In 1993 (and for much of the first few years after the democratic revolution) food was scarce. Much of it was rationed - you needed ration cards to buy bread, and various other products. Butter was not really available in Ulaanbaatar when I arrived in February, 1993, until the US donated butter to the Mongolian government. I recall having more than a few butter sandwiches once it did reappear.
The shop in this photo actually looks better stocked than it actually was. This particular corner sold bread and rice, as I recall. You needed to bring your own bags for the rice back then. For the overwhelming majority of goods, there were no brands or choices. It was "bread" or "rice" or "rotten onions." There were a few items in tins, if you were lucky, from Russia. A friend swore I wrote her a two page letter when I first found pickles in a store in 1993. I don't remember it, but it wouldn't be impossible, given how scarce green foods were.
The shopping was an interesting process. First you'd go in and see what was actually there. (Woe unto the person who bothered a shop assistant to ask. You were told "can't you see?," or "Does it look like we have rice?" or something else wonderfully helpful.) Then you went over to the cashier, located in the middle of the floor. She (always a woman) would take your money, adding up the total on an abacus. The cash register was just to hold the money and print the receipt. You then took the receipt back to the counter and tried to get someone to take it and give you what you had bought.