The country’s first modern shopping center and one of the city’s longest-standing icons, the Sarinah Department Store, is planning a face-lift to compete with a host of glitzy newer malls.
PT Sarinah, the state-owned company that owns the Sarinah Department Store, said recently it planned to restore the center’s glory after years of stagnancy and being overshadowed by the city’s budding shopping centers.
“We currently have many competitors in the retail business, thus we’re going for repositioning and rebranding,” said Sarinah president director Jimmy Gani.
The building was officially opened in 1966 by Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, who was also Sarinah’s initiator.
His influence on the shopping center is most apparent in its name, Sarinah being the founding father’s former nanny, who he said had left such a lasting impression on him that he named the department store after her.
The store was built on the spoils of the war with the Japanese, and currently has branches in Yogyakarta and Malang, East Java.
One of its greatest claims to fame was the establishment in 1991 on its ground floor of the country’s first ever McDonald’s.
In 1984, the 15-story Sarinah building caught fire, while last year, it became the center of attention on rumors it was leaning over.
However, the management at the time said the land subsidence was only affecting the southern section of the building, which is not connected to the main part, and housed several ATMs.
“Sarinah’s concern for the local products has been recognized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, which gave Sarinah the role of ‘The Indonesian Emporium’, making it the center of activity and souvenirs coming from Sabang [Aceh] to Merauke [Papua], from Weh Island [Aceh] to Rote Island [East Nusa Tenggara],” Jimmy said.
He added the store would maintain its role in tourism by partnering with hotels in providing shuttle buses to bring tourists staying in these hotels to shop at Sarinah.
The hotels will also chip on to renovate the store’s fifth, sixth and seventh floors, scheduled to finish in 2010.
“The designs for the sixth and seventh floors will be very different from how they look now,” Jimmy said.
“We’ll provide private shopping facilities for customers, as well as an exclusive room for customers who require privacy. If necessary, we’ll even have models to display the clothes.”
Renovation plans also include exhibit areas for various culinary, cultural and fashion products.
Jimmy added the store wanted to accommodate small and medium enterprises to provide the products.
“At present we have 600 small to medium enterprises [represented in the store],” he said. “We’re targeting to get more than 1,000.”
Currently, the location where Sarinah sits is part of bustling area where cafes, clubs, and fast food joints open 24 hours everyday in a week. Regardless of the decreasing fame, the name Sarinah itself is still widely used to refer to the area. (dis)
