I grew up in 80s Czechoslovakia. I do not remember empty shelves like those in the article but other then that yes. Oranges on Christmas. Fewer things in genera

I grew up in 80s Czechoslovakia. I do not remember empty shelves like those in the article but other then that yes. Oranges on Christmas. Fewer things in general - shops were smaller. You had to stand in line for several days if you wanted to buy a car (Škoda). You had no idea what color it would be once it was your turn. Most groceries we had was homemade especially meat and vegetables. You could buy some stuff from west but from specific shop [0]. You had to have special currency for this that could be obtained on black market. People are now used to have anything on demand. But they are also used to shitty things like tasteless tomatoes (in case of supermarkets not only during winter). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzex