If you wanted to get foreign goods not accessible in Czechoslovakia during the socialist era, the one place to go was Tuzex. If you had the right currency, that is.
Before the Velvet Revolution, many things that we take for granted today were not accessible. Those really lucky ones had an auntie or uncle in the west who used to come to visit and brought valuable gifts. And all the rest could find some of these things in Tuzex. From fancy chewing gum through orthopedic shoes, from make-up through electronics. However it wasn’t as easy as just going to the store and buying what you desired…
“Tuzex” stands for tuzemský export (national export) and it was a chain of shops established in 1957 where you could buy foreign goods for valuty “foreign cash” or bony/tuzexové poukázky (Tuzex vouchers). Before Tuzex, there were shops called Darex (dárkový export – gift export) and you could find this kind of specialized shops in other communist countries as well. The aim of the existence of these shops was to get the foreign currency from the population. A person who earned their living getting and selling foreign currency was called vekslák (from the German word der Wechsel – exchange). This kind of business was illegal but worth it for some as these people could earn up to 10 times the average salary.
The merchandize one could get in Tuzex was literally of all kind – food, cosmetics, electronics, clothes (for example, jean brands like Levi Strauss or Wrangler) and all these had one common denominator – they were western products one couldn’t find in usual stores. The cool kids were walking around with walkmans, ladies from “better” society sure had a pair of Italian boots and even cars could be purchased here.
Interesting fact: the first payment cards in Czechoslovakia were issued for Tuzex accounts to enable cashless payments.
References to Tuzex can be found in many Czechoslovak movies. The 1988 movie Bony a klid (Bony and quiet) tells the story of a young man who becomes a vekslák.
How will you pay for it? A computer means valuty. And do you have them? You have shit.
- from the movie Slunce, seno, erotika (Sun, Hay, Erotics)
Tuzex shops existed until the beginning of the 1990s.
