Why are there empty shelves in Venezuelan supermarkets?

[Flabbergasted]

http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2007/10/simple-economic-questions.html

Simple economic questions

Why are there empty shelves in Venezuelan supermarkets?

Tonight I went to do my grocery shopping for the week. I will have to go again because many items were missing. And, by the way, I have started going on Friday nights as Saturday's mornings crowds tend to clean up the stores by noon.

There was no milk, under any guise, powder, skim, whole, fresh, UHT. No milk except for some infant formulas for problem babies.

There were no beans. Nor margarine to season them.

Sugar, white since last year, brown since two months, is gone. You can find some fructose if you are willing to pay the price. The choice for cookies was down to 1 third the usual choice, and pasta was down to about 20% of brands and varieties we were used to find. This seems to become permanent, just like sugar.

The Colombian yogurt I am used to is gone, courtesy of 2 weeks of border blockade. Blockade by Venezuelans who do not want to pay tolls in Colombia when they travel there. Their argument? "Colombians do not pay tolls in Venezuela". With such level of political discourse you do understand why Venezuela social fabric is decomposing so fast.

There is no napkins nor toilet paper. Then again, the way things are going eventually we will not need toilet paper anymore....

While I was waiting at the cashier the lights went out. Central Madeirense has its own generators so within 15 seconds the lights were on again and we could keep waiting for your turn. But it was a long walk with my bags to the car through the dark hallways of the small shopping center and the even darker parking lot. No emergency lights anywhere. I know, I am unable to find light bulbs to replace the burnt up bulbs for the night security beams at work. Incidentally this is the third, THIRD, power outage this week in San Felipe. Each power outage lasted more than half an hour, one almost 1 and a half hour. On now they are city wide.

On occasion I read some comments somewhere, some silly articles elsewhere, that Venezuelan increasing scarcity is a reflection of the increased purchasing power of the people. If we are to buy that silliest of arguments, then Cuba with its empty shelves and electric rationing has gotta be one of the richest countries in the world while Switzerland with overflowing shelves and all electric all the time has got to be a living hell for a population held hostage in poverty.

Another simple question: How far will human stupidity and bad faith go?

PS: courtesy form a reader in the comment section. Things can get worse, look at those pics from Zimbabwe grocery store shelves. By the way, "This is Zimbabwe" has been one blog I have linked from the very start. If you visit its comment section you will find the daring of some Mugabe defenders, and boy, do they have little to defend these days....

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Here, and I thought Hugo Chevaz was the new Messiah,

at least, to hear a lot of DUers speak in whispered, worshipful awe of the holy man.

:eyes:

[Flabbergasted]

2. I'm not a fan either.

Ven is in extreme danger of ending up a failed communistic dictatorship.

[burythehatchet]

5. Right on! The :eyes: says it all

I've been reaidng the NY Times and they said he is a scourge. I think we should invade them, install our puppet and have them sign their organs over to the IMF. Because that's the way it should be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. Rabrrrrrr, you're more intelligent than that

Read my other posts.

Or at least read up on what happened with Allende and Chile or Arbenz and Guatemala.

You don't have to be a worshipful fan of Hugo Chavez to recognize the pattern of the U.S. and the corporate media bashing any leader who dares to challenge corporate America.

[SharonAnn]

3. This is what the CIA and US Gov't did to Allende in Chile in 1973. Looks familiar.

The affect the flow of goods in and out of the country to try to destabilize the economy so that a right-wing military coup can take place to "save" the country. That's how Pinochet got put into power in Chile. We made it happen. One of our more shameful foreign policy acts.

And why is it that we want Chavez out? What is the real reason?

The real reason is that he's forcing American oil companies to pay the royalties they're supposed to pay Venezuela for the oil that they extract from Venezuela. All the rest is a smokescreen.

Our oil people want to get the Venezuela oil for free. And they can't, anymore. They're mad about that.

That's the entire reason the U. S. government wants Chavez out.

[papau]

7. Bingo - a Winner - store shelves go bare when our CIA interferes with a country that is rich - there

is enough money in Venezuela to fill the shelves - this artificial shortage is a CIA gift.

[Flabbergasted]

10. I believe that the likely cause is the communistic economic model

is a failure and Chavez is an ass.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. There is no "communist economic model" in Venezuela and you know it

Most of the economy there is in private hands.

