Cuba: Sitting in the Street to Buy ‘Intimates’ for 50 Pesos and Resell Them for 150

Sanitary pads are almost completely missing from the network of stores in Cuba that accept payment in the national currency. (14ymedio)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 2 December 2021 — The long line that gathered this Thursday morning on Galiano Street was swelled by women and men, young and old, despite the fact that the product being sold had a more restricted audience. There, at a small kiosk a few meters from the Teatro América, packages of sanitary pads were being sold for 50 pesos.

The line was long, so several people, in anticipation, brought their own seats from home, something increasingly common among those who wait in front of shops to be able to bring home the basic necessities. Among them, what appeared to be a complete family stood out.

The sale of intimates in the small establishment had not ended when in some windows and doors near the kiosk the resale of the same packages was already observed. Only three times more expensive, at 150 pesos.

The sale of sanitary pads in the network of stores that accept payment in the national currency is practically non-existent. To acquire them, women must go to the black market or foreign exchange stores, in both cases at exorbitant prices.

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