In the 1980s everyone in the Greater Jakarta area planning to equip their houses with the latest electronics had one thing in mind: to buy it at the Glodok City market in West Jakarta.

Glodok won its image as an electronics heaven in the 1980s when the market reached its pinnacle. Glodok ceased operations after suffering in the 1998 riots when market compounds were raided and burned. It resumed operations in the early 2000s, trying to reclaim its place as Jakarta’s top electronics center.

However, three decades after its heyday, Glodok displays subdued trade activities. In contrast to the blaring music broadcast by vendors through various models of loudspeakers, less sound is made by people strolling the aisles or buyers trying to haggle over prices.

Vendors have complained they can sell zero products in a day. The situation has been going on for the past two years, said Ayong, a vendor who opened a CCTV and speaker shop in Glodok City in 2004. To keep the business running, he had to cut down on the number of his employees.

“To minimize costs, I have to empower the remaining two staff members to help me manage the store instead of hiring new ones,” said Ayong to The Jakarta Post on Sunday, adding that he pays Rp 100 million (US$7,519) per year to rent two kiosks.

“Three years ago, we could still steadily sell a number of products. However, it’s difficult now to even sell one,” bemoaned Aping, a store attendant.

Once hailed for its complete collections of electronics sold at affordable prices, now there
are many kiosks empty of vendors.

There are 1,167 kiosks still actively in business of the 1,880 available in the market, according to data from city market operator PD Pasar Jaya that oversees the seven-story Glodok City electronics center.

The sluggish business could be a result of the rapid development of Jakarta’s satellite cities of Bekasi, Depok, Bogor in West Java and Tangerang in Banten, PD Pasar Jaya president director Arief Nasrudin said. The outskirts of the capital now have their own shopping malls, including electronics centers, he added.

Glodok is not the only shopping center struggling to survive amid tight business and the emergence of online shopping services. Big malls like WTC Mangga Dua and Mangga Dua Square, both in North Jakarta, as well as the hip and artsy Pasar Santa in South Jakarta, suffer similar problems. Vendors see more quiet days and fewer people visiting the shops. In WTC Mangga Dua there are more shops closed than those that remain open for business.

Anas Nasrun, 42, a chicken noodle soup seller at Pasar Santa, said during the peak time of the conversion of the traditional market into trendy cafes and shops three years ago he used to serve 100 portions a day. Now, he feels grateful if he has 10 customers enjoying his noodles in one day.

Pasar Santa suffered a major blow when the construction of an elevated road for Transjakarta Corridor 13 on Jl. Woltermonginsidi started in 2015, causing massive traffic gridlock and preventing people from visiting the market. Pasar Santa vendors, however, have recently tried to bounce back by adopting methods of selling online and using app-based delivery services.

Jakarta’s residents are known for their love of malls. Jakarta has been dubbed the city with the most shopping centers in the world with more than 170, according to 2014 data from real estate service company Cushman & Wakefield. Despite the quiet conditions in the aforementioned places, people still flock to popular malls spread throughout the capital and places like the Tanah Abang textile market in Central Jakarta, undeterred by severe traffic congestion.

The head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi Jaya), Afifuddin Kalla, said growing online shops might have also played a part in changing people’s purchasing patterns, leaving shopping centers like Glodok behind, he said.

“The customers nowadays have different tastes to those in the 1990s. We have to follow the shopping patterns of the millennial generation because they are our future customers,” he said.

Popular

PDI-P will likely be part of opposition: Ganjar

Indonesia one step from Olympics after beating South Korea

Bahlil leads task force to boost sugar, bioethanol production in Papua