Jakarta residents enjoy quiet shopping after exodus

Mariani Dewi , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 09/29/2008 8:46 PM | Jakarta

Jakarta residents shopped in peace as malls quietened down on Monday, two days ahead of the Idul Fitri celebration, after millions of migrants flocked Jakarta to spend the holiday in their hometowns.

Among them was the 22-year-old Tina, who was browsing through long, colorful tops at a stall on the ground floor of Ambassador Mall, Kuningan, when she told The Jakarta Post about her struggle to shop Friday.

"I came here after work on Friday and found it impossible to pick up anything as the mall was flooded with buyers. I could not even move. So I just went home to try my luck again today. It is much better now," the Jakarta resident said.

The mall, according to a seller, Maryati Sitorus, only had a- third of the weekend crowd and still much less than the previous Monday.

"We saw more visitors since the second week of Ramadan and it kept increasing until last weekend. Today, it is much lower," she said.

Many of her customers, she observed, were shopping for gifts for others, including relatives and domestic helpers.

"Many people have left so there are not many people left in Jakarta to shop," the middle-age woman said.

According the Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency's monitoring division, 2 million people had left the city as of Saturday night. Around 680,000 of them did so Saturday.

Jakarta, as the center of Indonesia's economy activities, is now home to 9.1 million people, 500,000 of which are aliens, people who stay in the city without proper identification or a clear permanent address.

Although the sudden quietness was expected by Maryati, the drop in sales was not.

"I have only sold half as much as last year. It seems like people can't afford as much as last year. The cheaper clothes, priced from Rp 50,000 to Rp 125,000 sell better this year. The ones above Rp 200,000 are almost untouched. Last year, we sold many of those," she said.

Ita, who sells dresses targeting below-30 buyers, experienced a similar decline in sales.

"People may be hit by the increasing prices so they have less to spend," she said.

On the contrary, another seller, Siregar, enjoyed higher sales this year.

"I made around Rp 4 million a day last weekend. Last year, I made at most around Rp 2.5 million. Some friends of mine also said they made more money this year," she said.

She said she did it by stocking various grades of clothes to suit any budget and admitted to have sold more lower-priced locally made items.

Similar reduction in visitors was seen in two other malls, Plaza Semanggi and Ratu Plaza. Until Saturday afternoon, both malls were sparse with visitors. (mri)

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