In America, if you're out in the streets with giant stacks of cash, you're probably a rapper on a jewelry-buying spree or a professional athlete who is talking into it like a phone. If you're in Venezuela, however, you're probably just going to the grocery store to buy eggs.
When the country's oil-based economy tanked in 2014, the socialist government started printing more money. Now the nation's currency, known as the bolivar, has been devalued so much by what economists say appears to be hyperinflation that big stacks of money are required to make even regular-sized purchases. Inflation there is reportedly expected to hit 720 percent this year.
According to Bloomberg, shopkeepers in Venezuela have given up on counting all the paper money needed to make transactions, and instead are using scales to just weigh it instead. The Washington Post reports that people can't use regular wallets anymore, and are carrying their cash in backpacks, handbags and cardboard boxes.
The situation is making for some interesting photographs, as people pay for things like a purchase at a bakery (seen above) with a big wad of money. A shopkeeper in Caracas told the Post that the sale of one pack of cigarettes alone will add 20 100-bolivar bills to his earnings, which he totes home at night in a big plastic bag. Below is the amount of bolivars it takes to equal $100 in U.S. currency.
Here's what you're dealing with to buy a dozen eggs.
#Incredible You will need this much cash to buy a dozen eggs in poverty stricken Venezuela. via @Imag3n pic.twitter.com/vhoz2XMW3Z
This is another shop weighing cash.
Right now, the largest note in Venezuela is 100 bolivars, though the country plans to help fix this situation by soon issuing 500 to 20,000-bolivar notes.
