assortment of dishes, but with sufficient variety not
to be repeated over a week or 10 days. Only given this work method can we ensure a
variety of food. At the same Cime, the effectiveness of supplies of commercially
produced convenience foods to dining halls will be improved, since the daily demand
for particular convenience fAOds will be .:onsiderably higher, making delivery cheaper.
Moreover, the appropriaCeness of having dining halls use this method is confirmed by
the fact Chat service is speeded up signi�icantly and the need for seats is reduced.
As is known, the USSR GossCroy-approved norm currently in effect for production en-
terprise dining halls is 250 seats per 1,000 workers on a,full shift, or four per-
sons per seat. It is calculated based on all workers ne~eding to be fed within a
two-hour period. Half an hour is thus set aside for getting one's food and eating.
This time was established by observing dining hall service using the old method,
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that is, service based on a broad menu and free choice of dishes. If we adopt the
method of sErvice based on a reduced menu and services in choosing dishes, that is, ~
if dishES are offered in certain combinations in the form of complete meais, then ,
two-fold less time would be required for dinner. If this method of service were in-
troduced on broad scale, the demand for dining halls and cafeterias at production
enterprises would be reduced significantly, to approximately 170 seats. ~
i
It should be said that the effectiveness of this method of service is not disputed ~ t
by anyone. Nonethelesa, the successes in disseminating it have been lese than mod- '
esti. The basic reason, in our opinion, is that tihis methnd does not correspond to
the overall orientation which has evolved in public catering enterprise activity. ~
The existing procedure for evaluating the operation of dining halls orients them
towards increasing the production and sale of output they pro3uce themselves. Ir~
resolving this task, an ever-increasing role is played not bg~ food-service organiza- ~
tion, but t~y retail and even wholesale trade in output~produced themselv~es, ~which as- '
sumes the mandatory daily preparation of producCs in as broad an assorCment as pos-
sible. In trying to use this method, dining halls discover very quickly that they ,
cannot trade only in thase convenience-food dishes on the planned mentt for a given
day, since their assortment is ~oo narrow. They are forced to prepare them in a '
broader assortment, meaning that practically no changes whatever occur fn organizing ;
the operation of the ki,tchen (production), the impact is not a~c'hieved, and the din- ~
ing hall gradually moves back to its former method of se~vice. ~ . '
~
Tf~us, broad dissemination of this progressive method of public catering enterprise i
operation is being hampered by ~he procedure wh3.ch has evolved for planning and !
evaluating their operation. ~
There is also one other problem on whose solution success in furCher developing the
branch largely depends, the level of service to the population. Tn the early 1960's, ;
we began the organized isolation of public catering f rom trade on an autonomous re- i
public, kray and oblast scale, separating it fra~~ the trade organizations, Not all ~
economists unanimously agreed that this isolation was appropriate. Doubte arose
first of a11 among thoae who thought public catering was a branch of trade: why `
separaCe one branch of trade from another and split a unified, economically strong ;
oblast (kray, republic) trade organiza~3on into twa, much less so, since administra- 4
tive and managerial expenses increase? '
It must be said that, in lighC of the incorrect understanding of public catering as ~
a branch whose basic function is the production and sale of output it produces it- ;
self which has arisen, these doubts are fu11y ~ustified. This is confirmed by prac-
tice: separated from trade, public catering administrations, in accord wich the 3n-
dicators used to ~valuate their activity, have directed the resourcea of subord3nat~
enterprises and organizations primarily into developing trade. The primary function
of the branch, to render peoplQ aervices in organizing their meals outside the home, ~
remains, as before, of secondary importance.
~
Nonetheless, the isolaCion of public catering from trade at the oblasC, kray and au- ~
tonomous republic level has played a positive role. The growing need for public ca- ~
tering and the necessity of further broadening and stirengthening the material-Cechni- ~
ca1 base o~ Che branch and tra3ning personnel.-- a11 this requires centr~lized leade~- ~
ship. It is appropriate to orient public catering management agencies towards carry-
ing out that function which is the basic purpose of this branch in ths social divi~ ~f
~ ' sion of labor system. `
COPYRIGHT: Izdatel'stvo "Pravda", "Vop~osy ekonomiki", 1981
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CONSUMPTION TRENDS AND POLICIES
COST, STRUCTURE OF RETAII, GOODS TURNOVER
Moscow VOP1tOSY LKUhUMIKI in l:us~ian No lU, Oct 81 pp 81-92
[Article by R. Loksiiin]
[Text] The steady ~rowtli of retail goods turnover, reflecting the ~;eneral rise of
the material tind cultural standard of life of the population, has been accompanied
by significant chanRes in tl?e cost and physical atructure of sold ~;oods. These
changes are determined by a large numbe:. of factors, the ch~ef of which ~re: pro-
duction volume of consumer ~oods and their group and intragroup structure; poten-
tial means and readiness mf production to take into account new developments in
demand; movement of c.onswaer income and retail prices for ~oods; export and import
volwne of finistied products as well as of raw and other materials used in the pro-
duction of consumer goods.
