Havana’s large shopping centers reopen as virtual stores

Havana's large shopping centers reopen as virtual stores

HAVANA, April 14th The state corporation CIMEX S.A announced a series of measures to increase online shopping to avoid crowds in commercial establishments in Havana and to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The main actions include the setting up of seven large shopping centers as virtual stores in the next 10 days: Mercado Cuatro Caminos (Old Havana), Almacenes Ultra (Centro Habana), Dragones Chinos (Centro Habana), El Renacer (Calabazar), La Típica (Boyeros), Rápido Cotorro and Pedegral (La Lisa).

The new measures include the reorganization of workers as support, attending to the closure of operations in the Carlos III shopping center, with the exception of the services of the Western Union and the store in freely convertible currency that works there.

The minimum purchase value to access the service will also be reduced to 1 Cuban convertible peso (CUC) or 25 pesos in national currency (MN), as well as a 10% discount to the rates approved to date, which can be found at the Transportation and Delivery Times menu, available on the Tienda Virtual home page.

As of Monday, April 13, the Correos de Cuba postal services will participate in the home delivery, with a week of testing to adjust the conditions and offer the customer real times of service, a recent demand from the population, suffering from delays and malfunctions regarding product deliveries.

List of products to be sold in online stores. Table: Cimex

The work of the Correos de Cuba postal services will be limited in this first stage to Havana, as part of the trial period, and will be extended to the rest of the island when conditions are created in the provinces.

This modality of home service will also be offered by the commercial establishments of the Caribe Chain of Stores, which will begin on April 20 through the 5ta. y 42 store, in the Havana municipality of Playa.

The payment of the service will be made at the time of the purchase of the products in the virtual space, once the option of home delivery is selected, through the Transfermóvil and Enzona gateways, to which any debit card can be used, whether of the Banco Metropolitano, BANDEC or Banco Popular de Ahorro, including those accounts opened in freely convertible currencies.

Throughout the network of virtual stores, priority will be given to the sale of identified basic-need products, mostly food and toiletries, in quantities previously approved.

These measures are in addition to other actions carried out by the Ministry of Domestic Trade to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 in Cuba, with a total of 669 infected and 18 deceased in the country, according to the official report from the close of this Saturday.

(Oncubanews)