In a country submerged in a horrible economic crisis, where subsidies and unactualized prices basically make up the purchasing range for most Venezuelans, we are used to witness opportunists or "bachaqueros" sneaking their way into buying these products in order to sell them unofficially at a price dictated by the black market(ridiculously bigger than the buying price). Merchandise with cheap prices is quickly acquired, consequently leaving the rest of Venezuelans with a widespread shortage and the exhausting need to purchase these products from the aforementioned "bachaqueros".
Let's focus our attention on the non-basic goods like clothing and home appliances. When there is a sudden price reduction in the respective stores, basically because the government feels like it, we can easily witness extremely long shopping lines to the referred stores where most buyers won't actually use the purchased products but just eventually resell them at inflated prices. This phenomenon doesn't happen at all in bookstores. I personally bought recently some completely imported books and magazines that in total would be worth about 150$ in their origin country, I paid a little over a dollar(black-market value) for them. I was the only customer in the store when I bought them and there was a significant quantity to choose from.In this case, it wasn't a forced price reduction but simple outdated prices, which made them ridiculously cheap considering the hellish inflation we are used to. It really amazed me how the reading industry isn't even considered for economic wrongdoings, the interest in culture and personal growth seems to be practically null.
Of course, we may argue that in times of hunger we aren't thinking about anything else but eating but that's not the case with the other non-basic products. Shopping lines in clothing stores are enormous after price reductions and we would be talking about a 50% discount, for the bookstore case we are dealing with a 99% percent discount. This precise anecdote may outline the real problem in Venezuela, the way of thinking that leaves personal growth through reading as an apparently "stupid" decision is what maintains us sunk. As a member of the generation that is suffering the most from the mistakes done by the previous generation, I esteem my education, knowledge and intellectual value very highly because I'm particularly aware of the consequences brought by collective ignorance and hope that most my contemporaries do as well. If you want to know for sure how good is a nation really doing check out their book prices.