[angstlessk]

4. What no pictures??? with cell phone pics and digital cameras but no pics???

only pictures of Zimbabwi??? THEY ARE DESPERATE aren't they? Those anti-Chavestas?

[burythehatchet]

6. they're scum

[Flabbergasted]

13. This is not a new event. Venezuala has had supply shortages.

[angstlessk]

15. So have we, remember the lines for gas in the 70's???

the sugar shortages in the 80's??? (of course that was just to increase the price of sugar) AND COFFEE SHORATAGES IN THE 80'S...ALSO TO RAISE PRICES?? and that was when the US has installed 'friendlies' in South America from whence those products came!!!!

[Flabbergasted]

18. And Venezuala has been facing lots of shortages over the last 7 years...

[angstlessk]

20. According to whom??? bloggers sans pics???

the only shortage is cash into the oligarchs bank accounts

[DanielDuquenal]

36. Ahahaha! Très drôle!

In case your are not aware in fact oligarchs are full of money in Venezuelan bank accounts since currency control exchange makes it difficult for them to take their cash out.

Though the very rich profiteurs of the regime apparently have no problems buying real estate outside of Venezuela, I wonder how they get their dollars: in fact there was someone from Venezuela carrying 800 000 dollars in cash in his suitcase stopped at Buenos Aires. That person is in business with chavismo.

You might want to update your arguments to defend Chavez.

[Judi Lynn]

38. Why not post a link to information describing in what way that business man who lives in Miami

is connected to Hugo Chavez. Some of us read about it when it was first discussed in the media a little here. Not much. It died out quickly.

That left us ignorant of the ties between this man and the popular (with the PEOPLE) Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. You need to bring us all up to date with some credible information.

[DanielDuquenal]

39. My pleasure

Antonini is associated with many Venezuelan business that have most if not all of their contracts with state companies. Some of his "associates" are directly or indirectly associated with some schemes that are not too kosher.

In Venezuela there is no investigation on the case as the government is trying to have the issue go away. But fortunately in Argentina and Uruguay there is an investigation going on including international arrest warrants. In the Us you will not hear much for the time being because no crime was committed on US soil so the US justice system ash to wait for the Argentinean documents to make their way through the mill to start acting. Though already accounts and other information have been circulating.

If you want more details you can check the pages of La Nacion or Clarin in Argentina or those of El Universal or Globovision in Venezuela. But of course these last two ones are anti Chavez so surely they lie through their teeth.

[Judi Lynn]

40. Go ahead and post the article which show connection between the man from Miami

and Hugo Chavez. That's what it would take to make a credible association in a sane person's mind.

[DanielDuquenal]

45. Where did I write that Chavez is associated with Antonini?

In the info I gave you you can find plenty of association of that Antonini character with pro-Chavez officials. But I never wrote that Antonini was doing Chavez errands.

But this is not what this whole thing is about, isn't it? Unless I produce a picture of Chavez in Miraflores giving a bag with 800 000 USD to Antonini (or anyone else for that matter), you will not accept that Chavez presides over a corrupt government. And even then you would still find some excuse for that. You know, even I know that Chavez is not that stupid to get into a situation where he will be caught himself. He has help for such things, more than willing fall guys.

Why don't we get back on topic here, about food scarcity in Venezuela due to poor economic policies of the government? That you can find my own pictures and articles all through my blog. Taken by me, commented by me, with date and all.

[DanielDuquenal]

30. Pictures of grocery shelves in Venezuela

I love it, those dive and bomb blog visitors. For your info my blog has been updated regularly for 5 years and plenty of photos have been published on the matter of food scarcity in Venezuela. The recent entry was just an update and did not require additional pictures. I invite you to visit my blog again and search for "food shortages" ( http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/search/label/food%20shortages ). You will have plenty of information on the reality of Venezuela, an information that you need urgently, including how to write "anti-chavista". Then you will be able to remove your foot from your mouth.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Oh, please. Every one of us posting at D.U., undoubtedly, has gone into his/her closest grocery

store as a holiday approaches, or a weekend has passed, or a snow storm or hurricane is approaching, or the staff hasn't been able to keep up with restocking, and has seen empty shelves. WE don't take photos and send them to other countries as proof we are running out of groceries.


Nice try.

