"Recruiters do the same thing that salesmen of high-priced products do," he added.

Vendors swished into Moscow this past weekend, setting up elaborate booths offering a range of high-priced products, from jets and yachts to private islands and more familiar luxury goods.

"The whole spectrum of domestic demand is being filled with imports substituting for high-priced domestic products."

Even industry leaders acknowledge that the newest, high-priced products may be a tough sell.

Before exclusionary "target" marketing, the store had attracted many customers who were far too intimidated by imported goods and who were not really in the market for such high-priced products.

But in other cases the high-priced products offer only slight advantages.

Critics say the performance of his company, Next Inc., has improved since it introduced a slow, high-priced product - the black cube - in the same hall two years ago.

In a business that has shown itself hardly averse to high-priced financial products, some brokerage houses are refusing to sell the new products.

He was also expected to push other high-priced financial products, like extended service warranties and credit insurance policies that would pay off consumers' car loans if they died, he recalled.

The two companies offer identical pricing structures, though each says it occasionally has commission discounts on very high-priced products.