- The volume and structure of proffer~d goods depend on a correlation between ~r~~rket
- and s~~-called outside-the-market portions of inerchandise resources. Thus, the vo1-
ume of production of conf~ctionery and nonalcQholic drinks, margarine and soap; the
quantity (and quality) of fabrics and their substitutes depend on ttie amount of
sugar and vegetable oil used to satisfy the needs of aommercial pracesaing and pre-
determine ttie ~roduction of many varietiea of footwear, furniture, oilcloth, ut~r-
brellas, b~?by carriages and folding beds. The extent of salea to thd population of
packaged and wrapped products depends not dnly on the amount of tape materials,
- paper, cardboard and tin plate iesued for the packaging of confectionery products
- and the packing of canned and other goods, and so do profits from the eale of these
goods. Tlie satiafaction of tl~e demand of individual builders, amateur ~;ardeners
and workers who own tiomes dependa on ttie volume of lumber and roafing ma.terials,
cement, sanitary-engineering equipment produced by group-A secCor~ and reaching
- the market.
Syatematically developing commodity-monetary relationships encompass the prepond-
eranC part of direct individual consumption (over 90 percent) as welY as that of
production consur,:ption assuming a commodity form. In this connection, in our view,
_ ~ae cannot consider as theoretically valid the division of commodity resourcea into
market and outside-tt~e-marl:et. ~conomically invalid proporCions in determination
of tlie share of goods destined for sale to the population (for example: the atill
permi.tted restriction of 1umLer and conetruction materials, many houaehold and
otlier goods of productive use allocated for these purpoaes) and also the oc~asion-
ally un~ustifi,9b le restricti.on of so-called outside-the-market consumers in the
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- final analysis cause a deficit of other consumer ~;ood~ and thus bring about a ;
disruption of the correlation between supply and demand and the search tor ways of
~;oin~ aroiuid this and restoring Che disrupted proportions.
In connection ~aith the multitude of factors whict~ at times are of a.n opposite di-
rectional effect and wtiich determine the supply of ~oods and the demand for them
witli specific: conditions characteristic of the production and sale of individual
goods, the cl~anges in the cos t and physical s tructure of retail goods tumover are '
distinguished Ly muci~ unevenriess. This applies first and foremast to differences
in sales growtli rates of food and nonfood products. Th~ retail goods turnover of
state and cooPerative tracle in 197U, 1975 and 198Q for these groups of products was
as follows (in billions of rubles; in prices of the respective years): '
Tab le 1 .
1970 1975 1980 '
sum relative aum relative sum re:lative ;
share share shs~re
Goods turnover, total 155.2 100.0 210.4 100.0 210.55 100.0
including:
- Food products 86.2 55.5 112.7 53.6 137.34 50.8
Nonfood products 69.0 44.5 97.7 46.4 133.21 49.2
_ In la8U, the reCail goods turnover i:? comparison to 1970 had increased 74 percent,
including 59 percent for foocl products and 93 perceni for nonfood products. An ad-
vancing growtli of sales of nonfood products caused an increase in their share of ~
goods turnover in ttie past 10 years from 44.5 to 49.2 percent.
The progressive ctiaracter of this tendency reflects an improvement in the material '
_ and cultural livinfi standard of the population and a new character of requirements.
An analysis of tlie indicated proportions in ~oods turnover at the same time shaws
that they were the result of limited reaources of ineat, dairy and certain other
_ food products.
Price factors also affect the proportions of food and nonfood products. ~
The index of state retail prices computed by the U5SR Central Statistical Adminis-
- tration in 1980 was 103 percent compared to 1970 and 103.3 percent compared to 1975. ~
For food products, the fi~ures were 103 and 102.1 percent and for nonfood products--
103 and 105 percent respectively. At the same time, the pxice index o� cooperative
trade relating to tlle sale of agricultural products for pr~':ce in accordance with an
agreement in 1980 witli respect to 1970 was roughly 126 peYCent and with respect to
1975 was 121 percent. Tlie st~are of food products in the gc~ods turnover of state
and cooperative trade in comparable prices was 57.4 percent in 1970, 53.6 percent
in 1975 and 51.3 percent in 1980; the respective figures for nanfood products are
42.6 percent, 46.4 percent and 48.7 percent.
13ut tt~e dynamics of goods turnover in comparable prices does not fully reflect the
dynamics of the real composition of sold goods. In distinetion to indexes of
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retail prices sliowing a cha~ge in the level of price-list prices, average retail
prices per prodt,ct unit reflect both the chaage in price level and also changes in
assortment. In this connection, the index of retail prices may remain according to
the adopted method unchanged with stable prices for each variety of a given merchan-
dise, although structural changes have taken place in the composition of produced
goods. With an unchanged index, the average retail price may rise ~if there is a
growth of quality and relatively more expensive goods) or may go down (when there is
a growth in the relative share of cheaper articles). Moreover, the influence of
retail prices on imported goods is not fully "caught," where they are sold accord-
ing to other price lists.
A cliaracteristic feature of the dynamics of the cost and real composition of retail
- ~oods turnover is tlie advancin~ ~rowtli of the sale of goods in monetary terms com-
~ pared to t}~eir sale in kind. Tl?is progressive process is chiefly caused by improve-
ment of tlie quality of goods, assortment renewal with account being taken of buyars'
demand, increasin~;ly requiring goods with improved consumer qualities. But in a
number of cases, ttiis tendency is the consequence of reduction of the share of
~ cheaper goods or an absolute reduction of their output, despite the f act that there
' is a demand for them. On some goods tt~e influence is exerted of purely price fac-
' tors--reduction or rise of price~-list retail prices.
