Affordable meals are saviors for workers at lunch time in the upscale business centers like the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in South Jakarta. Food vendors in the area are using a unique method that has gone viral recently: They serve meals through holes in a wall some 50 meters away from the skyscrapers.

Vendors behind the wall, such as Gunanti Gunaria, 43, have taken advantage of their location in a parking lot near the Grand Lucky store in the business district by providing affordable meals for workers in the area. She shares the spot behind the wall with four other vendors who serve customers through three square holes.

For Gunanti, the business is quite lucrative as she claims her small stall from which she sells rice, assorted vegetables, meat and fish earns her at least Rp 500,000 (US$36) daily.

“We actually wanted to try someplace else to set up the stall, such as inside an office building, but I haven’t saved up money for that yet,” Gunanti said.

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Vendors like her mostly operate from their own homes or relatives’ houses that border SCBD. They pay about Rp 25,000 per month for waste disposal to the Senayan subdistrict office.

She said she pays attention to cleanliness as her customers in the area are not only blue collar workers.

A customer buys food and a drink through a hole in a wall at a food stall in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in South Jakarta on Monday. The food stall is popular among workers around the area as it sells food at a lower price than most restaurants in the area. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

A delivery worker for a grocery store in SCBD, Noto Sugiarto, 48, said he frequented the parking lot, not just to take quick breaks, but to get quick bites through Gunanti’s hole in the wall.

On Tuesday at noon, he ordered a plate of rice, long beans and fried pomfret, with hot tea, that cost him only Rp 15,000.

“There’s a canteen [inside SCBD] actually, but most of them are upscale; the prices are way too high for me,” Noto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

He said the vendors behind the wall are also the closest as delivery workers like him park their trucks there.

Workers in other business districts also take time to get out of their buildings in a hunt for affordable meals.

Riri Nabafath, 18, a food and beverage stall employee at the Grand Indonesia mall in Central Jakarta, prefers to eat at street vendors near the mall instead of the canteen provided for the employees inside the mall.

“Inside the canteen there are not too many choices for meals. Besides, the prices here are more affordable compared to at the canteen,” Riri said.

She said she only spent about Rp 16,000 for a bowl of instant noodles with eggs and ice tea from a street vendor just outside the upscale mall, while inside the mall’s canteen she could spend about Rp 30,000 per meal.

For young executives, the food from street vendors outside of his building in another business district in Karet, Setiabudi, South Jakarta is also a reasonable option. For example, private employee Samuel Tobing, 29, preferred to find places to eat along Jl. Komando Raya near his office.

“It’s flexible here because there are a lot of choices, unlike at the canteen inside the office building that has higher prices,” Samuel said, adding that on the street he spent Rp 20,000 for a meal and a drink.

According to research done by the Rame Rame Jakarta (RRJ) volunteer group, meals from roadside food stalls, even in business areas such as Karet in South Jakarta, only cost about Rp 13,000, compared to from restaurants in the same area that charge up to Rp 90,000 for a meal and a drink.

Workers save up to Rp 18.5 million per year by buying their lunches at roadside vendors.

RRJ cofounder Andesha Hermintomo said the existence of informal vendors near high rise buildings in business districts shows the disparity between the formal sector of upscale cafes and restaurants inside office building and what the workers need.

“Most of the workers around the office area of Sudirman-Thamrin need affordable lunches; it’s the reality. Even lunches inside office canteens are relatively pricey,” Andesha told the Post.

He said street vendors and food stalls near office centers were an important part of Jakarta’s economy and should not be viewed as competitors to formal restaurants because they served different people.