I’m about to drop off the edge of the Internet for a while again, on a three day trip from Ulan Ude to Vladivostok. Before I go though, I leave you with a mystery.
A long time ago, when I was in Moscow, I spotted a granny on the Metro, carrying her groceries in a familiar-looking bag. Closer inspection revealed that it was indeed a Dunnes Stores “Bag for Life”. Weird, I thought, and kept on about my business.
Except that I’ve seen them a few times since then, all across Russia. The one in my possession, pictured above, came from a Russian tour guide, who said that her company had handed them out to its staff.
So just why are Dunnes Stores bags so popular behind the former Iron Curtain? Do they have prized aesthetic or structural qualities? Do their owners dream of coming to Ireland and shopping under the hallowed green banner one day? Or did Dunnes just make far too many of the things and flog them off to foreign markets to recoup some cash?
Answers on a postcard please. (Don’t send them anywhere, just write them on a postcard.)
The Clarity of Now 
Maybe dunnes going to open stores across Russia!! flogging bags to gauge interest!!
Hmm. Perhaps I should have got a job with them as a pathfinder…
>Or did Dunnes just make far too many of the things and flog them off to foreign markets to >recoup some cash?
This. They’ve been widely sold at the local markets in the 200-s period, now they are kinda rare though.
Good to know. Still a bit weird though.
I am wondering exactly the same thing. Currently seeing them everywhere in Samara and in Moscow too… Trying to trace the trail to an actual shop to stock up on cheap tights and useless homewares.
I still have one I was given on the Trans-Siberian. A very weird souvenir from a far corner of the world.
Carefully eyeing my collection of Centra bags – their value is due to skyrocket in the next few years when they open to the Zimbabwean market…