The paper concerns metaphorical representations of the image of Moscow in Osip Mandelstam's and Marina Tsvetayeva's poetry and prose where themes of open market bargaining play a significant role. Mandelstam's negative view on Tsvetayeva's poetry collection "Milestones. Vol. 1" is driven by his desire to distance himself from the chaotic and frightening city personified in Tsvetayva's poetic persona. We analyse closely (in the context of Baudelaire's poem "Le Vin des Chiffonniers") Mandelstam's essay "Sukharevka" in which the poet interprets this space as a precedent ("a market in the midst of the city"), and the bargaining itself is presented as a permanent violence. While Mandelstam's narrative voice is frightened by teh crowded Russian fair, Tsvetayeva's lyrical self immerses in the crowd and makes poetry, her only goods, a subject of commerce. Tsvetayeva's poetic space is universalized, but the imagery that is important in the poetics of the book "Milestones. Vol. 1" localized in the space of the Sukharevsky market.