Cash-strapped people pawn their goods
JAKARTA (JP): It is a perennial scene after the Idul Fitri holiday, with state-run pawnshops overrun with people pawning their valuables to obtain badly needed cash.
Between 200 and 300 people toted their goods on Tuesday to the 40 pawnshops scattered throughout the greater Jakarta area.
While people in villages usually bring clothes and household goods to the pawnshops, Jakarta residents mostly bank on pawning gold jewelry.
Marshall Aritonang, spokesman for the Perum Pegadaian Jakarta pawnshop company which oversees Greater Jakarta and West Java's Bogor, Banten and northern coastal areas, said on Tuesday that hectic days shortly after Idul Fitri were commonplace.
"Before Idul Fitri, people usually take their pawned items so they could use them during the celebration. After that, they pawn them again."
Marshall said it seemed people needed more money this year their daily living expenses and finance their children's education. Schools reopened on Monday after a 40-day break for the Ramadhan fasting month and Idul Fitri.
Total credit paid on Tuesday by several pawnshops to cash- hungry customers was double the regular amount.
At the Jatinegara pawnshop in East Jakarta, the credit value on Tuesday reached some Rp 211 million, a sharp increase from the average of Rp 100 million distributed per day in normal periods.
"Our pawnshop started to be busy on the third day after Idul Fitri," said Djubaedi, head of the Jatinegara pawnshop.
Over 90 percent of the 200 items pawned at his office were gold and jewelry, he added.
"It has become a tradition for people, especially those from the lower economic class, to wear the jewelry during the festive season and then put them in the pawnshop after the festivities end," Djubaedi said while helping his personnel serve customers.
It was a similar story at Tanah Abang pawnshop in Central Jakarta. The amount of cash loaned to the customers totaled Rp 155 million on Tuesday alone; the pawnshop usually provided credit of some Rp 65 million per day.
"The number of customers during these days reaches some 300 people per day, much higher than regular days of 100 customers per day," said head of the Tanah Abang pawnshop Djumari.
Some opportunists, realizing that people queuing at the pawnshops are in desperate need of cash, have attempted to take advantage of the situation by directly approaching the pawnshop customers with offers to buy.
Such people could be seen on Tuesday hanging around and following customers at Senen pawnshop in Central Jakarta.
There were few takers.
Rahimsyah from Manggarai area insisted that he preferred to pawn his ring than sell it.
"I can still own the ring if I have money later," said the 26- year-old jobless man.
Rahimsyah said he purchased the ring together with his mother's bracelet from the same pawnshop a few days before Idul Fitri.
"I am forced to pawn it again to pay the medical bills of my mother, who fell sick after the Idul Fitri holiday."
He said he pawned his Rp 200,000 ring for Rp 75,000.
"I would have to pay a greater interest rate if I borrowed a bigger amount of money," Rahimsyah said.
The Senen pawnshop's head of administration, Sujud Sri Handoyo, said the company reimbursed a total of Rp 108 million of credit on Tuesday to about 250 customers. (ind)