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Kalam bookshop closing after 17 years
End of an era: A visitor browses shelves at the Kalam bookstore in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, on Monday
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span class="inline inline-center">End of an era: A visitor browses shelves at the Kalam bookstore in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, on Monday. Famous for selling books banned by the late dictator Soeharto, the store is set to close down on Sept. 30 due to a lack of customers. JP/Dewanti A. Wardhani
Esoteric bookstore Kalam, located in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, will close its doors on Sept. 30 after 17 years of serving patrons with its well-curated book collection.
Kalam bookstore, first opened in 1997, was popular in the early 2000s as a leftist haven, selling books that were banned in the country during former president Soeharto's 32-year reign.
Located at Jl. Utan Kayu 68-H, the bookstore is part of the Komunitas Utan Kayu, founded by prominent journalists and scholars including poet Goenawan Mohamad following the forced closure of three newspapers, Tempo, Editor and Detik, in 1994.
Staying true to its original purpose, Kalam bookstore continues to sell books that are rarely available in large bookstore chains. Books on communism, critiques of Soeharto and other thought-provoking page-turners can still be seen on display on its shelves. Dozens of novels and poetry anthologies by celebrated Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer are also neatly stacked.
According to store supervisor Dewi Arumiati Pattiasina, the bookstore's management has decided to close its doors because the store has been experiencing a fall in sales since 2009 because of the march of technology.
'People can now download books that were once only available in Kalam from the Internet. We can't compete with the Internet,' Dewi told The Jakarta Post on Monday at the bookstore.
She said that in the store's heyday, dozens of people would visit each day, purchasing books that were difficult to lay one's hands on elsewhere in the archipelago. However, with the rapid development of the Internet and gadgets, the store's sales gradually declined, she said.
Dewi added that the bookstore was likely to reopen some time but with a different concept.
'Currently, we're focusing on selling all the books that are left. The unsold books will be returned to the publishers. After that, maybe we will reopen with different stock,' she said.
Dewi further said that the books were currently on sale at a 20 to 50 percent discount.
'Since we announced the sale earlier this month, we've had a lot of visitors,' she said.
One visitor, 31-year-old Setyo Saputro, said that although he regretted the bookstore's closing, he said that he was not surprised. A regular customer at the bookstore, he said that he had monitored the store's slow decline since 2009.
'It's a shame that the bookstore is closing. However, I think Kalam's regular customers saw it coming. The bookstore has been deserted since 2009,' Setyo told the Post on Monday.
Setyo said that since most of Komunitas Utan Kayu's activities were moved to Salihara in Pasar Minggu in 2008, Kalam, deprived of patrons from among the audience, had become even quieter.
Setyo lamented that stores selling esoteric titles were few and far between in Jakarta.
'Frankly, I think books like those sold in Kalam are important for young people to read. You get a different perspective from what you're taught in school,' Setyo said.
He added that on Monday he had bought 38 books for Rp 400,000 (US$33.41). 'It's such a great bargain,' he said.
