A 22-year-old Cuban woman who had never stepped into a supermarket outside the island starred in one of the most talked-about videos of the week on Instagram. @pouziiuwu_, a content creator with over 130,000 followers, published a reel on Wednesday showcasing her first visit to a supermarket in the Dominican Republic, and the reaction was immediate: astonishment, excitement, and an implicit comparison to the scarcity she left behind in Cuba.
From the very first second of the video, the young woman does not hide her feelings: "Welcome to my first super market in the Dominican Republic. This place is amazing. God, the fruit is so beautiful it looks like a toy. I've never seen such vibrant fruits in my 22 years."
What for any Dominican is a routine visit to the market, for her was an almost surreal experience.
The creator walks through the aisles with the camera on, constantly pointing out details: the variety of sweets, the makeup products, the household items. "Supermarkets literally have everything, from makeup to a pile of really cute stuff," she says in the video.
One of the moments that drew the most attention was his reaction to the layout of the store: “Since this supermarket has two floors, it's for you to take the cart upstairs. This is that thing that’s a conveyor platform. Technology, mami.” For millions of Cubans used to empty shelves, an escalator for carts is indeed technology.
She also emphasized that the prices "are not expensive" and that the Dominican people surprised her with their warmth: "The Dominican Republic is paradise, and the people here are wonderful. You ask them something, and they start talking to you as if they've known you all your life."
The reel accumulated over 36,500 likes and 854 comments in less than 24 hours, making it one of the most viral videos of the week within the content of the Cuban diaspora.
The video is part of a growing phenomenon known as the "supermarket shock," where Cubans experiencing life outside the island for the first time react with astonishment to the abundance of basic products that are scarce or non-existent in Cuba. A 15-year-old Cuban girl in a Dominican supermarket accumulated 1.9 million views in a video published on July 6, and the influencer known as "La Pitón" went viral on June 30 after trying a Burger King hamburger for the first time, also in Dominican territory.
The Dominican Republic has become one of the preferred destinations for Cubans who emigrate or travel abroad. More than 100,000 Cubans traveled to the country in 2025, and 1,245 obtained legal residency just in the first eight months of that year, according to the Dominican General Directorate of Migration.
@pouziiuwu closed the video with an invitation to her followers: "Let me know what you'd like to see in the next video and join me on this adventure."
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