Chavismo (Venezuela) takes a page from the Mugabe Zunu-PF playbook! Legal looting!

[GatoGordo]

Caracas shops mobbed as Venezuela's Maduro forces price cuts
Alexandra Ulmer 1/7/2018

CARACAS (Reuters) - Mobs gathered outside some Caracas supermarkets on Saturday after the government ordered shops to slash prices, creating chaos as desperate Venezuelans leapt at the chance to buy cheaper food as the country’s worsening economy causes severe shortages.

The leftist administration of President Nicolas Maduro ordered more than 200 supermarkets to cut prices back to last month’s levels - a tall order in a country where many prices change daily due to the world’s fastest inflation rate.

News of the discounts spread like wildfire, leading hundreds to mass in front of stores before daybreak. When one major supermarket in wealthier eastern Caracas did not open for hours, people began pounding on the storefront.

“We’re hungry! We want food!” screamed the crowd, which included babies, pensioners and children with disabilities.

“This scares me, but what can I do?” said Francisco Guaita, a carpenter hoping to find food for his three children, over the shouts and pushes. “This is the worst government. We want Maduro out.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy/caracas-shops-mobbed-as-venezuelas-maduro-forces-price-cuts-idUSKBN1EV0K1

The tactic is as old as the hills... Mugabe was the master of it. His political supporters (ZANU PF) would know ahead of time which retailers where going to be held "accountable", and they would be lined up before the sun came up. When the stores opened (usually forced to open at gunpoint) all merchandise was sold at the "Mugabe Discount Price", effectively bankrupting the retailers. A one time windfall that lead to mass chaos when the retailer then had to shutter their doors and close permanently.

[GatoGordo]

1. The "legal looting"

"It was as if they were giving away dollars", this is how the Sundde's inspection in Caracas was lived
JANUARY 6, 2018 Author: VANESSA MORENO LOSADA | @ MORELOSADA24

...At approximately 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 5, Carlos heard that a man shouted that the cookie María was selling it in 10,000 bolívares, but he remembered that its original price was around 60,000 bolivars.

"There began the madness. They started cutting down a lot of things, soda biscuits and other sweets, tomato sauce, soap, cheese, sugar, chocolate drinks, sausages, cheese, lentils and even tuna cans. One that was in 50,000 bolivars, was 11,000 bolivars; for example," Carlos told Efecto Cocuyo .

According to the young man, who works as a physical trainer in a gym and privately, from 7:00 pm that began the "despelote" until 10:00 pm, the number of people who entered the trade was "overwhelming." Those who like him and his wife were when the sales began called their relatives and acquaintances to come to the store. At 8:00 p.m., no one was allowed to pass.

"There came a time when my wife went to look for a sugar and was totally surrounded by people. I thought they were going to kill her. I had to go and get her out of there, but suddenly I was caught too. I pushed people, yelling at them to let them out so they could grab the product. But nothing. It was as if they were giving away dollars or as if they had been told that everything was free," he said....

-snip-

"Many things remained in the box, because people grabbed 10 packages of tuna biscuits or cans. I myself, if I could, took me 30. Everything was shoving, sliding and screaming," recalled the source, who said it took four hours to make a little market at socialist prices.

http://efectococuyo.com/principales/era-como-si-estuvieran-regalando-dolares-asi-se-vivio-la-fiscalizacion-de-la-sundde-en-caracas

"Giving away dollars"... like "everything was free".

Chavismo 101

[GatoGordo]

2. Legally loot once. Stores don't resupply. No food for anyone at any price. As predicted

Supermarkets supervised by the SUNDDE freeze orders from suppliers
Jan 10, 2018 7:49 am

translated from Spanish

Desolate corridors and empty shelves abound in supermarkets to which the National Superintendency for the Defense of Socio-Economic Rights (SUNDDE) forced them to lower prices last week. The workers try to load the shelves with what they had in inventory, but the products are insufficient and it is not known when new merchandise will arrive, reports El Nacional .



"What you see on the shelves is what you get. The warehouses are barren and we do not know when there will be new products. It will be very difficult to replenish inventories, we do not know what will happen, "said the manager of a supermarket in Chacao, who preferred not to be identified.

The person in charge of another establishment in Baruta agreed that they do not have new merchandise and said that they had to freeze the orders to the suppliers, since the prices they offer are greater than those established by the SUNDDE. "Many shelves are faced or made up, you only see products in front, behind everything is empty. We do not have fruits or vegetables. On Monday, one of the suppliers came to offer me the bananas at 17,000 bolivars per kilo, but we could not leave because the SUNDDE wants us to sell at 11,000 bolivars."

-snip-

https://www.lapatilla.com/site/2018/01/10/supermercados-supervisados-por-la-sundde-paralizan-pedidos-a-proveedores/

As predicted, when Maduro mandated that stores sell their product at a loss, the stores refused to reorder those products.