“The stores in MLC may disappear, no one will miss them”

SANTA CLARA, Cuba. – Four years ago, just when a curfew had been decreed in Villa Clara due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, a group of resellers used to hide in the bushes of the Sandino Stadium to mark the morning shift in the stores in Freely Convertible Currency (MLC). The coleros spent the night and woke up there, buying as soon as the sale began to leave loaded with boxes of beer, packages of sausage, cans of tomato puree and all the products in short supply after the “disappearance” of the CUC.

By then, Cubans had stopped trusting the promise that the foreign currency collected with the new shopping malls They would be destined to supply the stores in national currency, precisely because each of the stores of the Caribe Chain and the Cimex Corporation began to sell in foreign currency deposited on cards and mostly maintained from abroad. It was clear that they had come to stay, but those long lines of entire blocks for which appointments had to be made days in advance, went down in history as another chapter of the “reordering.”

In the middle of the city’s boulevard, the Praga store was one of the first establishments of its kind to be sold on MLC. At first there were a variety of meats whose prices fluctuated depending on weight. Also, sporadically, the establishment was supplied with eggs, butter and sausages. However, now their shelves leave much to be desired: some packages of grains, long and short pastas and canned goods that are extremely expensive for the low weight they contain, which are arranged continuously on the shelves as if simulating a large assortment.

“Compared to years ago, not even 80% of the people who came daily pass through here,” he confirms. off the record a cashier at this establishment. “I remember that we ended up super tired because the boxes were not emptied, and it got worse when high-demand merchandise such as chicken, detergent or canned soda came in.”

As for the clothing section, another saleswoman at El Billarista, a nearby store also in MLC, comments that there are clothes and shoes there that will surely have to change the price because they have been on the shelves for some time and have very little sale. .

“At Único I bought some flip-flops that after a month were all peeled off and split at the bottom,” describes Denet Álvarez, a customer affected by the “slow-moving” merchandise. “Many times the shoes look very nice, but they can’t last even five wears, and the worst thing is that when the warranty week passes, there is no valid claim.”

Apart from the fact that the stores in MLC are devoid of a variety of food and basic necessities, many people who receive remittances from abroad prefer to sell the currency and buy in small private markets in national currency. “Selling 20 is more than 5,000 pesos that they give me for a carton of eggs and a few other things,” calculates Eloísa Quintero, a customer at the El Encanto store. “I think the euphoria was at the beginning, when we had no choice but to come here, but on the street you already find cheaper things.”

In the Minimax Sandino, for example, the price of a package of beans is equivalent to more than 600 pesos at the informal exchange rate and four liters of ice cream cost close to 3,000. Meanwhile, the markets for imported products, although they are not very cheap either, have at least met the demand for food in Cuban pesos for those who do not receive any financial help from their relatives abroad.

Although the MLC stores are already rarely visited, the virtual currency continues to be sold clandestinely and currently exceeds 285 pesos in the informal market. A foreign currency seller who operates near Parque Vidal summarizes that many people buy it to “do business,” especially with Havana Club rum and Cristal or Bucanero brand beers.

Follow our channel WhatsApp. Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through Telegram.