I have always believed that Caracas is a hurried, busy and convulsed city. Its dynamic makes the vast majority of those who live in it turn to sink into our thoughts to get away from the reality that surrounds us.
Every day we see people rummaging in the trash, children asking for food on the street, motorized to eat the light in crosswalks or police matraqueando in the Alcabalas. We, the Caracas, spent most of the day fighting time. We look for different ways to take our steps away, and one of them is-par excellence-smoking a cigar and having a guayoyo coffee.
However, currently acquiring the coffee and cigar combo on the sidewalks of Sabana Grande has become a viacrucis for both smokers and vendors. All this I discovered when I gave myself the task of sitting down to observe two vendors for an hour.
The cobblestones of the boulevard witness the constant evolution of the Caracas informal economy. Through its streets have traveled vendors of cotton candy, mangos and Tostones "marinated", glasses of Nestea, dainties, Donuts, among others. Then came the boom of the "dynamic duo."
What 6 months ago was the sensation and caused furor on the boulevard, nowadays is a business uphill and very unprofitable, although this did not stop the "coffee", who found a way to survive the hyperinflation that crosses Venezuela since November 2017 : Selling cigars for sales points.
A solution? Not so much. Some managed to buy an electronic point of sale because in the streets Caraqueñas (and in the rest of the country) there is no cash. Others, for example, appealed to third parties to make them the second to lend their point.
The latter is the case of two boys who are located in one of the benches of the boulevard, close to the metro station of Sabana Grande. They used to work in the wholesale car market, from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, unloading the trucks and loading the guacales until one day they realized that the cigar business provided them with higher incomes in less time.
They both arrived in that area 3 months ago, saw an empty space in a stool and stayed there. His position is made up of boxes of Consul, Belmont, Chesterfield and Lucky Strike. The four brands with the most demand on the boulevard.
Prices range from BS 7,000 to BS. 15,000 each unit of cigarettes; Being the Chesterfield the most economical of all, and therefore the one that has the most demand. "Almost no one has cash because in the banks there is no... who is going to pay a cigar in ten thousand bowling cash?" they claim. That's why they managed with the owners of a purchase-sale of gold and silver that is nearby for people to pay a cigar with their debit card.
"The truth is that we do not have much profit, but still one solves with that," said one of the boys, because they charge 15% for passing the point in the local. They said they'll stay there until they're no longer profitable.
A cigarette and a coffee
Six months ago, Carlos Gonzalez was still selling cigars and coffee at Unión de Sabana Grande Street. His position was made up of a plastic stool, a 2 litre coffee thermos and three different brands of cigars. When I talked to him his business was prosperous. In fact, she had a fixed clientele who spent every day at the same time, usually at lunch break, to buy her the dynamic duo: a black coffee and a cigar.
Several of his clients were employees of City Market, others of the businesses that are close to the post and the stylists of a hairdresser that is at the beginning of the street
Conversing with him was complicated because he was almost always tending to his clients. Between coffee and another answered the questions of the interview. At the time, Carlos ' only income was his small business. With what he generated every day he could eat, paid the rent of the room and still had enough to take a couple of cold.
In March 2018, Carlos is gone. He abandoned the sale of coffee and cigars two months ago because with the cash crisis and the unstoppable cost of coffee, sugar, glasses and cigars it became impossible to continue. In a last attempt to not let the business die, he had decided to sell them detailed and to be paid for transfer. Or else, he did the same as his other classmates and asked the favor of a local stationery that would pass the point; Then they transferred him.
"Now he who has a point is the one who survives," he lamented. He is now in search of a job that gives him enough to buy at least food.
Sitting from a sidewalk in Sabana Grande, it was inevitable to come to the conclusion that after all, maybe my mom when she reads this text will be happy to know that I left the cigar not because I wanted to, but because the shortage of cash and hyperinflation led me to kill R the most common of vices: a good cigarette and a coffee.
Source: http://elestimulo.com/ub/la-escasez-de-efectivo-me-hizo-dejar-el-mas-comun-de-los-vicios/