Bargain hunters flock to bazaar

By Ivy Susanti

JAKARTA (JP): "Cheap T-shirt of SEA Games ... please come in and have a look," a salesman shouted incessantly in broken English to attract the flow of passersby to his stall.

T-shirts with Hanoman -- the Games mascot -- and the printed Games symbols swung from every available part of his 12-square- meter booth's ceiling, along with colorful banners indicating the reduced prices.

For the last week athletes, officials, supporters and the general public have thronged the 100-meter-long blue tent set up in front of the Jl. Sudirman gate to the Senayan Sports Complex.

What were they looking for exactly?

"I am looking for good quality decorations that can be displayed at the office. I want to give them to the head of the company where I work," said Malaysian shuttler, and double silver medalist, Ong Ewe Hock.

However, he said he could not find what he was looking for anywhere in the bazaar, which offered many things besides T- shirts and sports equipment.

"I think the bazaar is not that interesting. I came here to find souvenirs, not to buy clothes," he said.

The chief of the Laotian mission, Souknara, disagreed, saying that he liked the fact that there were so many items to choose from.

He was comparing the bazaar's prices with those in shops he had visited in the city.

"The batik in the batik shop cost about Rp 36,000 (US$10) to Rp 38,000 and had a nice design, but the same material here costs Rp 40,000, and the design is not as good," he said.

"I also want to buy souvenirs for all my family and my office mates. Here, the T-shirts are cheap and they are very nice."

He was not too worried about the quality of the products.

"It's normal that they sell fake products, we find the same thing wherever we go. Anyway, people do it for living," he said.

The president of the Myanmar Badminton Federation, Kyinyuni, said that he was going to buy souvenirs for his children and his athletes, who could not participate in the Games.

"I want to buy something as a reminder of our participation in the 19th SEA Games. It's a very Good games. Unfortunately, we lost to the Indonesian team, so we are going home earlier than we had hoped," he said.

An official of timer Seiko timer William R. Hosford expressed his excitement over the prices.

"I don't care about the quality as long as it is cheap," said the 22-year-old Hosford.

Financial capacity determined most people's shopping list.

"Malaysians were top of the list of our customers. Brunei and Singapore came next, and the rest were Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Indonesian," said T-Shirt seller Syahrul.

He speculated that the visitors from Malaysia and Brunei had better incomes than those from other countries in the region.

Sellers seem to be as happy as most of the buyers. Syahrul said he could make Rp 500,000 to Rp 2,000,000 a day by selling T- shirts printed with the Games' mascot and symbol.

"We try to provide a better service than other stalls. So we asked our friend who can speak English to help us attract passerby," he said.

An operational manager from an East Java cooperation council, M. Djunaedi, said some Malaysians bought up his entire batik T- Shirt stock.

He said that the Philippines and Thais preferred to buy woodcraft souvenirs.

A Balinese craft salesman, Wayan Wirata, said most of his buyers were Thais, who were particularly attracted to the wooden masks.

The bazaar lasts until Oct. 21.