HAVANA, May 9 (Manuel David Orrio, CPI) – A new fashion in working
lunches for employees of Cuban government-operated dollar stores suggests at
least some instances of corruption in their operation: Employees who earn no
more than 500 pesos a month regularly spend 20 to 25 pesos daily on catered
lunches.
"That's a mystery we don't talk about," said one sales clerk,
exhibiting a broad, commercial smile, at the dollar-denominated La Época
department store in central Havana. Outside the store, peddlers hawk some of the
same goods offered inside and unobtainable elsewhere, at sometimes half the
price.
The catered lunches are provided by self-employed entrepreneurs who detected
an opportunity in the stores' working schedule; employees work twelve-hour
shifts with a 30 minute break. Most store employees say they are satisfied with
the varied menu and the quality of the food in the box lunches and they are
putting their money where their mouths are, paying 20 to 25 pesos (1.00 to 1.25
dollars at the current exchange rate) each for them.
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