Venezuelans Used To Cross Borders For Luxuries; Now It's For Toilet Paper

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/11/22/503011843/venezuelans-used-to-cross-borders-for-luxuries-now-its-for-toilet-paper

The town of Maicao, in Colombia's Guajira Desert, just a few miles from the Venezuelan border, used to be jammed with visiting Venezuelans snapping up TVs, computers and 12-year-old Scotch. On good days, Jaider Heras, who owns a liquor warehouse, sold up to 300 cases of whisky and rum. But amid Venezuela's worst economic crisis in modern history, Heras is struggling.
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The country is also grappling with triple-digit inflation as well as critical shortages of medicine and food. Now Venezuelans shoppers in Macao stock up on basic foods, toilet paper and other staples that are hard to get in their country.

"Look how I have had to change my store," Heras says as he points to boxes, bags and canisters of food. "I now sell rice, sugar and cooking oil, which is what Venezuelans are looking for."
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But tough as things are on the Colombian side of the border, conditions are still better than in Venezuela. That's why some Venezuelans are moving here. Immigration officials say about 65,000 Venezuelans have relocated to Colombia since the land border re-opened for pedestrians.