Che Guevara and another Dollar Store in Cienfuegos, Cuba
The Valenciana store, located on 37th Avenue, in Cienfuegos reopened last week with the new US Dollar payment method.
By Julio Cesar Contreras (14ymedio)
HAVANA TIMES – Unafraid of ideological contradictions, the stern visage of Che Guevara, “a knight without blemish or fear”—a verse from a poem dedicated to the guerrilla—crowns the building that houses the first dollar store in the city of Cienfuegos. The store, located on 37th Avenue, reopened last week with the new cash payment option, a transformation evident as soon as you look in its windows and see its shelves packed with products.
La Valenciana is now a place where los fulas [dollars] have swept away the previously freely convertible currency (MLC) with which commerce operated. Retaining the name of Agua y Jabón [Water and Soap] the Italian chain with more than fifty stores across the island, the establishment now displays a different image that goes beyond the increased variety and quantity of merchandise for sale.
“I was surprised to see so many lights on inside,” said Isabel, a nearby resident, speaking to 14ymedio this Tuesday. She was also surprised by the doorman’s friendliness. “He welcomed me with a smile and told me that payment could now be made in dollars.” A quick glance around the room, albeit with limited air conditioning, revealed shelves full of laundry detergent, dish soap, hair conditioner, shampoo, brooms, and all sorts of household cleaning products.
Sponges, air fresheners, mosquito spray, and toilet paper are also part of the offerings at this store, which is jointly managed by the state-owned Tiendas Caribe. “When this sold in MLC [moneda libremente convertible/freely convertible money], it was almost empty,” noted a young woman who was also surprised by the change inside the store. “There’s quite a variety of detergents, and they also have toilet bowl descaler, which I haven’t found here in Cienfuegos for a long time,” she summarized.
However, the young woman preferred to remain cautious and not let her enthusiasm run wild: “Now the question is whether they’ll be able to maintain the supply because, as we know, a new broom sweeps clean,” she concluded at the counter where an employee was checking out another customer. The man, who had bought a pack of toilet paper and a cleaning bucket, paid with a $20 bill. The change was returned: partly in US bills, and instead of coins, in candy, a widespread practice in other dollar-denominated markets that have opened across the country.
The difference with other stores in the city that continue to operate in hard currency or pesos extends beyond the variety of products. “I didn’t see any employees playing on their phones or leaning on the counters,” Isabel explained to this newspaper after leaving La Valenciana, where she ultimately settled on just a handle for her old broom and a box of hair dye, all for a little over $10.
At the entrance, a sign warns that, in addition to dollars in cash, Visa, Mastercard, the Russian Mir, and the Cuban AIS, Viajeros, and Clásica cards are accepted. These cards are issued by national banks and operate only in foreign currency. However, power outages can make electronic payments difficult in a city that has experienced consecutive blackouts of more than 20 hours a day so far this year in the weeks hardest hit by the energy shortage.
“I prefer to come with the dollars my daughter sends me,” summed up an elderly man who approached with “the exact amount” to buy some laundry soap. “I’m not in the mood to leave the change as a tip, nor am I interested in candy, because I wear prosthetics and don’t have grandchildren living here with me,” he concluded. The bill was exactly four dollars, which the customer paid in one-dollar bills.
Others prefer to receive the candy instead of the corresponding cents, or simply leave the difference as a tip for the employees. “At least this gives us a little money from time to time, because when we were in MLC, our pockets suffered the consequences. Listen, we didn’t get anything!” commented one employee who, a few months ago, was on the verge of being laid off, precisely because of the crisis that had gripped La Valenciana.
“I’m optimistic because when it comes to the dollar, everything improves,” he says. “It’s good for us until the power cuts off, because then customers have to pay only in cash and our opportunities to earn a little extra money increase,” he explains to this newspaper. “The most generous are the Cuban-Americans who come to visit and leave 40 cents here, a little there.”
While in other stores, the power outage is the golden excuse for halting sales, closing the doors, and canceling entry to the public, this isn’t the case at La Valenciana. Even during lunchtime, employees take turns to avoid interrupting service, and when the power goes out, instead of processing bills at the cash register, they write them down on a piece of paper.
As in those verses dedicated to Che Guevara, the face that welcomes customers on the rooftop of the dollar store, when the power goes out at La Valenciana, everyone continues working “en lo oscuro, señora, en lo oscuro” [in the dark, madam, in the dark].
Translated by Translating Cuba.