The sale of 12 Samsung automatic washing machines for $ 388 raised quite a stir this Wednesday in the vicinity of the La Habana store in the city of Sancti Spíritus. Everything ended with the arrest of two women and a blackout, which forced the suspension of transactions at the cash register.
“The shingle parakeet that was put together was terrible. There were two queues, I was in the one that was formed for normal products and the other was to buy the washing machines, “explains Esperanza, a woman from Spiritus who for months has had a few” reserve “dollars in her account in freely convertible currency (MLC). .
“A pineapple tremendously “and quickly the queue” was filled with policemen “but the agents preferred” not to get into the fight and stood to one side to wait for the women to finish beating themselves. “
“One of the police officers initially said: ‘We are going to leave them, no one is going to stab me like the one in Havana,'” says the woman from Spiritus. The uniformed woman mentioned the police officer who was wounded with a knife and kidnapped by a man for several hours last Tuesday. “Once the discussion calmed down a bit, the women were arrested and taken away,” he sums up.
“The ‘shingle parakeet’ that was put together was terrible. There were two queues, I was in the one that was formed for normal products and the other was to buy the washing machines”
Esperanza’s bad time, he assures, only had its beginning with the fight. Already within the trade he lived the stamp of the day of the Cuban. If he felt sorry to see two women “hitting each other” by a washing machine, he was more frustrated when he entered the establishment and found it “so out of stock,” he says.
“I went through this store to see what I could find to eat, what appeared, but there was no na ‘“He complains.” The only thing they sold was a few pieces of beef at 45 dollars and that fortune was not going to be spent, “he said, confirming that in the black market of the city” it appears “at 70 pesos per pound of this type of meat.
Esperanza looked the shelves up and down, over and over again, and decided to buy two cans of anchovy-stuffed olives for $ 1.80 each. He had to spend 40 minutes in line due to the lack of connection with banks that did not approve magnetic card payments. And just when his turn came, he again stumbled upon the harsh reality of the Cuban: “The power went out. You know!”
It was “armed tremendous runs between the shop assistants”, who informed the clients that they had to leave. ‘Until the power comes we cannot continue selling, there is very little oil left [diésel] in the generator set and you can’t sustain the electrical power in the store, ‘said one of the state employees.
Finally his card was accepted by the bank reader and he was able to buy “from chiripazo“says Esperanza with relief.
Little supply, very long queues and a collateral business of resellers mark the days in foreign exchange stores, the most criticized in the country and, however, the only ones that still, given the severe economic crisis that the Island is going through, have more than a dozen of products on their shelves.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
