Old People With Bags (without hopes?)

I wondered why there were a lot of old people (mainly women) carrying multiple plastic bags all the time. A local friend told me that it is a habit coming from the gloomy days of USSR when people had to wait for endless queues for even basic commodities and barter had replaced the banknotes. People would be carrying extra bags for carrying the things they have got from a nearby queue and were ready to swap with anything of value. I have also noticed that these bags are now full of cans and empty beer bottles...what an ironical end for the everglorious communism.