MADISON, Wis. — Owners of an Eastern European grocery store in Madison said they’re supporting their Ukrainian and Russian customers.
Russian Intermarket is on Madison’s west side, on the ground floor of an apartment building. Ekaterina and Alexey Pronina opened the shop 12 years ago.
“We have food from all over eastern Europe,” said Ekaterina Pronina. “Georgian, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Lithuanian.”
The opened the store after having to travel to Milwaukee or Chicago to find the products they loved from their native Russia. More than a decade later, they’ve cultivated a clientele looking for those comforts from their home nations.
“We have a big community of immigrants here from all over,” Ekaterina Pronina said.
Many of those customers are from Russia; some are from Ukraine.
“They have relatives there. They have families there on both sides,” Ekaterina Pronina said. “Their day starts with calling relatives, like searching through the phone, [asking,] ‘What’s going on?”’
With war in Ukraine, plus sanctions on Russia and Russian goods, some of these products may be tougher to find in the future. For now though, the Proninas said they’ll be just fine. Many importers and distributors are prepared for shortages now.
“Especially after these hard times for the last two years, they are pretty prepared not to be like out of stock for something,” Ekaterina Pronina said. “They’re kind of stocking ahead of time. I guess they have a big stock right now, for a while, but it’s not gonna not gonna be enough for sure. So I don’t know what to expect.”
They may start to feel the impact at some point, just not yet.
That means for now, their main goal is supporting their customers. Throughout the pandemic, they delivered for free to elderly clients who wanted those tastes of home. Now, the Proninas are asking about their family members every time they see them.
“My heart stays with them all the time, with Russians, with Ukrainians. I’m against any war, no matter where it is,” Ekaterina Pronina said. “We all live here … they became a part of our family.”
