A Cuban resident in the United States shared on TikTok this Tuesday the complete journey of her shopping trip at Dollar Tree: 113 dollars worth of various products intended for her family in Cuba, ranging from Oreo cookies and instant soups to candles, toothbrushes, and an iPhone charging cable.
Lisandra, who posts on TikTok as @lisi.rodriguez3, recorded a nearly three-minute video in which she showcases item by item everything she placed in her cart, with a clear motivation: "I want to bring everything that one can try here that they can't try over there."
Among the food items, the list included vanilla and strawberry sorbets, Oreo cookies, gummy candies, chips, marshmallows, garlic-flavored rolls, instant soups of chicken and beef —with five packets of each— a snack-type pasta, and pirulines.
Lisandra acknowledged that marshmallows are not to her personal taste, but she bought them anyway: "I don't really like them, but well, it's something they don't try over there."
In hygiene and cleaning, the purchase included absorbents, two rolls of paper napkins, toilet paper, multipurpose wipes, kitchen cloths, toothbrushes for children and adults, and acne patches.
The cart also included accessories and household items: a puzzle, makeup crayons, a headband, a cap for her sister —"she has curly hair, she had been asking me for one for a while"—, an iPhone charging cable, and two packs of candles. Regarding the latter, Lisandra reflected: "I don't know if they can be found much in Cuba right now, but for one twenty-five, six little candles are really good."
This practice is part of a well-established trend among the Cuban diaspora in the United States, documented since November 2024, which utilizes low-cost chains to maximize the number of products sent to the island within limited budgets. Other similar videos record purchases ranging from 21 to 120 dollars for the same destination.
The backdrop of these shipments is the deep crisis that Cuba is undergoing. The average state salary is around 7,000 pesos per month, while a pound of rice exceeds 400 pesos, a carton of 30 eggs costs around 3,000 pesos, and five kilograms of beans surpass 8,000 pesos. The dollar in the informal market climbed from 435 pesos in December 2025 to 670 pesos in July 2026.
The collapse of the official supply worsens the situation further. The Cuban Minister of Food Industry admitted in June 2026 that the rationed basket has not distributed oil, chicken, or yogurt so far this year, and children in Havana have gone over two months without receiving meat or ground beef through the supply booklet.
In that context, packages sent from Miami and other U.S. cities have become a means of survival for thousands of Cuban families, and Dollar Tree—where the base price in 2026 ranges from $1.25 to $1.50 per item—helps stretch every dollar to its fullest.
In April of this year, another Cuban spent 91 dollars at Dollar Tree to send a package to her mother and grandmother on the island, in a video that also generated significant resonance within the Cuban community on social media.
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