More on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka We had something similar here (former Czechoslovakia, Tuzex shops)

More on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryozka We had something similar here (former Czechoslovakia, Tuzex shops) and probably in most of the other socialist countries (eg. Poland, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pewex). The only way to pay in these stores was to use special cheques. These were obtainable only in exchange for "western money", typically US Dollars, British Pounds, or German Marks. And of course, there was a black market for them, with prices going as much as five times their nominal value (80s in Czechoslovakia, don't know about Poland and others, but I imagine it was quite similar).