A 1989 video exposed the socialist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu visiting a Bucharest grocery store and a bread store. Greeted outside the door with flowers which he unceremoniously dumped into the arms of his minions, Ceausescu waved at the “adoring crowds.” He touched a few loaves of bread as if he really cared about what his people ate.
The shelves were bursting with food, bread, pastries, salamis, cheeses, meat, sugar, cooking oil, and other items that the poor citizens fought over in endless lines every day and often came home empty-handed, dreaming about a delicious meal while staring at their empty kitchens.