Built in the late 1920s, this house was originally the residence of banker Dimitar Ivanov and his wife Nadezhda Stankovic. The interior features a striking red marble fireplace in the reception room, as well as a stage for musical performances and crystal-adorned interior doors.
The house has several bedrooms, elegant terraces, a spacious study and various utility rooms. Although the original furnishings have been lost, historical records indicate that the elite Sofia residents of the time preferred Central and Western European furniture.
The exterior of the property features a large front garden bordered by an ornate wrought iron fence. A large triple staircase leads to the main entrance, and the property is also characterized by carriage portals that flank the courtyard.
These portals are reminiscent of a bygone era where one can imagine a horse-drawn carriage driving into the courtyard, while the horses and carriage wait in a specially designated area behind the house until the end of the reception.
The Ivanov family enjoyed their residence until 1944, after which the estate was nationalized. At first it served as the Romanian embassy, later as the USSR’s trade mission in Bulgaria and as the headquarters of various communist organizations with unclear functions.
In the 1990s the house was returned to Ivanov’s heirs. In 2004 it was taken over by Valentin Zlatev, director of Lukoil. Despite this change of ownership, the property, which had fallen into disrepair for decades, remains neglected and abandoned, with no apparent connection to its cultural heritage.
Putting Profits Before Customers
Everybody has stood in front of a self-checkout system at a store and felt frustrated and overwhelmed. Although these devices were meant to make our lives easier, more often than not, they wind up creating new issues. There’s now even more justification to stay away from them.
Sylvain Charlebois, head of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, claims that retailers mainly installed self-checkout devices to save labor expenses, without taking into account the needs of the customer. Customers haven’t liked these machines since they first arrived, in actuality.
Self-checkout devices have been actively invested in by companies such as Walmart and Target, who can replace cashiers and save up to sixty-six percent on labor expenditures. But research indicates that these devices frequently break down, necessitating human intervention to guarantee a seamless checkout procedure.
But self-checkout kiosks have a darker side as well. To increase their revenues, some stores have allegedly falsely accused innocent consumers of stealing or shoplifting. These retailers target gullible consumers and make them pay for fictitious “crimes” they never committed by citing self-checkout faults as justification.
Carrie Jernigan, a criminal defense lawyer, recently used TikTok to alert users to the risks associated with using self-checkout kiosks. She makes it clear in her film that big-box stores like Walmart would do anything it takes to pursue customers who may have unintentionally left an item in their basket or failed to pay for it. Even if your “offense” was an honest mistake, these firms will even send out a team of attorneys to sue you.
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