14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez,,p> Havana, 24 April 2023 —
People used to gawk at the display windows and crowd the entryway at La Epoca, a store prominently located at the corner of Galiano and Neptuno in Central Havana. Now its freezers are completely empty. Not even the hard currency stores are exempt from Cuba’s worsening economic crisis.
What were once businesses catering to those privileged enough to have hard currency now resemble the neighborhood ration stores in terms of their supply shortages.
“It’s been like this for weeks,” a customer at La Epoca told 14ymedio on Monday. She had been to the meat section, located in the basement, hoping to find a few sausages, or some at least some ground turkey to make croquettes. When she got there, however, she found the freezers had been turned off and moved into the center of the aisle, their doors left open. Employees stood there with their arms crossed, not knowing how to respond to questions about when they might be getting a shipment of meat.