The tendencies developed in the past decade in the dy~iamics of the natural and cost
make-up of sale of individual food products to the population through state and co-
operative trade are ctiaracterized by the following data:
- Tab le 2
19 80 in % of
1970 1975 1980 1970 1975
Baked producCs (expressed in terms
of f lour)
billions of rubles 10.52 11.96 13.54 129 113
milli~ns of tons 32,2U 35,?!J 37.90 118 107
Sugar
millions of rubles 5,522 6,129 6,773 123 110.5
- millions of tons 6.60 7.40 8.15 124 110
Confectionery products (excluding
~am, preserves, honey)
millions of rubles 5,514 7,167 8,448 153 118
, millions of tons 2,80 3.27 3.88 139 118
But te r
millions of rubles 3,065 3,808 4,390 143 115
ttiousands of tons 913 1,116 1,298 142 116
Meat and meat products
billions of ruliles 12.20 17.44 19.65 161 113
millions of tons 7.23 10,06 10.20 142 101
L�'ggs
millions of rubles 1,G00 2,855 3,918 245 137
billions each 16.60 31.20 39.10 236 125
The more ra~id growtli of the sale of baked products (bread, buns and rolls, flour,
cereals and macaroni products) in monetary terms with no change in price-liat
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retail prices is due to improvement of assortment. The total outlay of flour used
in baking and public dining and sold through the retail netwurk consists of rye
flour, both high-quality and hulled, and hulZed wheat flour: 23.6 percent in 1970 '
and 16.4 percent in 1980, second-grade wheat flour, respectively--35.4 and 27.7 ~
percent. At the same time the ahare of wheat flour, both top-grade and first~ '
grade, increased from 36.3 percent to 49.6 percent, while that of hign-quality
flour sold through the stores increased from 4.7 to 6.3 percent.
i~4ore buns and rolls, albeit still not enough, are being made from top-grade flour.
Thus the relative share of bread baked products made from top-grade fl.our in- ~
creased from 3.5 percent in 1970 to 6.3 percent in 1980, accomnanied by an absolute
decrease in the production of rolls and buns from first-grade flour and a reduction
in their share ~irom 6.2 percent to 4.4 percent.
In cereals sales, the gh are of rice grew from 25.4 percent in 1970 to 32.6 percent
" in 1980. A~ the same time, sales of a11 forms of cereals and legumes in creased 47
percent. The price of rice is 1.7-fold higher than the average price of alI varie-
ties of cereals. Tl~e share of oat groats rose from 4.4 to 5.9 percen~ while the__
- relative si~are of millet ~roats slid �rom 24.9 to�9.~3�percent, of buckwheat groats
from 1U.7 to 4.3 I~ercent, of semolina fro~? 6.7 to 6.3 percent and of legumes from
5.1 to 2.2 percent. These cereals have been replaced by rice and oat groats and to
a lesser degree by cat~eat, corn and barley groats. Their relative share was 39.9
peXCent in 198U compared to 2'l.8 percent in 1970. This occurred because purchases
of millet and Uuckwlieat were reduced. Average annual purchases of millet amounted
to 1,520,U1)0 tons during 1971-1974 and 1,148,000 tons during 1976-1979; the figures
_ for buckwl~cat are 5U5,~00 and 407,000 tons, respectively. '
rtany farms h~ve reduced sowings of millet and buckwheat because they are law-yield
crops. As a result, tlie demand for these widely prevalent cereals remains unsatis-
fied. It is clear that there is a need for a carefully thought out selection of
regions witli land and conditiona tliat are more favorab7e for the ~rawing of millet
~nd buckwheat. Specialists who are most familiar with the agrotechnolog,y of these
croi~s should be offered more substantial incentives, and special remuneration should
be establistied for final yield of the products. A need also exis ts for a special
system of "countin~;" in the evaluation of plan fulfillments that would stimulate ex-
panded sowings of these crops.
;
The population Uuys a considerable amount of bread and cereals for the feeding of
livestock and poultry maintained on private farms. Such purchases are economically
advantageous to tiie populatiun due to the low prices of baked ~;oods and the rela-
tively Iii~;li state i~tirctiase pric:es of livestock and poultry. Fxcessive baking of
l~read used in f.e~din~; Zivestoclc hrin~?~ about additional expenditur.es not only of
Fl.our but also of. Cuel and I~ay of crc,rkers of. the bread-bakinp, indtistry; it therefore
- would be aclvi~al~le to increase the sale of grainfora~e to the population.