[DanielDuquenal]

33. Oh! then it must be Hurricane Hugo!

I admire your objectivity and your deep understanding on how the world works. Except that in Venezuela we have no hurricanes. Please, explain how careless staff and hurricanes can account for the chronic lack of sugar since LAST year, of Milk since last June, just to give you the two most striking items.

Again, allow me to invite you to visit my blog and track how the situation has gotten worse over time. The only hurricane here is Hugo, the only incompetent staff is Hugo Chavez.

[Judi Lynn]

35. Oh! "Hurricane Hugo!" Amazing. You are wasting your considerable talents here, aren't you?

Saw your blog when the original post was made, I believe, but thanks, anyway.

[DanielDuquenal]

37. No, I am not wasting my time

On occasion it is fun to tweak the nose of the naive pro Chavez.

[a la izquierda]

58. Jeezum pete, man.

Read a book on Latin America, will you please? Not to be a snot, or anything, but a lot of people haven't the foggiest idea about Latin American political history. We only have in the US what the media, and Venezuelan ex-pats want us to hear. It is Cuba revisited, in terms of the absolute ignorance and bias people have about Venezuela.

As much as I love Allende, Chile was rotten at the core in the 1970s. He barely won, and held power by a thread. Yeah, the CIA helped, but the Chilean Right had a hand in what their country did. Blaming the CIA is really convenient. Chavez, too, was elected, as most of his detractors seem to forget.

I don't post on here much, but posts on Latin America that tend to head down the road of the absolutely absurd really make me nuts.


And to the person from Venezuela without groceries on the shelves, go to Los Angeles during the rainy season--there's not squat on the shelves either in some places. I'm not trying to be a total bitch, but I feel like I'm listening to a Cuban friend of mine who simply whines and complains about what SHE can't get (and she doesn't even live there anymore). Chavez isn't a Communist. Not even close.

:nopity:

[NoPasaran]

8. Wow! Just ring the bell and here comes the Chavez Brigade!

Ready to defend the WorkersParadise2.0

[aquart]

11. You prefer banana republics? So does our government.

[angstlessk]

14. Venbezuela is doing more for the poor than America..sorry..our poor

is getting poorer and less educated, their poor are doing better, and more educated...NOT PARADISE, BUT IT IS GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!...THAT IS WHY THE CAPITALISTS HATE THEM...THEY ARE SHOWING A WAY THAT IS NOT THE 3RD WAY...according to thatcher and reagan as the ONLY WAY...

[Flabbergasted]

17. I would not give either of these guys the benefit of the doubt....

[angstlessk]

21. Well, we got pics of boosh and the Royal of Saudi Arabia holding hands and kissing

for christ's sake..they are a greater danger to the USA than any other combination of cohorts in the universe...including Java the Hut and Darth Vader (as long as Darth Vader is NOT cheney)

[Flabbergasted]

22. I can't think of two many presidents etc that I believe aren't completely despicable.

[NoPasaran]

28. Amazing that the Chavez Brigade thinks it's effective

Amazing that the Chavez Brigade thinks it's effective to defend their hero by equating him to Bush.

Disgusting.

:puke:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Pulling out all the propaganda stops, aren't we?

:eyes:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. Comparing Switzerland, whose "neutrality" gained it much, with Cuba, which was a target of

crippling embargoes, is apples and oranges.

I would imagine those shelves are empty in many other countries and the Gulf Coast of the good old US of A. MKJ

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Thanks for the reminder

The Gulf Coast of Mississippi had well-stocked stores, but thousands of jobless people living in cars and tents who were surviving on what turned up at the food shelf in the relief center where I volunteered.

[madmom]

12. when ever I get groceries on Friday night the shelves are pretty barren

here in the states, cuz the night crew hasn't filled them yet.

[Mojorabbit]

16. I worry we might

be heading in this direction in the future esp if the dollar keeps falling

[bemildred]

19. You know, anybody that likes "Venezuela Crisis" can kiss my ass. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. It's called a "capital strike," people, and it's a familiar tactic of right-wing business interests

Since most means of production, especially food production, are NOT owned by the government, the only way that there could be food and other supply shortages would be if the manufacturers were withholding them.

In a "capital strike," business reacts to populist pressures by closing plants, firing people, or refusing to ship products. They hope that the populace and gullible foreigners will blame the government and demand its overthrow.

