Kafka’s Stores

Kafka's Stores / Rebeca Monzo
Posted on July 31, 2013

Yesterday, faced once more with the frustration of not being able to
connect to the internet, my friend and I decided to go shopping in the
stores of the area. She needed a faucet for her kitchen and I didn't
take any money as I went along just to look.

We got to the complex of stores at 5th and 42nd, the name it is known
by. We immediately went to the hardware store and saw the few things on
display in the show cases. Among them was one that caught the attention
of my friend: a quick-opening faucet acceptable enough and reduced from
11 to 4 CUC. It fit within her meager budget, so she set out immediately
to call the seller over to show it to her. Commenting on the price, he
responded that the faucet had a defect, it leaked. So my friend rejected
it and commented that she was looking for one because the one she had
also leaked and she wanted to solve the problem.

After searching through the rest of the departments, all of them with so
little merchandise it gave the impression there had been a huge robbery,
which we commented on with one of the employees, who turned her face
away to answer. It seemed more like a set to film the Cuban TV comedy
San Nicolás del Peladero. We continued on, poking through the
haberdashery department, where I usually buy some of the materials for
my work.

I suddenly discovered in one of the display cases a brand new pedal for
an electric sewing machine, and as I'd just bought mine a few year ago,
it made me happy to know they still had these parts. Also it was reduced
in price. The card marked 11.45 CUC had been crossed out and said 7.95
CUC. Great, I thought, too bad I didn't bring any money, but next week
when I come back here I'll buy it.

I got home suffocated by the immense heat of the street and the delay of
the buses, and ran straight to the bathroom to wash my face and hands
and change my clothes for something fresher. When I commented to my
husband about the electric pedal and the price cut, he told me, "Get
ready, I think we should go now, because if there are only a few or only
the one in the window, now is the time to buy it."

We arrived at the store and when I asked the employee to show me the
pedal that was on sale because I wanted to buy it, she calmly said,
"Yes, it's on sale because it's broken and doesn't work."

"How is it possible," I asked her, "that you put on sale in the display
case an article that doesn't work, and at such a high price in hard
currency? Useless merchandise shouldn't be put out under any
circumstances, it's misleading to the public and immoral to do so. This
is absolutely Kafkaesque," I added.

She remained silent, as she knows me as a customer, and we left there
like souls possessed by the devil.

Sadly, this isn't an isolated event, it happens with incredible
frequency, being an almost common practice to sell articles that are
extremely damaged or that don't work for what they were designed, with
price reductions which, even more than an attack on their customers'
wallets, show an absolute lack of respect for them.

30 July 2013

Source: "Kafka's Stores / Rebeca Monzo | Translating Cuba" -
http://translatingcuba.com/kafkas-stores-rebeca-monzo/