_ With identical growth rates o~ sale of. sugar in physical and monetary terms and with
full satisfaction of demand, there is observed a shortage of lump sugar, especially
in packagecl form. A significant place is occupied in the sale of sugar by its sale
at apecial prices as incentives for workers engaged in the growing, cultivation and
i~arvesCing of sugar beet. Lach year, about 500,000 tons of granulated sugar are
_ sold at special conditions (at 38 kopecks per kg) while the state retail price is
- 76 kopecks per kilo~ram (in the first zone). In this connection, the output of
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sugar per capit~a in the Ukraine (whose share of sugar sold at special prices amounts
to about 60 percent) in 1979 was 47.7 kg versus an average level of consumption in
the U5SR of 42.8 kg. The existence of two sets of retail prices for one and the
same product is without adequate economic basis. Yncentives of persona engaged in
labor-intensive work connected with the cultivation of sawings of sugar beet could
tie in tlie form of money.
Growth rates of eAle of confectionery products in monetary terms are affected with
the use in their manufacture of cocoa beans, nuts and other fillers, the proportion
of farinaceous products (cookies and spice cakes) and sugar pxoducts (caramels, mar-
malade, chocolate and other itetns) and the volume of production of items that are
wrapped or packaged. Since March 1978, retail prices of chocolate products have
increased on the average by 30 percent as partial compensgtion for the sharp~rise
of cocoa-Uean prices on the world market. For this reason th~e growth rate of sale
of confectionery products in terms of cost in 198Q compared to 1970 was higher than
- the growth of sales in physical terms. Compared to 1975, growth rates in physical
terms and in cost were equal, which is connected with the decreased use of eocoa
beans in 1980. The confectianE:ry industry is still not making sufficient low-price,
but high in demand, items: pastilas, marshmallows and marmalade. The industxy's
inadequate capacities even now restrict needed growth of production, in which caci-
nection it is necessary to speed up the construction of new and the renovation of
. existing confectionery factories. ~
The difference in tlie growth rates of the eale of ineat producta in the physical
sense and in monetary terms is due to the purchase of livestock and the deliverq
of ineat ot higher condition to the tradey grawth of the relative share of poultry
in total meat sales (from 10.7 percent in 1970 to 21.6 percent in 1979), a higher
relative share of hard smoked sausages and pork smoked products among sausage pro-
ducts (from 9.9 to 15.2 percent) and a certain increase in the production of semi-
finislied and packaged meat products.
In addition to the aforesaid factors, the significant increase in purchases o~ live-
stock and poultry by consumer-cooperative organizations at prices in accordance
with an a~reement and the sale of ineat and sausap,e products and canned goods made
, f rom it at higher prices also had an effect. In 1980, these conditions went into
the purchase of 798,000 tons of ineat compared to 444,000 tc~ns in 1970, a 1.8-fold
increase, During this period, state purchase of livestock (in dressed weight) in-
creased 24 percent.
The avera~;e retail price of one kilo~;ram of ineat sold in caoperative trade was 3
rubles and 23 kopecics and of sausa~e products--4 rubles 64 kopecks, while the aver-
~ age price of these productg sold at state retail prices was respectively 1 ruble
70 kopecks and 2 rublea 50 kopecks. There should also be taken into account the
incomparability of the existing average prices for meat in state and cooperative
trade and differin~; proportions in the sale of beef, pork and poultry and also in
the assortment of sausage products. In addition to state and cooperative trade,
there were sold in 1980 on the kolkhoz market in excesa of 480,000 tons o~ meat at
pricE~s exceeding state retail prices on the order of 2.3-fold. In 1�70, this gap
in prices amounted to 1.8-fold.
The lag iii tYie supply of ineat and dairy products behind the population's demand
occurs in tlie presence of significant state grants for thei;: production. Livestock
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;
and poultry ~urchasecl at kolkhozes, sovkhozes and farms of the population are paid ~
for by the state at prices significantly higher than state retail prices. The state i
pays out annually 25 billion ruhles to make up the difference between payments by ;
ti~e state and profits from ttie final sale of ineat and dairy products.l i
;
The decree of the CYSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Mfnisters "On Ad- ~
ditional Measures for Increasing the Production of Agricultural Products on Private
Subsidiary Farms of Citizens" spells out measures for increasing the production ot f
meat, milk. and other products on these farms. It was determined in particular that !
it would be possiLle to maintain above establishe~ norms livestock grown on these ;
farms in accordance with contracts with kolkhozes, sovkhoZes and consumer-coopera- , E
- tive organizations, while me~t surp?.us could b~e sold at the discretion of the awn- ~
ers at prices in accordance with agreement. ,
Consumer-cooperative or~anizations purchase under contractual conditions and accept
meat surpluses directly at citizens' farms and sell them feed, construction materi-
als and otlier goods, wliich makes it possible to brin~; into goods turnover addition-
al resources and to influence reduction of prices at the kolkhoz market (meat ;
prices in cooperative trade are roughly 15-20 percent lower). In the future, it
would be advisable to concentrate purchases at consumer cooperatives..of all surpluses f
of ineat (and other agricultural products) prepared at farms of the population and ~
to count the livestock and poultry purchased under these conditions in �ulfil.lment ~
_ of state purchase plans.
I
. ~
Among nonfaod goods, a very tii~h role is played by products of light industry.
