Cuba Opens 1st Bulk Goods Store, but Wholesale Still Elusive

Cuba Opens 1st Bulk Goods Store, but Wholesale Still Elusive
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS
HAVANA — Jul 11, 2016, 5:08 PM ET

Cuba has quietly opened a first-of-its-kind store specializing in bulk
goods in Havana: Zona +, a high-ceiling space with racks stacked with
large tins of tomato sauce, toilet paper and cooking oil by the gallon.

It's not quite Costco, and it falls short of satisfying longstanding
calls for a wholesale market to support the growing class of
small-restaurant and-cafeteria owners who have set up shop under
President Raul Castro's economic reforms begun six years ago.

But it could help relieve the pressure that those entrepreneurs have
been putting on other retail stores by snapping up huge quantities of
goods, leaving regular customers in the lurch.

On a recent afternoon, Naidi Carrazana pushed a shopping cart loaded
with cases of beer, bottled water and soft drinks she needs to stock her
small cafeteria nearby. She acknowledged that business owners like her
who make big purchases have been emptying market shelves of things like
flour, chicken and tomato paste, and said the new store can help with that.

"A place like this allows you to buy in bulk, and that's a benefit for
us and a benefit for the people," Carrazana said.

Located in the upscale western suburb of Miramar, Zona + launched a
little over a week ago with zero fanfare. Manager Javier Munoz said
shoppers are allowed to buy unlimited quantities, but he declined to
comment further because he was not authorized to do so by the store's
state-run parent company.

Employees said business has been good despite the lack of publicity, as
word of the opening spread mouth-to-mouth. One customer showed up in a
car and bought 50 3-kilogram (6.6-pound) cans of tomatoes to supply a
restaurant.

Similar stores are being planned for other parts of the city, they added.

In Cuba, government entities are the only ones able to import and
acquire goods at wholesale, and wholesale access has been a crucial
demand of the 500,000 or so small-business owners and their employees,
many of them working in the food-service sector.

The government has promised to set up wholesale markets for private
entrepreneurs, but that has yet to materialize and their only option has
been the same retail stores where the general population shops.

Although goods at Zona + are bulk, that doesn't entail a price break.
For example, a kilogram of high-end Serrano coffee costs $14.45 there,
while the same kilo was $14.40 on the same day at a regular store
elsewhere in Havana.

"The place is pretty, the service is good, but it's still the same price
as retail. In truth, it doesn't resolve our problems," Carrazana said.
"I hope this is like a seed for a wholesale market where we
entrepreneurs can buy at a different price."

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Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/ARrodriguezAP

Source: Cuba Opens 1st Bulk Goods Store, but Wholesale Still Elusive -
ABC News -
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/cuba-opens-1st-bulk-goods-store-wholesale-elusive-40500896