ABSTRACT
The attempt to modernize the Soviet retail trade network is hampered by inadequate amounts and poor quality of equipment provided to the sector: one source declares the trade branch to be the worst equipped of any branch of the economy. Like retail trade, the personal services sector has been the subject of several government decrees demanding better performance in this long-neglected area. This chapter considers trends in supplies of goods and services available to urban consumers. It looks at the provision of retail facilities in cities, considering their planning and organization, as well as levels and trends in availabilities in the USSR as a whole and in union republics and large cities. The largest role, evidently, is played by departments for trade and for personal services under the city soviets. According to one Soviet survey, private persons supplied nearly half of all personal and repair services in urban areas in the 1960s, but only 15 percent in 1971.