These include clothing, footwear, fabrics, rugs and carpeting items, furs, head-
dresses, haoerdashery and threads. The retail goods turnover for this group of
products in 1980 amounted to 70.76 billion rubles; it was 74 percent higher than in l
- 197U and 3'L percent higher than in 1975. The share of this merchandise in all crnn- ;
madity turnover in 1980 was 26.2 percent and 53.1 percent among nonfoad products ;
(in 1970 Che figures, respectively, were 26.3 percent and 59 percent). The reduced
share of products of li~ht industry in commodity turnover for nonfood goods is
quite lo~ical inasmuch as the production and sale of products of cultural and
everyday use and household employment are growing much faster and reflecting there- :
bq tlie effect of scientific-technical progreas. '
lsut tlie degree of reduction of the sha~e of products of light industry made from ~
cotton and flax fiber is in our opinion high in the turnover of nonfood products. j
- This is connected with shortages of pxoduction capacities in spinning, difficu~.ties ~
in providing quality raw materials supplied by agriculture and deficiencies in the
organization of their production. For theee reasons, a number of sectors of light
industry have consistently failed to fulfill production plans. Thus, plans for ~
production of cotton fabrics during 1976-1980 were taiderfulfilled (in terms of the ~
total of these years) by more than one billion square meters, which reduced the ~
per-capita level of their consumption. '
- Under thQ conditions of a rapidly growing monetary income of the population, this i
1?as resulted in difficultiea in satiefaction of the demand for cotton fabrics and
products made from them, for knitwear and hosiery from cotton yarn, thread and ~
certain other goods produced from natural fibers. Stocks of these goods in retail
trade have gone dawn sharply in the.years o� the lOth Five-Year Plan.
1. See K~P~R-NNIST, No 8, 198U, p 58. '
~
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- The production and sale of fabrics, clothing, knitwear and carpeting and leather
footwear to tl~e population are described in physical terms and in retail prices
for the correapondin~ yeara by the follawing data (Table 3).
Tab1e s
1980in%of
19 70 19 75 19 80 19 70 19 75
Production of cotton, wool, silk
and linen fabrics (in millions
of square meters) 8,648 9,661 10,286 119 106
Ditto (in millions of linear
meters) 9,944 10,647 10,913 110 102.5
- Ditto, wiCh ~xclusion of heavy
industrial fibers and products
of local industry (in millions
- of linear meters) 9,284 9,918 1Q,202 110 103
Ditto (in millions of rubles) 16,455 20,450 23,839 1G5 116.5
Clothing and underwear (in
millions of rubles):
productian 12,315 15,120 19,362 157 128
~ sales 14,353 18,254 24,199 169 132
Production of knitwear articles:
knitted underwear (in mi113ons
eact~) 814 955 1,144 140 120
knitted outwear (in millions
each) 415 466 478 115 103
all knitwear articles (in
millions of rubles) 5,468 7,054 8,460 155 .120
Sales of all knitwear artic.'~es
(in millions of rub les) 6,871 9,086 11,087 161 122
Production of leather footwear
millions of pairs 679 698 744 110 107
millions of rubles 5,343 6,486 7,886 147 122
sales (in millions of rubles) 6,600 S,SS9 10,810 164 122
Rugs and carpeting:
production (in millions of
sc~uare meters) 30.3 47.5 93.4 3.1-fold almost
increase doubled
s ales : .
millions of rubles in retail ~
prices 557 1,061 3,927 7.1-fold 3.7-fold
increase iacrease
ditto, in.comparable prices 557 1,061 2,065 3.7-fold 1.9-fold
increase increase
With an overall increase of production of fabrics in 1980 compared to 1970 (in
square meters) of 19 percent, the output of cotton fab rics grew 15 percent while
that of linen fab rics dropped 3 percent. In 1980 compared to 1975, the growth rate
of fabric production dropped, amounting to only 6 percent, includin~* silk fab rics--
17 percent, cotton fabrics---6.5 pereent and with an absolute reduction of 12 pereent
in production of linen fabrics.
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Advancing growth of fabric production is grimarily due in regard to cost by changes ~
in ttie structti~.re of production. Thus, the share of cotton fabrics, comp;ising 71
percent in 1970 dropped to 69 percent in 1980; that of silk fabrics rose from 13 to
17 percent; this was accompanied by a reduction in the share of linen fabrics and
retention of the stable share of wool fabrics. The average retail price of cottan
fabrics per linear meter in 1980 was 1 ruble 11 kope~ks, that of silk fabrics--4 r~
bles 53 koperks and of wool fabrics--14 rubles ~6 kope~ks.
The dynamics of fabric production in monetary terms is influenced by changes also in
intragroup assortment. T_tius, with a total increase in the output of wool fabrics in ~
linear meters in 1979 compared to 1970 of 11.5 percent, pure wool fabrics were pro- ;
duced with an 1.7-fold increase and coaYee~wool fabrics with an 11-percent decrease.
The average retail price per linear ~eter of the fabrics increased due to changes in
assortment and also because of the tranaition to the output of broader fabrics
( f rom 130 to 135 cm) . ~
Ttiere occurred an absoluCe reductioz in the production of calico and satin among ~
cotton fabrics during this period; this is due to the incomplete satisfaction of !
demand for articles of mass consumption of these fabrics.
