ABSTRACT
This chapter explores cross-border shopping by middle-class Russian tourists visiting Finland from Russia. Two major types of shopping abroad have been distinguished such as shopping tourism and tourist shopping. Shopping tourism refers to trips outside one's place of residence, and their primary goal is the purchase of goods and services. Tourist shopping includes purchases of goods and services in the context of journeys whose primary purpose is not shopping. Scholars have demonstrated a special interest in cross-border shopping among tourists from the former socialist countries, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The term cross-border shopping refers to consumer practices related to the purchase of consumer goods outside one's place of residence. One can talk about internal cross-border shopping as well as external cross-border shopping. Both are of special interest to sociologists and anthropologists because they reveal the principles hidden behind local consumer practices in both the home country and the host.
