Seventh-Kilometer Market
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The Seventh-Kilometer Market (russian: Промрынок 7ой километр, ''Promrynok 7oi Kilometr''; uk, Ринок «Сьомий кілометр», ''Rynok Syomyi Kilometr''), informally known as ''Tolchok'' Толчок, or ''Tolkuchka'' толкучка ( Russian for shove, shoving), is an outdoor market outside of
Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...
.


Description

Originally, in the 1960s and 1970s, it was open only on Sundays (later on Saturdays) in Slobodka (Слободка), near the 3rd Jewish cemetery (3-e еврейскоe кладбищe) on Chemistry Street (ул. Химическая), at the time a small walled-in area of 150 m wide and 250 m long, hence totally inadequate for a market and where an association with shoving originated. The new version was founded in 1989 during
Perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
reforms; it is now possibly the largest market in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. When founded as an Odessa
flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal ...
in the 1960s, the market was officially restricted to selling used items only, but entry was charged to anyone entering with anything held in their hands because new items would be sold by traders from their hands ('с рук') walking the market as opposed to used goods sold off the ground displays. The market was open until 3–4 pm, but owing to the difficulty in reaching it, which until 1966 involved a 2 km walk from the nearest tram (No. 15) stop; it was paramount to reach the market very early in the morning as all worthwhile goods were sold by 10–11 am.Из воспоминаний об Одессе – 5
/ref> When relocated in 1989, it was to an area outside the city's limits at the seventh kilometer of the Odessa– Ovidiopol highway, thus acquiring its name. As of 2006, the market covered 170 acres (0.69 km²) and consists largely of steel
shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...
s, which rent for up to US$6,000 (EUR 4,700) or more per month, as well as an increasing number of ordinary shops in buildings. It has roughly 6,000 traders and an estimated 150,000 customers per day. Daily sales, according to the Ukrainian periodical '' Zerkalo Nedeli'', were believed to be as high as US$20 million in 2004. With a staff of 1,200 (mostly guards and janitors), the market is also the region's largest employer. It is owned by local land and agriculture tycoon Viktor A. Dobriansky and three partners of his. The independent traders on the market sell goods in all price ranges, from authentic merchandise to all sorts of cheap Asian consumer goods, including many
counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...
Western luxury goods. According to the impressions of S. L. Myers of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' who visited the market in 2006, :"the market is part third-world
bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in t ...
, part post-Soviet
Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
, a place of unadulterated and largely unregulated
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
where certain questions — about
salaries A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...
, rents, taxes or last names — are generally met with suspicion." Zerkalo Nedeli wrote in 2004 that :"it is a state within a state, with its own laws and rules. It has become a
sinecure A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval ch ...
for the rich and a trade haven for the poor." However, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko announced in 2005 that he intended to enforce tax laws on the market's thriving shadow economy.


See also

* Shipping container architecture


References

*


External links

* Information and pictures of Seventh-Kilometer Market * Most representative catalogue of goods on Seventh-Kilometer Market. Varied stock, more than 2 000 categories, about 30 0000 units. Sections of the site is constantly replenished *{{cite news , author = , url =https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/world/europe/18iht-journal.html?pagewanted=all , title =Ukrainian 'mall' not for the dainty , work =www.nytimes.com , publisher = , accessdate =2011-01-12 , date=2006-05-18 Article published by
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
in 2006 Retailing in Ukraine Retail markets in Ukraine Bazaars Buildings and structures in Odesa Flea markets