An increasingly considerable part of all the varieties of fabrics goes into the sew-
ing of clothin~ and underwear, as a result of which their share sold through the ;
stores is growing smaller. Suct~ a use of fabrics is more rational and frees the
population of sewing their clothes at home. But due to a lag in production, espe- ;
cially of cotton and linen fabrics, demand by the population both for individual
fabrics and also for items made from them is outstripPing supply. ~
~
Tlie production of sewn articles in 1979 increased in cost compared to 1970 by 47
percent. The output of individual articles in physical form grew during this peri- ;
od: men's and boys' shirCs--39 percent (including those made of cotton fabrtcs--29 ~
percent and of silk fabrics--75 percent); dresses, sarafans and robes--37 percent ~
(including those made from silk fabricz~--almost twofold); skirts--73 percent (in-
cluding those made from silk fabrics--ei~~tfold). The production of trousers grew
13 percent, includin~; those made from wool products--17 percent and those made from
silk fabrics--fivefold, while those made from cotton fabrics �dropped 4 percent. ~
4]ltl? a relatively small increase in the production of suits--8 percent=-their manu-
facture from syntl~etic and silk faLrica increased almost 4.5-fold.
Selective consideration of tlie suit sales structure shows that in their sale (in- ~
cluding tl?at of lmpoits) ttie share of suits priced up to 70 rubles, which in 1970 ;
amounted to 22 percent, in 1979 dropped to 6 percent and that of suits priced over
lU0 rubles increased accordingly from 25 to 41 percent. It is characteristic that
during tl~is period tile sale of both cheap suits and the more expensive picked up
while the sale of ~uits belong to the medium price range slowed down. The share of
ttie latter in stocks increased from 48 to 57 per~ent, but remained stable in sales ~
- --53 percent. Ttiis reflects to a certain extent growCh of demand for more expen-
sive suits and also for ctieaper ones.
~Jlien estimatinf; tl?e ~;rowth rate of production of sewn articles, there should be
taken into consideration expansion of output o� knitwear replacin~ them. The liigh
growth rate of production of sewn articles in value terms was influenced by the ;
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increase in the output of fabrics (and of c2othing made f rom them) from mixed qarn,
artificial fur, durlicated ~eans fabrics.
Over the 10 y~ars, production of leather footwear grew almost 10 percent, includinR
- fashionable -~-1.5-fold and insulated--more than one-third. Taking this and other
changes into consideration, the average price for a pair of shoes rose from 7 ru-
bles 90 kopecks to 10 rubles 39 kopecks. In this connection..and.also due to the
availability for eale of more expensive impor~ed items, ~he~sale of foo~wear in
value terms increased more than 1.6 fold. .
Tlie data presented in Table 3 on growth of the sale of clothing, ka3twear, footwear
and rugs reflect not only the development of domestic production but also the ad-
vent of tliese goods through imports, to a sip,nificant degree from socialist
countries.
Ttie tendency of advancing growth of production of consumer ~oods in value terms
compared to tlie same indicator in physical terms has been marked in recent years
when the production of nonfood goods to a large degree began to be stimulated;,this
was in response to chan~;es in demand, particularly in regard to new items ("v").
At the same time, retail-price indexes in 1980 compared to 1970 remained stable only
witti respect to cotton and wool favrics but dropped for clothing and undenaear--99,
.l:nitwear--y2, hosiery--y6, leatt?er footwear--99.5 and increased for silk fabrics--
101 (in connection with higher prices for fabrics from natural silk), rugs and car-
peting--19U.
The ~ncreased demand for cotton fabrics and goods made of them, as we11 as knitwear
and liosiery from cotton yarn is due not only to their use qualities but also to
their relatively lma prices compared tio prices for similar items from synthetic raw
materials. It should be noted that abroad prices for fabrics �rom natural raw ma-
_ terials (and goods from them) are significantly higher than for comparable items
from syntlietic raw materials.
The change in the relationship of prices for faUricR, sewn, knitted and hosiery
items produced from natural and synthetic raw materials in .addition to an increase
- in ttieir production tias contributed to equalization of the proportions between sup-
- ply and demruid for th~se goods.
A constantly growin~ role in ttie satisfaction of the ropulation's demand belongs to
goods of cultural, everyday and household designation, especially those of lonp-
term use. The sales volume of ~oods, included statistically in this complex (ex-
cluding rugs, included by us in the group of items of light industry,and excluding
the commission sales of passenger automobiles) is given (in millions of rub les and
- in priees of the correspondinp; years) in Table 4. ~
The sale of individual goods of long-term use in physical terms and in monetary
terms is sh~ewn in Tab le 5.
The advancing ~;rawth of sales of tt~ese ~~ods in regard to value is due to renewal
of assortment, improved consumer qualities and also the external appearance of the
items.
