Cuba opens 1st bulk goods store, but wholesale still elusive

HAVANA – Cuba has quietly opened a first-of-its-kind store specializing in bulk products in Havana.

Called Zona +, the high-ceiling space has racks stacked with large tins of tomato sauce, toilet paper and cooking oil by the gallon.

It’s not quite Costco, and it falls short of satisfying longstanding calls for a wholesale market to support the growing class of private entrepreneurs who have set up shop under economic reforms of recent years.

But it could help relieve the pressure that those entrepreneurs have been putting on other retail stores by snapping up huge quantities of goods, leaving regular customers in the lurch.

Zona + launched about a week ago with zero publicity or fanfare. But employees say business has been good so far, as word of its opening spread by mouth.