Read up on what the CIA did to Allende's Chile before you start shooting off your mouths about how Chavez is causing food shortages, which would be difficult in a country where most of the economy is still in private hands.

Geeze, for a bunch of alleged liberals, you guys sure are suckers for mainstream propaganda.

Not only that--there's a regular claque of Chavez bashers.

Do I think that Chavez is perfect? No. No politician is perfect.

However, I'm old enough to have seen all this nonsense before: right-wing propaganda about a foreign populist leader and Americans dumb enough to believe it.

[rAVES]

29. *golf clap*

Very well said :)

[immoderate]

31. Nailed it, Lydia.

--IMM

[DanielDuquenal]

34. Correction: most of the Venezuelan economy is state controlled

You need to update your data base. Capital strike is simply impossible in today Venezuela.

So, why the shortages? And please, no knee-jerk reply this time.

[SharonAnn]

41. No, it's not. It's run by the upper-class corporatists. They are trying to oust Chavez.

Just because you say the Venezuelan economy is state-controlled doesn't make it so.

It's not. Most of it is in private or corporate hands.

Parts of the oil industry have been nationalized.

[DanielDuquenal]

46. You need to read more papers

Oil industry was fully nationalized in the late 70ies. Chavez picked up recently the little bit that was left in association with private oil companies such as gas or heavy crudes. The main phone company is 100% state owned. 90% or so of utilities are state owned. And more, much more. Private sector in Venezuela is estimated at well below 50% of the PIB, including your friendly little corner grocery store. Not even the biggest private business, Polar, can threaten Chavez these days. Update you data files.

Then again what do I know, I only live in Venezuela and thus I am not to be trusted.

[Judi Lynn]

42. Absolutely correct. Hoarding. Assholes!

They are attempting to ignore the people's elected government's attempt to regulate pricing of the essential items people must have for daily life.

It wasn't that long ago in Venezuela the now dishonored but beloved of the oligarchy President Carlos Andres Perez managed to price essential services far beyond the ability to afford of the massive poor population, then had his miltary fire directly into crowds of protesting citizens in the massacre they named "El Caracazo" in 1989.

The poor are very acquainted with the oligarchy attempting to put the brutal screws to them.

From an earlier article in February, from the Washington Post, amid the spin, a nearly buried admission the grocery store owners are attempting to defy government price restraints:

Authorities have raided warehouses and confiscated tons of food _ mostly beef and sugar _ from vendors unwilling to sell inventories at the official price.

Full-page government advertisements published in newspapers on Sunday showed a fake mug shot under a banner title reading "The Hoarder Is A Criminal," and warned consumers not to purchase foods at exorbitant prices.

Shortages of items ranging from milk to coffee have occurred since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.
(snip/)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/11/AR2007021101635.html

[DanielDuquenal]

47. Price controls are fair?

So tell us Judy, do you think that it is OK for a grocery store owner to be forced by the government to sell a given item below the price he purchased it? I mean, unless you do not reply to that basic 101 economy question there is no point in explaining to you how things work in Venezuela, in arguing any further with you or discussing ways in which the government could effectively subsidize food for the poor.

[Vidar]

43. "Venezuela News And Views" is pretty obviously one of the Bush-financed

"news outlets" for misinformation & propaganda.

[DanielDuquenal]

48. Please, tell Bush to send the check, I have been waiting for 5 years

[Vidar]

52. LOL

[Daveparts]

44. Gee, Blogs

By the the former ruling Elite, who would have thunk it. Wonder who pays for the blog?

[DanielDuquenal]

49. Elite payment

If I am certainly part of the cultural elite, here in Venezuela or elsewhere for that matter, I am not former ruling. For that I would have had to rule myself over something at some point in my life. Even my former cat ruled over me.

As for who pays for the blog, I would like you to tell me who because that way I could cash in all the money that is due me.

[Maribelle]

51. So who do you blame for the empty shelves?

And do you think it's a big trick?

[DanielDuquenal]

53. economics 101

1) if a business does not make a profit, some profit, it will go bankrupt

2) it is for the state to limit the profit margins through a nifty system called "taxes".

