Better quality Russian gastronoms and the opening of new Western-style supermarkets are proving a boon to Moscow consumers who have enjoyed surprisingly stable grocery prices over the last year, a Moscow Times survey of the city's markets shows.


"I think things are much less expensive than they were," said Gala Covington, a Kentucky woman shopping Monday for her family of four at the Lux supermarket. "There's more competition ... It's capitalism at work."


Still, the survey, conducted Monday and Tuesday, shows that some shoppers think prices are too high.


Prices on some goods -- like butter and spaghetti -- have risen by up to 129 percent at certain stores compared to a similar survey conducted in July 1993. But other items have changed only slightly. Orange juice and mineral water for example, showed little shift in prices.


Shoppers and store managers said one factor in controlling prices is the growing attractiveness of some Russian gastronoms. They lack the selection and sometimes quality of their Western-style counterparts but are almost always less expensive. The recently-renovated Novoarbatsky gastronom has consistently lower prices, as does the Cheryomushkinsky rynok off Leninsky Prospekt. Take, for example, the $1.60 price per kilogram of butter at Cheryomushkinsky versus a $2.25 price tag at the Irish House.


Harri Saarto, the manager of the Stockmann supermarket, said he has lowered prices on some goods including certain fruits and vegetables in response to lower prices offered by Russian retailers.


The drawback, of course, to shopping in gastronoms and rynoks is the time it often takes and the gaps in selection.


"You'd have to go to 10 places to get everything you need," said Shauni Houghton, a Garden Ring shopper, of Russian stores. "We haven't got the time." Another shopper said of his experience, "I haven't cried, but I have cursed like a longshoreman."


There are gaps, too, in Western-oriented stores like M. Leader, Roditi and MegaInter, none of which had flour in stock when they were surveyed Monday. The commercial director of the Russian-Italian M. Leader, Andrei Popkov, said items like flour and sugar are sometimes difficult to import and have to be found locally.


While the improvement of Russian stores is certainly stiffening competition, another big factor in consumers' improving situation is the opening of Western-style stores like Progress, Unikor and Roditi. The new stores tend to be less cramped and generally more inviting than some of Moscow's first generation of hard currency stores.


"The time has come to show the real prices of imported products," said Majeed Marhoum, director of Progress, which opened this year in what was a three-story bookstore on the Garden Ring Road. "It is better to have lower prices and attract more people than to have high prices."


Of the stores surveyed, special promotions and sales were unusual, but several stores -- Progress, Irish House and Olimpic -- offered discounts. The Irish House gives diplomats an 11.7 percent discount on food items. At Progress, customers who make five purchases of at least $100 or 10 purchases of at least $60 receive a card which entitles them to 10 percent off subsequent food bills. At Olimpic, customers who buy $500 worth of items within a year's time receive a five percent discount on subsequent purchases.


A fourth store, Stockmann, is perhaps the most aggressive in its promotion of special prices and products. Periodically, the store prints 50,000 circulars touting its goods.


Despite the increase in competition, one of the grandfathers of Moscow's Western-style stores, Garden Ring, has not suffered in the volume of business, according to manager Tony Byrne. "We're busier now than we ever were," said Byrne, who estimated the store's Russian clientele has increased to about 70 percent.


Still, for those insisting on the range, convenience and quality to which Westerners are accustomed, prices are still high enough to provoke strong reactions, especially from recent arrivals.


Ellen Barry, Sophia Coudenhove and Cynthia Redecker contributed to this report.