Socialist Cuba has its first luxury mall
HAVANA The saleswomen in L’Occitane en Provence’s new Havana store make $12.50 a month. The acacia eau de toilette they sell costs $95.20 a bottle. Rejuvenating face cream is $162.40 an ounce.
A few doors down, a Canon EOS camera goes for $7,542.01. A Bulgari watch, $10,200.
In the heart of the capital of a nation founded on ideals of social equality, the business arm of the Cuban military has transformed a century-old shopping arcade into a temple to conspicuous capitalism.
With the first Cuban branches of L’Occitane, Mont Blanc and Lacoste, the Manzana de Gomez mall has become a sociocultural phenomenon since its opening a few weeks ago, with Cubans wandering wide-eyed through its polished-stone passages.
Older Cubans are stunned at the sight of goods worth more than a lifetime’s state salary. Teenagers and young adults pose for Facebook photos in front of store windows, throwing victory signs in echoes of the images sent by relatives in Miami, who pose grinning alongside 50-inch TV sets and luxury convertibles.
The Cuban armed forces’ business arm has become the nation's biggest retailer, importer and hotelier since Gen. Raul Castro became president in 2008.
Gaviota, the military’s tourism company, is in the midst of a hotel building spree. The military corporation Cimex, created two decades ago, counts retail stories, auto-rental businesses and even a recording studio among its holdings. The military retail chain TRD has hundreds of shops across Cuba that sell everything from soap to home electronics at prices often several times those in nearby countries.
The military-run Mariel port west of Havana has seen doubledigit growth fueled largely by demand in the tourism sector and the armed forces last year took over the bank that does business with foreign companies.
On a recent weekday, Oswell Mendez and the members of his hip-hop dance group De Freak posed for their Facebook page in the centre of the Manzana.
“This is a high-end spot, really nice,” said Mendez, 24. “It’s something we haven’t seen before.”
A few blocks away, workingclass Cubans live in decaying apartments on streets clogged by uncollected trash. With state incomes devastated by longterm stagnation and inflation, there’s barely money for food, let alone home repairs or indulgences.
“This hurts because I can’t buy anything,” said Rodolfo Hernandez Torres, a 71-year-old retired electrical mechanic who lives on a salary of $12.50 a month. “There are people who can come here to buy things but it’s maybe one in 10. Most of the country doesn’t have the money.”
L’Occitane, Lacoste, Mont Blanc and the Cuban military’s business wing did not return requests for comment.