14ymedio, Mercedes Garcia, Sancti Spiritus, 13 December 2022 — The beverage that would normally be lifting spirits at holiday parties in Sancti Spiritus has actually been enflaming the city’s already tense economic situation. When it was announced a few weeks ago that beer would be available for sale near year’s end, it created a certain amount of enthusiasm, but that ended as soon as the first cans arrived at state-run stores.
“Thüringer beer for 200 convertible pesos each,” reads a sign at a downtown store on Cespedes Street where rationed goods can be purchased. “At first sales were limited to ten per person but, since no one was willing to pay that price, they did away with that and now you can buy as many as you like,” says one customer who is not planning to buy the thirty cans he, his wife and his 25-year-old son were allotted. “Better to buy them from private individuals, who are selling them for 170,” he adds.
“We’re moving backwards like crabs. They’re selling the most expensive beers on the black market,” complains another customer whose hopes were raised when she learned that stores in every neighborhood would be carrying the product. For years it had only available in privately owned restaurants and hard currency stores. She had planned on buying twenty for herself and her husband. “Ten to drink on Christmas Eve and the same amount on New Year’s Eve,” she explains. Now she is altering her plans and is looking for a more affordable alternative.
“It’s a disgrace that it’s the state itself that charging these prices,” she adds. “My pension is a little over 2,000 pesos. That means that every beer I drank would cost me 10% of my monthly retirement.
Some stores in Sancti Spiritus have started carrying malt beers from the Dominican Republic. An employee at one store says they are also awaiting the arrival of “some jams and cookies.” Given the bitter taste “end of the year beer” has left behind, however, few people have any illusions about a few trinkets being able to sweeten the last days of December.
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