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Jakartans and malls, a misconstrued love affair?
A whopping 186 retail centers exist in Greater Jakarta, of which 123 are located in Jakarta proper.
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Visitors ride the escalators on July 20, 2019 at Grand Indonesia shopping mall in Central Jakarta. (Shutterstock/Ko Aun Lee)
F
or college student Syifa Fatimah Azzahra, who was born, raised and grew up in Jakarta with a fondness for malls, shopping complexes have always been her go-to place to seek solace or to find whatever she needs.
She recalled that her parents often took her to Cilandak Town Square, known colloquially as Citos, and Pondok Indah Mall, or PIM, located respectively 5 and 7 kilometers from her home in Pasar Minggu and the pinnacle of South Jakarta's shopping destinations in the late 1990. A third mall, Pejaten Village, opened in the area only as Syifa entered junior high school and in a location much closer to her house.
Today, shopping malls are almost as ubiquitous as convenience stores and found at every major junction, attracting visitors with their rows of shops, air-conditioned spaces and sales festivals. Some have earned special monikers from the public, like "Sency" for Senayan City Mall, "Kokas" for Kota Kasablanka Mall and the aforementioned Citos and PIM.
The city is currently home to 84 shopping malls and 39 trade centers, according to property consulting company Colliers International. Malls have also mushroomed in its satellite cities to total 186 shopping centers in Greater Jakarta, comprising 130 malls and 56 trade centers. Colliers defines shopping malls as tenanted commercial buildings, while trade centers offer retail spaces for sale.
Nearly 200 shopping destinations, and yet four new malls are to open in South Jakarta: Senayan Park, Mall at District 8, AEON Mall Southgate Tanjung Barat and Pondok Indah Mall 3 (PIM 3).
In 2011, then-governor Fauzi Bowo issued a temporary moratorium on retail properties, but this was not enforced by law, so developers have continued to build sprawling shopping centers.
According to the head of the Indonesian Shopping Center Association (APPBI), Alexander Stefanus Ridwan, 10,000 to 30,000 people visit a Jakarta mall every day. This figure generally increased on weekends for popular malls to reach 65,000 to 100,000 people per day, he said.