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Table 4
19 70 19 75 19 80
Sum of turnover
total 17,048 27,828 40,982
in percent:
of all ~;oods turnover 1Z.0 13.2 15.1
of turnover for
nonfood ~;oods 24.7 28.5 30.8
Ta~ lc: 5
~ 19 80 in % o �
1970 1975 ].980 1970 1975
_ l~adio r~ceivers and radioPtiono~;raphs
millicros of rubles 4U5 714 705 174 99
ttiousands each 5,870 7,591 . 6,549 112 86
'i'elevision sets
millions of rubles 1,818 1,993 2,372 131 119
_ ttiousands eacli 5,580 6,002 6,423 115 107
Cloclcs and watches
millions of rubles 488 768 1,213 249 158
millions eacti 28,249 5,536 39,809 141 112
l:efri~;erators
millions of rubles 781 1,172 1,207 155 103
tl~ou~aiids eacl? 3,756 4,823 4,810 128 99.7
Cameras
_ millioi?s of rul,les 47 67 160 340 239
tliot.w~uids e~tc�I~ 1,337 1,773 2,264 169 128
Sewiu~~ n~.~cl~{.ncs
mill.ions oE rul.~]e;: 92 109 154 lfi8 142
ti?ousanc~:, ~acli 1,'l75 1,237 1,181 93 95
t'as;;enf;er ~~utoir.ol~iles
, (1~s5 ~ales commissio~t)
millions of rubles 520 4,202 5,930 in 11.4 141
rubles ~
thousands each 123.3 723.5 858 in 7.0 119
- rubles
Changes in assortment encomnass a broad range of inerchandise. They include radio-
receivers and radiophonographs, color television sets, clocks and watches with
special features, lar~e-capacity refrige~ators, cameras with automatic and elec-
trical f.eatures, multioperation sewing machines, new-model passenger automobiles,
cassette tape recorders, new types of electric irons, electric vacuum cleanera and
the .like.
For ex~imple, the share of color television sets of total sales of both black-and-
white and color varietites in 1980 amounted to 27 percent, of refrigerators with �
capacities in excess of 200 liters--about 27 percent. The number of sold sewing
machines f.ell, but profits increased because more multioperation machines of the
"zig-r.ag" type were produced (from 310,000 each in 1975 to 578,000 each in 1980).
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fiEie expansion of capacity of a most promisin~ market of items ,of long-term use is
- closely connected with the development o~ new models with better technical charac-
~er,istics and use properties as well as of esaentially new products.
The conducted analysis.o~ changes ia the physical and value makenp of consumer
= g~ads does not diacl~se the detailed structure of goods offer.ed to the population
in terms of their multiplicity of forms snd varietiies. The generally natural pro-
c~ss of renewal of assortment, improvement of quality and use properties of produced
gbods is accompanied by a natural rise in value. But negative developments in the
~ ~sortment of the produced goods should not be concealed '_�~{nd this positive
process.
Thus enterprises of the Ministrq of Food Indust~y? in 1980 compa~ed to 1975 in-
crea~ed the production of perfwaery aad coametics 1.6-fold in monetary terms. Out- ~
put of compact powder increased thirteenfold, lipetick--3.9-fold, shampoos--1.7-
fbld. At the same .time, the production of such n?ass products as tooth powder in-
cfeaeed only 12 percent, toothpaste--13 percent, while 14-10 percent leas of esu-de-
cblogne were produced, although they were in the original rend~ering.
Some associations of the furniture industry (Sevzapmebel', Soyuzmebel' and Yugme-
bel') and ministries of the timber industry of the Ukraine, IIeloruasia and Kazakh-
etan fulfilled their plans in.monetary tern~s but�failed to produce lawer-price
pioducts needed by the population. Enterprisea of the light industry in .Tanuary-
June 1971 overfulfilled plans for the production of cotton fabrics in monetary
t~rms, but were short of a significant quantity of these fabrics in physical terms
versus the plan.
Under conditions in which there is a shortage of a n~aibex of goods�, some industrial
enterprises are trying to produce more relat3vely expensive ~oods at the expense o�
r~duction of the share and on nccasion of reduction ~f the prr'duction o� low-Price .
goode; this sometime~ does not meet et times with due opposi.tion on the part o�
t"rade. A deciding meana of overcoming such ne~rative developments~is normalization
of ttie relationehip between supply and demand, a significant increase in production
outstripping the growth of the population's current income. Witti such "prerequis-
itea created on a planned Uasis," trade orders become to a large degree the basis of
production plans of.enterprises not only in terms of total volume but also in terms
of intragroup composition.
"~asic Directions of USSR Economic and Social Development for 1981-1985 and �or the
Period to 1990" provided for advanced growth of production of consumer ~oods, fur-
ther improvement of aaeortment and hiqher quality of goods in accordance with
the grawing needs of the Soviet people.
~An expression of the, practical realization of the decisions of the 26th party con-
gress aimed at a further riae of the material and cultural livin~ standard of the
people is to be found in the decrees adopted by the CPSU Central Committee and the
USSR Council of M3.niatera on increasinR during 1981-1985 the production of goods of
pfimary necessity and conaumer goods, upgrading the quality and improving their as-
sortment. These deciaions provide in particular f4r increasin~ the production in
1985 versus 1980 of knittrd underwear from cotton and mixed yarn (by 37 percent),
color televieian sets ('l.3-fold), ref rigeratora with capa~ities of more than 200
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1~(1~2 ()I~H'1('lAl. II~H: ()NI.Y
- liters (1.7-fold), spare. parts for motorcycles and motor scooters (1.5-fold), sat-
isfactiou of trade orders for under~aear for the newborn and children of nursery-
scF?ool a~;e Fuid a number of otlier goods. There is to Ue a significant growth in the
p~'oduction and sale to tiie Population of toilet soap, noteUooks, various kinds of
disl?ware, gardening tools, reflex cameras and many other goods thaL have a high
buyer demand. In addition to renewal of asaortment and increase of production of
new and st-ylist? ~oods, tlie output of low-priced ~;ood-c~uality ~oods must be assured.
