Thursday might have seemed just one of those regular days for most Jakartans, but to beer drinker Dwi Setianto, 27, it was a day of sunlit glory, for it was yesterday that he finally knew for sure that beer would be back on the shelves at minimarkets throughout the capital.

Dwi doesn’t need to go to hoitytoity high-end cafés selling expensive booze anymore.

“At the cafés, the prices are usually much more expensive,” he said, adding that drinking beer was a common thing for urbanites like the residents of Jakarta. “Drinking beer is a lifestyle choice for many Jakartans.”

Dwi had not been aware that the Jakarta administration recently allowed the sale of beer in convenient stores. No minimarkets in the capital displayed the beverage, whose alcoholic content is less than 5 percent.

The Indomaret minimarket in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, for example, has not put any beer products on display.

“We have not received any instructions [from management] about it,” said Garry Adam, the minimarket’s shop worker, on Thursday. “It has been a year since we sold beers.”

PT Indomarco Prismatama, which operates Indomaret minimarkets throughout the country, has yet to allow beer sales in its retail shops because the management is not yet aware of recent policy changes to alcohol sales in Jakarta, said PT Indomarco Prismatama spokeswoman Nenny Kristyawati.

Similarly, PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya is not yet selling alcoholic beverages at its minimarket chain Alfamart due to a lack of awareness on the Jakarta administration’s current policy, said its corporate communications manager Nur Rachman.

However, through spokespersons, both retailers expressed their appreciation for the administration’s move and promised to tighten rules surrounding the sale of alcohol by obliging its minimarket officers to check the ID cards of buyers. They also pledged to put up announcements prohibiting underage children from buying beer.

In line with the companies, the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) warmly welcomed the administration’s decision even though the association has yet to hear any official announcement about permits for beer sales in minimarkets.

“We are ready [to sell alcoholic beverages] and fully support it,” Aprindo deputy chairman, Tutum Rahanta told The Jakarta Post on Thursday, adding that demand for beer was high in Jakarta, especially in the areas where expatriates reside. “Jakarta is an international city. So it is laughable to limit the selling of beer,” he said.

Convenient stores were previously prohibited from selling any kind of alcohol, including beer, as former trade minister Rachmat Gobel issued a regulation on the control of alcohol in April last year in a bid to “protect young generations from the dangers of alcohol”.

However, five months after that, the ministry, under Minister Thomas Trikasih Lembong, relaxed the policy and handed the rights to control alcohol production, distribution and sales to regional administrations, including the Jakarta administration.

“In our [city] regulation, it is clearly stated that beer is allowed to be sold at minimarkets, but only to adults,” said Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama on Thursday.

The latter regulation stipulates that liquor classified as type A, or comprising 1 to 5 percent alcoholic content, can be sold at retail stores, like minimarkets and supermarkets, as well as other stores with a floor width of at least 12 square meters.

“As we are now re-using our own regulations, beer should be back at minimarkets again. It is classified as type A alcohol,” said Ahok, adding that the administration did not need to announce permits for beer sales. (fac)      

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