Reply #50: Why are there empty shelves in Venezuelan supermarkets? There's an easy answer to this. [View All]

[Maribelle]

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.