Shopping center CUP is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is the oldest operating shopping center in Lithuania. On the occasion of the birthday, CUP shared a 50-year-old LRT report on social networks, where we can see how in 1974 it seemed like the first days of the CUP.
In the LRT report, we can see how the shopping center, which is familiar to everyone today, looked like before. It is more like a market or a grocery store because all the goods are arranged in rows of shelves. At that time, it was a completely new and unprecedented way of selling and arranging goods in Lithuania.
Then the goods were arranged according to their purpose (similar to what is done in grocery stores today). Then a wide range of goods was presented to residents: haberdashery, knitwear, clothes for men and women were placed separately.
It was then that the first self-services were introduced. Today, we are used to paying for goods at a self-service checkout, where we ourselves scan the goods and pay for them. Back then, the innovation was that you could put the goods in the basket yourself. This is what was called self-service.
Today, CUP has changed beyond recognition. It has separate and well-known shops. The shopping center has been renovated several times and does not resemble shots from the past. However, there are still people who visited CUP in the first days of its opening and can compare how the shopping center has changed over the years.
