In an article about the similarities between today’s Venezuela and Zimbabwe of the 2000s, The Economist took a look at some of the creative ways that people are getting around price controls:

• Rice might be price controlled. But add a bit of garlic to it and now its garlic rice and nobody thought to put price controls on that.
• Sell one roll of toilet paper to a consumer and you have to sell it for the official price. Sell a thousand rolls of toilet paper to a consumer and it’s now a business to business sale, which doesn’t have to comply with price controls.
• Transporting goods that will be sold for a pittance in Venezuela? Just drive across the border to Columbia after bribing the poorly paid customs officers, and sell goods for the true price there.

The full article has more details. Read it here.

Source: The Economist