“Good morning, this store is now open only in foreign currency, cash or card,” warns an employee.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 30 April 2025 — The long-awaited dollarization has arrived at Plaza Carlos III with the opening this week of the first store operating exclusively in dollars within the well-known Centro Habana shopping complex. Upon arriving at the entrance to the Sport store, an employee greets customers with a clear warning: “Good morning, this store is now accepting only foreign currency, cash or card.”
Sport previously operated in freely convertible currency (MLC) until its sudden closure. Several employees confirmed to 14ymedio in March a change in its reopening: “It’s not a rumor, they’re going to change it to dollars very soon.” Although they didn’t know if the measure would affect the entire Carlos III complex or just certain locations, they explained that all cashiers were receiving training to operate the Clásica, a national dollar top-up card.
A couple of regular Sport customers told 14ymedio about their impressions: “When I was at MLC, I bought some shoes that were supposedly from well-known brands,” says Mario, “but when you read the fine print, they turned out to be Chinese copies. They lasted three or four months and then fell apart.”
With the reopening, she says little has changed: “The sweaters are faded; you can tell they’re made in Cuba, and they have no visible branding. The store just opened, and those stained and dirty sweaters cost $12.”
Sandra, his girlfriend, adds: “The sneakers are Italian brands, although unknown in Cuba, and cost $113. There are others, worse, that look like cheap imitations of those sold by some MSMEs [micro, small and medium-sized businesses]. The flip-flops are plastic.”
Dollarization is an active part of the current economic policy on the Island.
In October 2020, then-Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández asserted that the MLC stores were a temporary measure and that the country’s strategy was not to dollarize. Now, in 2025, the minister’s exact whereabouts are unknown, but what is no longer in doubt is that dollarization is an active part of the island’s current economic policy.
Parliament, without the slightest hesitation in its own rhetoric, announced a “partial” dollarization in December 2024. To close out the year, it reopened the brand-new supermarket on 3rd and 70th Streets, where payments in Mexican pesos, much less Cuban pesos, are no longer accepted. As 2025 approaches, dozens of state-owned businesses across the country have joined the dollar fever, which shows no signs of being temporary.
The Clásica car—whose name evokes tradition—has been presented by Cimex on social media as “a financial product denominated in USD, designed to facilitate your transactions in the country.” It requires no minimum balance or predetermined amounts, offers a 5% discount for its use, and charges one dollar for each balance recharge transaction.
More stores in Carlos III are expected to adopt this approach, although customers aren’t confident that it will improve product quality. Mario and Sandra agree when talking about Sport: “It seems like a store without an owner. A ‘revolutionary’ attempt by the Carlos III chain to embrace dollarization. No one was there. But yes, right from the entrance they warn you that it’s in dollars.”
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