The price may not be right, but at least Cubans can buy

HAVANA -- Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers Tuesday as a variety of consumer products went on sale to all of the island's people for the first time. Many others lined up just to window shop, lamenting prices few can afford on government salaries.

Until Tuesday, most electronic goods previously were sold only to foreigners or companies -- one of the many irksome rules President Raul Castro has vowed to lift to improve the lives of his citizens.

"They should have done this a long time ago," one man said as he left a store with a red and silver electric motorbike that cost $814. The Chinese-made bikes can be charged with an electric cord and had been barred for general sale because officials feared a strain on the power grid.

Tuesday's move came a day after the Tourism Ministry said any Cuban with enough money can stay in luxury hotels and rent cars, doing away with restrictions that made ordinary people feel like second-class citizens. And soon Cubans will be able to get cell phones legally in their own names, a luxury long reserved for the lucky few.

Even expert Cuba-watchers wonder how far the communist government will go in making economic changes. Until now, the impact has been largely psychological because few Cubans have the money to buy expensive products or stay in posh hotels.

There was no sign yet of promised computers and microwaves -- highly anticipated items that clerks across Havana insisted would appear soon on store shelves, with desktop computers retailing for around $650.

People lined up waiting to get into the Galerias Paseos shopping center on Havana's famed seaside Malecon boulevard, and they hurried inside when the doors opened.

Cuba's communist system was founded on promoting social and economic equality, but that doesn't mean Cubans can't have DVD players, one of those who rushed to gawk at the new products, Mercedes Orta. "Socialism has nothing to do with living comfortably," she said.

Lines outside electronics boutiques and specialty shops are common in Cuba because guards limit how many people can be inside at a time. But waits were longer and aisles more packed than usual at Havana's best-known stores.

"DVDs are over there, down that aisle," an employee in white short-sleeve shirt repeated over and over as shoppers wandered into La Copa, an electronics and grocery store across from the Copacabana Hotel.

"Very good! DVD players on sale for everybody," exclaimed Clara, an elderly woman who was studying a black JVC console. "Of course nobody has the money to buy them," she added.

Like many Cubans, Clara chatted freely, but wouldn't give her full name to a foreign reporter.

Government stores priced all products in convertible pesos -- hard currency worth 24 times the regular pesos that state employees are paid. The government controls well over 90 percent of the economy and the average monthly state salary is just 408 regular pesos, about $19.50.

Still, most Cubans have access to at least some convertible pesos thanks to jobs with foreign firms or in tourism, or cash sent by relatives living in the United States.

Some Cubans speculate the opening up of shops is a government ploy to control inflation by sopping up convertible pesos. Others say allowing those who have money to spend it freely will make class divisions evident and cause tensions.

"Those who have people who send them money from outside the country can buy more and more," said Lazaro Martinez, a 67-year-old flower seller in Old Havana. "Everyone else, we can't buy anything."

At La Copa, the most expensive DVD player was a Samsung P243B without HD capability, at $288. Cheapest was a standard Phillips model at $124 -- three times more expensive than what Americans pay for a similar Philips player in the United States.

Despite the steep prices, Cubans were buying. "You have to buy before they run out," said a man named Jorge who paid $162 for a mid-range DVD player. He didn't want his full name published because he doesn't want Cubans to know he made such a large purchase in hard currency.

On streets throughout Havana's suburban Miramar neighborhood, men and women walked home clutching new DVD boxes. Store employees diligently noted each consumer's ID card number, but no other paperwork was required.

Graciela Jaime, a 68-year-old retired clothes factory employee, complained that widespread corruption and greed had created a class of rich Cubans. "Everyone wants to spend money and that is what's happening," she said.

Jaime said she recently took a job sweeping streets some mornings to supplement her monthly pension of about $10.

"Raul Castro has to get rid of the corruption," she said. "And it will be hard work, because there is a lot of it."