Venezuela's inflation rate is 200+%, meaning it loses at least half its value every year. Prices are regulated by the government, and the black market functions almost freely.
Here's an account of what these economic facts mean in day-to-day life.
Fabiola Zerpa, mother of two, doesn't so much
shop for food as
hunt for food. Sometimes she bags it because of her persistence.
She's allowed to shop Sunday (useless because no regulated goods are sold on weekends) & Thursday. On the way to work Thursday she drives past a store, but the line is two blocks long and she can't wait. She stops at a bakery but they only sell bread at 5 p.m.
Her husband is able to buy (at 8x the regulated price) 5 kilos of corn flour through the friend of a friend. They use some of it to barter for powdered milk.
A week later she goes to a grocery without lines, to find that there are no lines because there are few groceries.
“The bread arrived early, señora,” says a middle-aged store clerk. “It’s all gone.” (cont'd tomorrow)
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