ABSTRACT
Supplying Prague with food was always an issue of particular importance for the functioning of the entire country. In 1955, Prague represented 10.7 per cent of total food sales in the Czechoslovakia, and more so for some commodities: for instance more than 25 per cent of coffee, nearly 30 per cent of poultry, and 19 per cent of total sales of fruit. Prague played a major part in the introduction of new forms of retail sales. This corresponded with the density of its shopping network, as well as with its role as a focus for consumers from other parts of the country. The preference given to working-class neighbourhoods was most prominently manifested during the introduction of supermarkets, which appeared in Czechoslovakia in 1955. The first opened in the Prague proletarian quarter of ikov, on Hussite Street. A central shopping centre was established within the Golden Cross, on Na Pkop street.
