Until a few weeks ago, the only queues you’d see on Moscow’s central Gagarin Square were of well-heeled young Russians waiting to get into glitzy clubs or trendy eateries.
Things are different now.
With Western sanctions driving out hundreds of major international companies, there’s a sense of desperation in the air.
In the upmarket Gagarinskiy shopping mall nearby, there has been a dash for everything from fast food to imported clothing before shops are shuttered up for good - or their rapidly depreciating roubles can no longer buy them.
And even in the supermarkets, shelves have been stripped of essentials like pasta and rice, as locals fear shortages and rationing could soon be on the cards.
“They don’t have anything I need,” said one anxious resident, who had called into the Auchan supermarket on her way home from work.
“And everything that’s left is really overpriced.”
With the ruble halving in value over the past fortnight Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the bill for families’ weekly shop has skyrocketed.
Darina, an interpreter living in the Russian capital, told me that she was struggling to afford to feed her pet after costs virtually doubled overnight.
She said: “It was 600 rubles yesterday online, now it’s 1,100 - they’re raising the prices every minute.
"Now my cat is eating more expensive food than I am."
Videos shared online of people stockpiling essentials have added to the sense of panic here.
In one, a man in the city of Nizhny Novgorod can be seen filling the boot of his car with hundreds of bags of sugar.
“Whether he was trying to play it safe or turn a profit is unknown,” one state media network observed disapprovingly.
Shoppers have also been sweeping up items that just a few weeks ago it would have been unthinkable to do without, like bottles of Coca-Cola.
Moscow-based IT expert Ilya said: “Even in the Soviet Union, they had Coke. Soon no Western brands will be left.
"You don’t notice how important these things are until you can’t get them anymore.”
Meanwhile, Moscovites have descended on McDonald’s restaurants this weekend, knowing all 850 branches of the chain will be shuttered indefinitely from Monday morning.
Irina, a worker at McDonald’s in Moscow’s Yerevan Plaza said. “It’s been ridiculously busy here.
"We haven’t been told anything by the manager, but people are saying we’ll be sent home on full pay for now.”
Nika, a 24-year old trainee government official, said she had come down to get a meal before her local branch closes. “I’m going to miss getting a burger and fries - but I’m trying to enjoy the small things while they last.
"I don’t understand why all these companies are abandoning us - does our money not matter anymore?”
Pictures shared on Telegram, one of the few social sites not yet being blocked, show people stocking their fridges with McDonald’s burgers and taking home piles of cheese sauce - a special menu item only available in Russia.
Other brands, including Starbucks and Burger King, have also said they will cease trading in the country in response to Western sanctions.
Vyacheslav, a student working part-time at KFC in Moscow told me: “Right now we’re just waiting but people are worried about losing their jobs.
"People have families, they need to pay taxes.
"It’s not fair that ordinary Russians are being punished for this when it’s not our fault - I need to work too.”
The southern fried chicken shop announced it will close its doors last week.
Masha, a 25-year old office worker in the Russian capital says she and many of her friends are doing what they can to move abroad.
She said: " Netflix and Spotify aren’t working, protesters are being arrested in the street and they’re saying soon we won’t even be able to buy Coke Zero.
"I guess I should get as much as I can now.”
For others, however, the squeeze of sanctions has put them on the defensive.
It’s common to see the pro-war ‘Z’ logo painted on cars, trucks and buses, or emblazoned on people’s T-shirts.
Last week the chairman of a cancer charity in the city of Tazan got a group of terminally-ill children and their mothers to line up in a giant ‘Z’ in the snow, proudly posting the drone photo on the hospice’s website.
At the weekend two slickly produced videos also appeared on social media channels of hundreds of flat-waving Russians, all wearing identical black sweatshirts emblazoned with a white ‘Z’.
And not everyone is complaining about the Western exodus from Russia. Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal Chechen warlord who has been charged with conquering Kyiv for the Kremlin, wrote: “Look, the news is getting better and better every day.
"Gone is the domination of the market by American body-destroying booze and convenience foods from McDonald’s, catering for people who want to make themselves obese.
“I have always called for people to buy our organic food and eat right.”
