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Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close Image 2 of 13 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall's nodding his head in amazement. less 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 3 of 13 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall's nodding his head in amazement. less 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 4 of 13 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall's nodding his head in amazement. less 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 5 of 13 Image 6 of 13 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the frozen food selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall's nodding his head in amazement. less 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 7 of 13 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. At the check-out counter, an employee showed the Soviet politician how a computer scans each item and totals the bill automatically. less 09/16/1989 - Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall's Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. At the check-out counter, an employee ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 8 of 13 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space station. less 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 9 of 13 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space station. As he toured the space station mock-up, Yeltsin asked Clark Covington, NASA's technical assistant director, detailed, technical questions about materials used to construct space shuttles and auxiliary equipment. Yeltsin has an engineering background, his translator said. less 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 10 of 13 Image 11 of 13 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space station. As he toured the space station mock-up, Yeltsin asked Clark Covington, NASA's technical assistant director, detailed, technical questions about materials used to construct space shuttles and auxiliary equipment. Yeltsin has an engineering background, his translator said. less 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 12 of 13 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space station. less 09/16/1989 - On a last-minute stopover in Houston, Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions were treated to a private Johnson Space Center tour of mission control and a mock-up of the planned space ... more Photo: © Houston Chronicle Image 13 of 13 When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake 1 / 13 Back to Gallery
A post earlier this year on Houston’s Reddit that mentioned late Russian president Boris Yeltsin’s wide-eyed trip to a Clear Lake grocery store led to a trip to the Houston Chronicle archives, where a batch of photos of the leader were found.
It was September 16, 1989 and Yeltsin, then newly elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet, had just visited Johnson Space Center.
At JSC, Yeltsin visited mission control and a mock-up of a space station. According to Houston Chronicle reporter Stefanie Asin, it wasn’t all the screens, dials, and wonder at NASA that blew up his skirt, it was the unscheduled trip inside a nearby Randall’s location.
Yeltsin, then 58, “roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,” wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, “there would be a revolution.”
Shoppers and employees stopped him to shake his hand and say hello. In 1989, not everyone was carrying a phone and camera in their pocket so Yeltsin “selfies” weren’t a thing yet.
Yeltsin asked customers about what they were buying and how much it cost, later asking the store manager if one needed a special education to manage a store. In the Chronicle photos, you can see him marveling at the produce section, the fresh fish market, and the checkout counter. He looked especially excited about frozen pudding pops.
“Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice. Not even Mr. Gorbachev,” he said.
The fact that stores like these were on nearly every street corner in America amazed him. They even offered free cheese samples. According to Asin, Yeltsin didn’t leave empty-handed, as he was given a small bag of goodies to enjoy on his trip.
About a year after the Russian leader left office, a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that on the plane ride to Yeltsin’s next destination, Miami, he was despondent. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia.
In Yeltsin’s own autobiography, he wrote about the experience at Randall’s, which shattered his view of communism, according to pundits. Two years later, he left the Communist Party and began making reforms to turn the economic tide in Russia. You can blame those frozen Jell-O Pudding pops.
“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,” Yeltsin wrote. “That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”
Yeltsin died in 2007 at the age of 76. The Randall’s he visited, just off El Dorado Boulevard and Highway 3, is now a Food Town location.
Grumpy_Fella on July 17th, 2018 at 13:32 UTC »
The link is blocked in my region for legal reasons? Well, that's interesting.
TooShiftyForYou on July 17th, 2018 at 12:58 UTC »
Yeltsin, then 58, “roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,” wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, “there would be a revolution.”
You can get fresh food, the hottest electronics, a new firearm and your oil changed all at the same building. That's America, Boris.
getgregster on July 17th, 2018 at 11:58 UTC »
Years ago(1994 or 95) my mother's aunt visited Canada for the first time. She lived a small village in a Belarus.. We took her to one of the large grocery store chains here in Montreal.. When she entered she started to cry saying "I have never seen so much food in my life" then started asking if it was a government store for government employees or for tourists... We said no, it's for everyone and these stores are all over. Actually my mom and dad said that as I don't really speak Russian.
She was really taken back by the sheer amount of produce available but didn't like the precut and packaged meats/fish/poultry.
Sadly once she started calling or writing back home the requests for specific goods from her family started coming in.. I recall it was Reebok and Nike shoes, Levi Jean, CK underwear etc.
Edit: I called my dad and asked what else was popular. He said school supplies, loose leaf paper, pens, Sharpie markers oddly. Also went on to mention perfume/colognes, specific toothpaste. He also said lots of these goods were traded around Vs being sold. So you would trade a pair of jeans for I guess a cow ?