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MOSCOW’S FABLED GUM STORE REGAINS ITS MAGNIFICENCE

Nothing tells the volatile history of Russian retailing better than GUM, the fabled department store that fills the eastern side of Moscow’s Red Square. Opened in 1893, it was the swankiest place to shop in all of the czar’s Russia. It was nationalized after the communist revolution in 1917 and then turned into a dreary government office building. Not until 1953 did the magnificent GUM building house retail space again, this time as a showplace for the Soviet state’s ability to produce consumer goods — however shoddy they might have been.

Now the Moscow GUM has come full circle. Majority ownership of the company, which also runs additional GUM stores throughout Russia, was sold last year to a luxury Russian boutique chain, Bosco di Ciliegi. The latter chain operates 46 stores in the country and is the exclusive Russian distributor of such upscale foreign brands as Kenzo, MaxMara and Nina Ricci. The price is reported to have been upwards of $100 million — a record for Moscow retail real estate.

The Moscow GUM (the name, pronounced “goom,” stands for state department store in Russian) has long been Russia’s best-known and most popular shopping destination. In reality, it is more mall than department store. Its recently renovated arcades are topped by vaulted skylights and hold some 150 stores and kiosks — far fewer than the 1,200 tenants of the czar’s day, but a good offering of luxury and everyday apparel and goods nonetheless.

Bosco di Ciliegi bought 50.25 percent of the company from Perekryostok, a fast-growing operator of supermarkets throughout Russia. The company says its first move will be to open a ground-floor supermarket at GUM.

— CH