- 'l~e iia~ic llirections em~liasize.the need of imProving cost-accountin~ relationships
ar~d incrca~in.g reczprocal economic accountabiliCy for adherence Co plan targets
and contractual obligations of suppliers and users and strenp.,thening the effective-
ness of economic sanctioi?s.
Tlie influ~nce exerted by trade on industry in coordination of orders on the b asis of
zssortment and on ttie basis of price ~;roup, ri~id ~or,trol over the fulfillment of
acce~~ted orders f or all positions, the use of all economic and other means of in-
fluet?c2 in relaCion to enterprises producin~ more expensive ~oods to the detriment
of lo~a-j~riced ones~-all tliis must be aimed at the satisfaction of the demand of
clif f~rent Frou~~s oL buyers.
- An active assortment Policy is needed. live-year a~reements concluded betureen
trade enterj~rises .Znd indu~try should specify proportions for nrice groups, which
could l~e differc:ntiated by re~ions and organizations in the conclusion of annual
economic contracts.
E~ policy tl~at is aimed at maintainin~* the population's real income at the raqui-
site level must take into account the possibilities o.f using the price instrument
as one of tlie means of maintaining proportions between supply and demand without
impinging in tliis coruiect~.on on vitally needed goods of everyday use. A most itapor-
tant basis of observance of these proportions is constant p.,rawth of production with
strict conformity on tl~e scale of the country of growth of production of goods with
- the j~opulation's monetary income and with ttiat part which is used for the purchase
af ~;oods and Payment for services.
T~?e chan~;es tliat wcre m~zde durin~ clie l~th rive-Year Plan in retail prices for in-
dividual goods did not always nor fully take into consideration relations between
su~~ply and dcmand. The u:;e of tlie price instrument should be of. a 1on~-term char-
acter, aimed at tl~~ elimii~ation of disProPortions between demand and surply for in-~
dividunl ~oods oc~ tl?e l~asis of growinp, I~roduction. Such a planned combinaCion of
tlie ~;rowinf; ~u~~ply of ~oods in interaction with im}~rovement of the practice of price
settinf; will ma~:e it i~ossil~le to eliminate sli~rta~es of individual ~oods.
In our view, it is necessary to exPand tl~e ran~;e of ~oods which wauld he simultane-
ously sub;ject to accountiiiF and periodic reportir~ on their production and sale to
the ropulation in pl~ysical and monetary terms. ~entral trade orpanizations and
tl~eir 1oca1 or~;ans siiould keer systematic track of all ~oods prov~ded for sale to
tt~~: Pol~ul~ltion notl? in quantitative and in monetary terms and of their sale; they
s??ould adopt timc:ly d~cisions to~;etlier vith industrial enterPrises on the volume
and mal~eup of praduced ~;oods in terms o� I~hysical and value proportions.
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Until recently, a tendency was in operr~tion of excessive expansion of the range of
goods wlu~s~~ l~rocluctiou plaus ~~ere determined centrally as part of national-economic
}~l.ans or separate clecisions. .,t first f;lance, tlie setting of s~.icti tar~ets G~ould be
_ ~xpectecl to i~romote Lett~r satisfaction of. demar~d. Actually, by reporting only on
tlie fulfillm~nt of "f.easible tar~ets" f.or the production of individual varieties of
poocis, mi?iistries fr~e tt~emselves of resPonsibility and concern in re~;ard to the
s~tisfaction of tl~e needs of tl~e national economy (and, of course, of demand o� the
population as a most im~~ortant constituent part of requirements) on the basis of the
~~roduct mix fixed f.or eacli miciistry. At the same time, such a responsibility is pro-
vtded by existing situations concerning the ministries. In the connection head
n~ini;;tries cleterndne~l wtiic?i arc responsible for delivery of goods produced at the
enterprises of several ministries.
In tl~c 1l.~f~t o� tliis, it would ap~~ear to be timely to proceed n~t along the path of
c~xcessive expunsion of the s�rou~~ of tar~;ets centrally established for the production of
individual goods but rather along the path of real increase of reaponsibility of min-
istries (includinr liead ministries) for the very important duties imposed on them.
At tk?e sacne time, it is contemrlatecl that ~lanning orpans, in shoc�~ing preference for
tl~e production of goods for ttie population, especially those of mass demand, provide
f.or t}ie allocation of raw and otlier materials, components, resources f~r the crea-
_ tion of production caPacities for tlie corres~~onding ministries with the intention
of satisfyinr ~ustif.iel trade requisitions (within the framework of annual or five-
year plans) for the delivery of the correspondin~ Roods. The assorCment in detail
should be determined in annual economic contracts and in five-year a~reements be-
tween trade and industry.
COPIRICiiT: Izdatel'sCvo "Pravda", "Voprosy ekonomiki", 1981
7697
(.50 : 1t327/3I ENll
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