A man and a woman were unloading dozens of parcels from a pickup truck just as the rain stopped pouring down one afternoon in Cikini, Central Jakarta. After a while, two cars full of officers in uniform pulled over beside them.

As several officers of the Jakarta Transportation Agency got out of their vehicle, Kokoi and her employee started to put their parcels back into the pickup truck.

“They have been here in the past few days,” Kokoi told The Jakarta Post on Saturday. “Can you believe that they were going to relocate us just two weeks before Idul Fitri?”

The Ramadhan month has been the most-anticipated period for parcel owners, many of whom opened their businesses on the Cikini sidewalk, a place known as the parcel hub of the capital. The prices for parcels range from Rp 250,000 (US$18.75) to more than Rp 1,000,000 each.

Just like at Christmas and other holidays, many people are looking to buy parcels for their colleagues or associates ahead of the religious holiday.

Located just in front of the Cikini train station, 68 parcel vendors opened their businesses for 24 hours during Ramadhan in the lead-up to Idul Fitri, indicating the high expectations they have during that time of the year.

Locals say the parcel and gift-wrapping businesses at the Cikini Station started in the 1970s when a number of vendors opened parcel-service shops. Over the years, the industry saw a surge in the number of vendors and the place grew into an iconic shopping destination in the capital.

However, for Endang the fortune brought by the holidays is not as good as it used to be. The parcel business that she opened in the 1990s has been showing declining income for the past few years, a trend that was started when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) categorized giving parcels to public officials as a form of graft.

The business is getting harder since recently Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama said he considered that the vendors were causing heavy congestion in the neighborhood because of the customers who parked their cars on the sidewalks. The governor said he planned to relocate them to a nearby area.

Dedi Arief Darsono, Menteng district head, who came on Saturday afternoon to the street vendors area with dozens of officers from the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the Transportation Agency said the relocation plan was postponed and they would only supervise the traffic to make sure the businesses did not cause congestion.

“I assure you the officers would not hesitate to tow any car parked on the sidewalks in this area,” Dedi said. The vendors responded by cheering, as they would be able to stay until the Idul Fitri holiday.

However, another parcel vendor, Dian Rezeki, said that despite the relief provided by that announcement, the future remained uncertain for her as the relocation space provided by the city administration on Jl. Penataran, Central Jakarta, was in a quiet area.

Despite being located less than a kilometer from the current parcel vendors’ area, she was pessimistic that the place would be good for business as the current area has been known as the “parcels district” for years.

“Most of my income came from my loyal customers. I don’t know how I will survive if we have to move from this spot,” she said.

In 2013, the vendors were relocated to a nearby Cikini Gold Center in a bid to make way for the station’s renovation, but they eventually returned to their original places.

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