CARACAS, Venezuela — Shuttered stores, empty streets, confusion over the cost of basic items: the day after President Nicolas Maduro introduced measures to invigorate Venezuela’s economy found the country in turmoil and its population afraid his “program for recovery, growth and economic prosperity” would lead it deeper into depression.

The measures included increasing taxes, raising the price of gas for some buyers who do not register with the government, and slashing five zeros out of the devalued currency, the bolívar, which was renamed the sovereign bolívar.

The currency change left many consumers — and vendors — bewildered. On Monday, the day the new economic plan was rolled out, streets were quiet and most shops were closed, as Mr. Maduro had decreed a national holiday. But most remained closed on Tuesday as shopkeepers tried to understand how to reset prices in the new currency and buyers struggled to make the conversion.

Rosa Peña walked into a small shoe shop that was open in the low-income neighborhood of Petare, in Caracas, to look for flip-flops for her granddaughter. She brought a cellphone, which she borrowed from her daughter, to calculate what she would pay for the shoes in the new currency and to compare that with what she would have paid in the old, familiar one.