Boris Goes to the Grocery Store

In 1989, the soon-to-be first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, went to an American supermarket in Houston, Texas. And it changed his life forever. ______________________________________________ Here’s a snippet from Yeltsin’s autobiography (Against the Grain) for reference: “A great deal has been written about my trip to America, both there and in the Soviet Union, so I doubt whether it is worth dwelling on the overall results of the journey. I met with many interesting people, from President Bush to ordinary Americans on the streets of those eleven cities. No doubt it will sound banal, but what surprised me most were precisely those ordinary people in America, who radiated optimism and faith in themselves and in their country. There were, of course, shattering experiences of another sort -- the supermarkets, for example. 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 sic