Word: meats
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Those waiting in line, mostly working women or elderly pensioners, stand grim-faced, speaking little and frequently checking the time. If they wait too long in the meat line, they may find no fresh bread, milk or cheese. Some shoppers solve this problem by having someone hold a place for them in one line while they scurry over to another shop and queue up for something else. That tactic has its risks. If the first line moves too fast, the shopper might find that he has lost his place when he gets back...
...aspect of the whole maddening charade is that all the hours of queuing do not begin to satisfy the shopper's needs. In the first place, purchases are limited by a strict rationing system that allows the average Pole a monthly allotment of only 6½ Ibs. of meat, 2 Ibs. of sugar, 2 Ibs. of flour, 10 oz. of detergent, twelve packs of cigarettes and a pint of vodka. That, as a gray-haired Warsaw pensioner wryly notes, is "too little to live on and too much to die from...
Moreover, the shopper who hands his 2-in. by 3-in. ration coupon to a clerk is never sure whether even that meager allotment will be available. Many Poles never got their full share of meat last month. In spite of rationing, supplies of detergent and cigarettes have also fallen short of demand. Says one Warsaw woman: "I am 75, and I remember rationing under the Nazis. At least then you could be sure of getting what you had coupons...
...items. Those with friends or relatives abroad may get some of what they need via parcel post. Others resort to barter: a mechanic might trade two quarts of motor oil to a salesgirl for a pound of coffee; in Silesia, the miners are reportedly trading coal to farmers for meat. For exorbitant prices, or hard Western currency, almost anything can be gotten on the black market. Sample prices: blue jeans, $180; one pint of vodka...
...nimble entrepreneurs who offer abundant quantities of fruits and vegetables at prices slightly higher than the state stores. A free-market egg costs about 40?, for example, compared with 30? for one in a state store. The more wealthy city dweller may drive out into the country and buy meat directly and illegally from a farmer. One Gdansk bureaucrat admits that he and a neighbor buy whole pigs and then salt the meat down in barrels. Such stratagems have become so common that the government last month prohibited the sale of meat outside state stores. Reason: farmers were refusing...