Oh, the horror . . . dvd players and flat screen tvs!
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cubans crowded shops on Tuesday to buy DVD players and electric bikes that went on sale for the first time as new President Raul Castro moved to lift many restrictions in the one-party socialist state.
Stores were authorized to sell dozens of electric goods that were previously banned, including microwave ovens, flat-screen televisions and even computers.
With wages averaging $17 a month in Cuba, many of the new goods on sale were out of reach for most pockets, but even some of those who could not afford to buy anything were happy they are now available.
"The prices are astronomical. But at least I have the choice, and I can save up to buy things I want. People will work harder to buy them," said Gelis, a self-employed tennis coach.
Computers, which until now could only be bought in Cuba by government or foreign companies, were also supposed to go on sale but none had changed hands by Tuesday afternoon.
At a shop in western Havana, Microsoft keyboards and mouses were on show, but Dell laptops and desktop computers were still in their boxes awaiting for prices to be decided.
A saleswoman said computers with 80 gigabytes of hard drive memory, 512 megabytes of RAM and a Celeron P4 chip made by Intel would sell for about $865.
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