It looks like a basketball net, but in fact, it’s a bag, widely used by Russian shoppers (both women and men) since the 1930s.
The string bag scrunches up into something that fits into your palm, and is easily put in a handbag or briefcase when you leave for work. When you later go to shop, you have a robust, capacious grocery bag.
The Avoska bag dates back to 1935 and the word avos means ‘maybe’ or ‘perhaps’ in Russian. At that time in the USSR, many goods were scarce so the sentiment was apt. People carried the string bags everywhere in the hope of being able to use them to scoop up large quantities of products that, with luck, they might come across being sold. The popular Russian comedian, Akrady Raikin used to joke about his ‘maybe’ bag… “Here’s my maybe-bag. Maybe I’ll get something into it.”
In the 1970s Soviet consumers spent hundreds of hours of their lives waiting in line to buy goods. They were well versed in ‘impulse’ buying, in that if they saw a queue forming, it was standard procedure to join it and only then enquire about what was being sold. The uncertainty of what goods would be available, when and where, instilled in people an instinct to stockpile. This is where the Avoska bag was so useful. When goods suddenly appeared in a shop or a market, the expanding string bag enabled the shopper to stock up in bulk at a moment’s notice.
Contribution to Retail History
The Avoska bag was a major cultural phenomenon of everyday Soviet life, symbolizing the ongoing struggle of sourcing and purchasing everyday consumer goods. In recent years, the principle of the Avoska bag has begun to be applied in the West but it is prompted by a different concern – shoppers have begun to carry ‘fold away’ shopping bags with them to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags.