Cuban Military to Open US Dollar Stores in All Provinces
Instead of coins, customers who pay with cash must accept their change in the form of candy or “other products available by the cash registers”
HAVANA TIMES – The military conglomerate Gaesa plans to progressively expand trade in dollars to a large number of establishments in its network through Tiendas Caribe and Cimex, starting with the capitals of each of the 15 Cuban provinces. The decision was made as a result of the good results obtained by the recently opened 3rd and 70th supermarket, on the ground floor of the luxury hotel Gran Muthu Havana, which accepts payment only in dollars, both by card and in cash.
The spread of sales in US currency was the main idea transmitted to the population this Wednesday in State TV’s Round Table program, which brought together Mildrey Granadillo de la Torre, first deputy minister of Economy and Planning, along with several senior officials of the Central Bank of Cuba (BCC) and the two retail companies of the military conglomerate Gaesa involved in the titanic task of raising dollars quickly, an objective declared by the participants in the talk.
[Editor’s Note: Cubans do not earn US dollars and the only way to purchase them is on the illegal market as the government change houses lack availability. This makes having relatives and friends abroad the main source of obtaining USD. The problem is that most of the population does not receive USD from abroad. Likewise, most monthly pensions and many salaries are not enough, or barely enough, to buy even a carton of 30 eggs.]
According to Yamile Alvarez Tejo, head of the commercial department of Tiendas Caribe, sales at the new 3rd and 70th supermarket are going smoothly. “The revenues have been significant, with good acceptance of the variety of products, from the cheapest to the highest-end. The customers even appreciate the fact that the prices are favorable with respect to nearby markets and other markets in Cuba.” The director said they hope to attract staff – 90 workers to serve 3,000 people a day. “Per capita consumption is also quite high,” although customers showed less satisfaction with the method of payment.
“It has not gone as we would prefer,” she said, explaining that customers continue to show a preference for cash. “This creates operational stress and makes certain processes in cash control mechanisms and bill validation more complex. At certain times there is a lack of change in the cash registers, since the 100-dollar bills must be validated, and there are a lot of them,” she added.
In any case, the intention is to progressively continue along this path. Granadillo recalled that in March 2024 the payment of fuel in dollars began to be allowed – sometimes almost forced, since these gas stations are the only ones stocked. Since June, this has spread to other products, mostly linked to the tourism sector, such as the Casas del Habano, and international pharmacies and opticians.
They were “the first steps we took based on the partial dollarization,” stressed the minister, who insisted that the measure was temporary and that “during the year this new network of stores should not exceed 7% of all the Cimex and Tiendas Caribe stores.” In addition, the Central Bank official assured, despite the evidence to the contrary, the peso will continue to be “the center of the Cuban financial system.”
They also said that the MLC (magnetic currency for dollar priced state stores) will be maintained. However, there has been much speculation about its possible disappearance. “The accounts in MLC and the commitment of banks to the obligations with their customers are maintained, based on the funds they have represented or the funds they may have in the future,” said Alberto Javier Quiñones, vice president of the Central Bank, who added that the cards associated with those accounts will continue to work “in the network designed for them to operate.” The issue has generated perplexity among Cubans, who insistently ask why payment in MLC is not allowed in the new dollar stores if it is backed by foreign currency.
Another fundamental part of the TV program was to insist that dollarization is the previous step to de-dollarization. “We have evaluated international experiences that show that a forced de-dollarization, without the creation of previous conditions, could lead to more negative effects for the Cuban economy than those it is currently facing. Faced with the hard currency deficit, we assessed that first a short-term, transitory measure with a gradual implementation was necessary to partially dollarize the economy,” Granadillo said.
A month ago the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero, said in Parliament that to de-dollarize “you have to go down this previous path.” Also, the then Deputy Prime Minister and head of Economy, Alejandro Gil – now arrested for an alleged corruption – said the same thing in 2020, when referring to the stores in MLC, which had begun a year before to sell appliances and months earlier to offer food products.
The official said that these “undesirable but necessary and transitory” measures “subsidized social justice.” The idea was – as now – “to do something because the dollars are escaping” and replenish the stores that “guarantee a minimum supply of products in Cuban pesos,” practically the same words used this Wednesday by the officials participating in the Roundtable TV program to defend the expansion of dollar stores. The move is the same, and we will have to see if the result will be the same.
The deputy minister welcomed the reduction of the fiscal deficit by “more than 39%” but admitted that this is insufficient and that “a group of services and activities that can also raise cash dollars is being evaluated.” She specifically mentioned the remittances and the scarce exports that exist, since, she said, “Cuba is an open economy, highly dependent on imports.”
The vice president of the Central Bank explained that they have decided to accept dollars in cash respecting the principle that the customer can choose the payment method, although it was clear that a key element was the greater desire of Cubans to pay in paper money. “It was analyzed, studied and the possibility was seen, as we are also talking about a faster obtaining of the currency,” he said. However, electronic payment is preferred, and for this the financial products of this type have multiplied, which also solves the problem of returning change to the customer.
The matter of providing change was mocked when it was learned that candy is given to customers to compensate for the lack of coins. The Tiendas Caribe official said: “When paying dollars in cash, when it is necessary to return change, there is no availability of coins, because it is a foreign currency that the bank does not have. This is an inconvenience. Before, with the CUC [Cuban Convertible Peso, no longer in circulation], there was no such problem, because it was a national currency. Therefore, we clarify to customers that the use of electronic payment channels is preferable,” she said.
After stating, annoyed, that this matter was a source of ridicule, she explained: “We don’t only give change in candy; there are other products available by the cash register to offer to customers, according to what they are owed.”
The official also referred to the supplying of stores. She said that last year, they began financing nine suppliers “who had the installed capacity and were ready to produce. But this year we are adding another ten. We will continue to increase suppliers, and we will also achieve this in other ways, from establishing formal sales relationships to true productive chains.”
In addition, she talked about other businesses resulting from “partnerships with foreign investors who are suppliers,” who will also charge in foreign currency, because “in this type of business you have to quickly achieve a return on your investments.”
Translated by Regina Anavy for Translating Cuba.