Business slow at Tanah Abang, Glodok

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Five days after the Idul Fitri holidays, business was still sluggish in Tanah Abang and Glodok on Friday. More shops were open but few buyers visited the usually busy business centers.

Normally, it is difficult to move along the alleys of Tanah Abang's three-story market building in Central Jakarta as people and merchandise are packed into every available space.

Traffic around the wholesale market was not as congested as usual as not many private cars parked or trucks stopped to load or unload merchandise in the street.

"Most traders are not expecting to be busy during these days because their customers have not yet reopened for business. Traders here mainly serve the wholesale market for retailers who come from throughout the country," Abdurrahman, a shop attendant at a curtain and clothes shop, said.

The retail market is also served but it is not that significant.

After his shop opened at around 8 a.m. until it closed in the late afternoon, there were only two or three visitors to his shop, which was located on the first floor.

Traders predicted that business would return to normal after the New Year, when retailers wanted to renew their stocks.

"Still, we have to open our shop just in case people want to shop here. Although only one or two items might be sold, that's good enough," said a man who has worked for more than 15 years as a shop attendant.

Big traders can take slow business into account, but the hardest hit (by the long holidays) were the parking attendants at the shopping center.

Normally, said the parking attendants, they could take around Rp 100,000 per day and, after deductions, as a portion had to be remitted to the City Parking Agency, they would be left with about Rp 30,000 per day -- an amount that still had to be divided among several people.

"After Lebaran (Idul Fitri) Rp 10,000 a day is very good. We get less than that these days and spend it all on food and cigarettes," a parking attendant complained.

On the other side of town at Harco, the shopping center for electronic goods in Glodok, West Jakarta, many shops were open but only some enjoyed good business.

Many visitors went straight past the first floor of the shopping center, where most of the shops sold television sets and stereos, as they went directly to the second floor to browse various electronic games and other equipment.

Meimei, owner of Jumbo Games shop, said that in the last two days, many parents had come to buy Playstation or its accessories for their children.

"I've hardly had any time at all to sit down as many people have shopped here, mostly parents with their children. I think this is because it is just after Idul Fitri and children have a lot of money so they ask their parents to bring them here," she said.

A game set, which included two joysticks and 10 free game-CDs, was priced Rp 1,050,000.

She acknowledged that the trade in television sets, stereos and computers was really slow at present.

"For such goods, it also very much depends on the (US) dollar exchange rate," she said, adding that her parents also owned a shop selling television sets in the complex.