3) taxes, fairly collected from the money producing guys are redistributed to the guys who for one reason or the other cannot produce from their work, if they have any. such taxes can be redistributed as food subsidies (a system that works better than price control, by the way)

4) price controls schemes never work out because not all prices are controlled along the production chain. if you produce, say, coffee, and the government controls its price, then the government should also make sure that items such as labor costs, seeds and plants, fertilizer, transport, energy for the drying the beans, etc, etc... also remain constant. if those prices keep increasing then at some point your profit margin will be erased, you will start selling at a loss and then you might as well close shop or "hoard" your beans (they are yours, after all).

in venezuela where the state is the biggest producer of cash through its oil industry, price controls are particularly unfair when the state benefits from an oil barrel that went up from 10 bucks in 2000 to nearly 70 in 2006. why not apply price control to the price of oil?

[Maribelle]

59. Economics 201 -Venezuela is experiencing fifteen successive quarters of economic expansion ...

and looks set to close the year with 8-9% growth.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2719


The empty shelves are the fault of the shopkeeper, who could have -or- could not have valid reasons for keeping the shelves empty. It is resaonable to expect Chavez to raise the prices of the items under price control to allow a reasonable profit margin. The thesis behind the price controls is that the shopkeepers' profit margins were far exceeding the concept of reasonable.

If the shopkeepers are merely holding out for the price increases, then "representa un acto de protesta inadmisible".

[Maribelle]

50. Why are there empty shelves in Venezuelan supermarkets? There's an easy answer to this.

It seems the folks that own the stores are doing it on purpose in protest to government price controls. It appears the problem is not so much the empty shelves, but rather how government controls are affecting profit. These empty shelves are not new, as it has been ongoing for years.

Identical to what happened in Chile in the 1970s, during the Anti-Allende movement, powerful forces are trying their very hardest to put a stranglehold on Venezuelan life to such a point that people will rise up and overthrow Chavez.

The propaganda value of empty shelves cannot be underestimated.

February 2007 Major private supermarkets suspended sales of beef earlier this week after one chain was shut down for 48 hours for pricing meat above government-set levels, but an agreement reached with the government on Wednesday night promises to return meat to empty refrigerator shelves.

Shortages have sporadically appeared with items from milk to coffee since early 2003, when Chavez began regulating prices for 400 basic products as a way to counter inflation and protect the poor.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/08/business/LA-FIN-Venezuela-Food-Crunch.php

January 2006 For at least a week, there has been no roasted coffee available on the shelves of Venezuelan supermarkets as wholesalers and coffee producers have been withholding their coffee from sale.

Since 2003, President Chavez has maintained a strict price regime on some basic foods like coffee, beans, sugar and powdered milk.

But this measure designed to curb inflation has alienated Venezuela's coffee producers who say their profit margins have been reduced to nothing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4599260.stm

Another simple question: How far will the anti-Chavez folks go to reveal their own human stupidity and bad faith? Sadly, the sounds we hear from Venezuela are not just the sounds of Joropo.

[DanielDuquenal]

54. very drole!

i have replied to you above. but i will add this.

according to you the little Andean coffee cultivator should sell their small crop at a loss just to show solidarity. and their kids, how do they feed their kids? with coffee bean cereal? because in case you do not know, there are no "coffee production concerns" in venezuela, it is all from small producers that have in average a dozen acres of trees on mountain slopes, not on nice flat lands like in brazil where YOU DO HAVE coffee concerns.

let me reply in kind: when will pro Chavez folks give up their deliberate ignorance and learn that in economics, at least, 1 + 1 = 2?

[Fredda Weinberg]

56. Actually, no. One economy that merges with another leaves you

with a single system. Venezuela's problems are long standing and serious; your contribution to the dialogue is appreciated, even if we disagree on interpretation of facts.

[Maribelle]

60. je n'identifient pas drôle comme concernant la discussion

The true basic costs of goods sold never will go away because of price controls in most instances.

However, if the purposes of the price controls are to reduce the excessive margins consumers need to pay for the goods, in order to lift the standard of living for the people living in disgraceful abject poverty on the mountainsides of Venezuela, perhaps then a collaborative analysis should be made of the true costs of goods with continuing adjustments to the price under control.

I have no doubt most of what Chavez is doing to the economy in Venezuela interprets to cleaning up the filthy mountainsides of Venezuela.

[Fredda Weinberg]

55. Did I understand your blog correctly that the problem was in

imported goods but staples were available on the shelves?

[Joanne98]

57. BULL SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!