Yesterday, the Indian company that operates the Pepsi brand, send out an instruction that effectively doubled the price of the popular drink after weeks of shortages in traditional retail shops.

A case of 24 500ml bottles was supposed to have been selling for $89.76 ZWL all along. Now the new price is $170.00 ZWL for the same. This means that the wholesale price for each 500ml bottle is now around $7.08, expect to pay more if you are buying in a supermarket.

Expect to pay prices close to $9.50. You can see clearly what’s going on here. If not, allow us to speculate a bit. The new price is probably inspired by the current USD rate. Pepsi has always sold for $0.50 USD per bottle. Varum are probably trying to maintain that price.

Goods finding their way to the downtown cash market

While formal supermarkets have struggled to get Pepsi, it was never in short supply in downtown shops and on the street. These guys have a connect in pretty much every industry be it cooking oil or sugar, they take cash and pay in cash.

Companies love that, cash is off the books and can be easily used to buy the needed foreign currency on the black market without the authorities who have a fondness for freezing people’s accounts being the wiser.