USTDC

Photo of USTDC courtesy of Les Duffin

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Black Marketing in Taiwan

Another hat tip today to John Quinn for identifying the Google News Archives as a resource for articles about Taiwan. There was a story in the August 21, 1965 edition of the Deseret Times (Salt Lake City, I believe) about black marketing in Taiwan that I've clipped and added below. You can click on each section to view a larger and easier to read image.

By the time I arrived at TDC in 1973, I don't recall that this was a major issue. On the other hand, as an unaccompanied guy who rarely used the commissary or the liquor store, I probably wouldn't have been impacted by it as much as many others.

I'd like to hear comments from the rest of you about this. Of course anyone directly involved in this practice would probably not want to discuss it, but what about not being able to find items in the exchange or commissary because it was finding its way to embassies or to retailers in Taipei?


1 comment:

Misty said...

I think by the 70s this had been tightened up. There was a store in Tienmu called "Susan's Kitchen" (anyone remember it?) that sold a lot of imported US goods mostly to ex-pats and people who didn't have access to the PX. I remember the American MPs raiding it once but the very next day it was open again and back in business.