Early birds have their own market for sweet snacks
Early birds have their own market for sweet snacks
By Carl Chairul
JAKARTA (JP): The recession has many companies fearing for
their future. But Mak Taci, a snack distributor at the Senen
market, does not seem fazed. She can smile because business is as
brisk as usual.
"Now I'm ready to call it a day," she chirped gaily to a
visitor at 6 a.m. last Sunday.
Packing up her stall when most other businesses have not
opened?
That is what Mak Taci and hundreds of her fellow distributors
do. This robust Chinese woman from West Sumatra revealed how she
opened her business before the crack of dawn, the time when
customers and snack vendors start purchasing their merchandise
for the day.
"We are just like a flock of bats," she said, wrapping the
remaining snacks for her last customer. "We go home to our nests
when you normal people start your business in the morning."
Pasar Senen never sleeps. The area outside the main building,
including the canopied walkway facing Senen Atrium, is used by
sidewalk traders under a rotating system.
During daytime, this part of the complex teems with local
traders selling clothes and accessories. At midnight, the wares
available shift to snack and cake distributors who park their
mobile kiosks outside the area.
Many varieties of snacks and cakes are sold here, ranging from
cheap cassava crackers to black forest cakes. Buyers come from as
far as Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi.
"We are in the market this early because we do not have time
to do the buying later on," said Abau, a vendor who runs two
restaurants in an office complex and a snack outlet in a
hospital.
"You'll have to spend three times as much if you buy these
snacks from a bakery," added Sandy, whose mother runs a catering
business for seminar organizers.
"If you attend a seminar in a five-star hotel, don't assume
the snacks during the coffee break are provided by their chefs.
They come from either Pasar Senen or Pasar Melawai."
Pasar Melawai in Blok M, South Jakarta, is another early
morning market, but it is not as big as Senen in its snack range.
Profit
Daily profits among the hundreds of traders reach millions of
rupiah through sales of delicacies like bolu kukus, getuk lindri
and kroket. Prices begin at a mere Rp 100 a piece.
Kompas daily reported last year that traders on average took
home a daily profit of Rp 1 million.
"It's convenient to buy goods here," a woman said. "I usually
place orders one or two days in advance.
I only tell them the type of party or convention I am catering
for, and the number of expected guests. They decide the amount
and the snacks and cakes to provide."
Generally, distributors get their merchandise from large
producers called cukong (literally "boss") based on consignment.
This means they do not need to invest and risk losses. Unsold
cakes are returned to the producers.
Mak Taci is an exception.
"I make my own snacks and sell them myself. This way, I make a
much bigger profit," she said, snatching two pieces of lemper, a
glutinous rice cake stuffed with ground meat or chicken, from
the snack box of her neighbor, Trindil.
"Excuse me, this is my breakfast," she said, generously
offering one of the cakes to the visitor.
Trindil feigned anger and stood with arms akimbo. "She can't
live without stealing my lemper!"
Trindil has another reason for not taking her merchandise from
the producers.
"I have a name of my own," she said proudly, throwing one of
the lemper to a thankful parking attendant.
"When it comes to lemper, people always look for Trindil.
After all, why do you think Mak Taci is so fat?"
At the end of their business hours, distributors and cukong
exchange snacks.
"I'm fed up of my own cakes," one producer said, holding up a
plastic bag full of different snacks gathered through exchange.
Taking a snack or two from neighbors not only reflects
intimacy between the early birds. Some also believe that having
merchandise taken (or stolen, as Trindil jokingly phrased it) by
other traders brings luck for boosting sales.
There is a changing of the business guard at 8 a.m. Daytime
vendors arrive and the early birds are ready to go home. But
before they leave, there is one final thing to do: breakfast
together. They raid foodstalls at the other end of the parking
lot.
The commotion at the foodstalls is caused by both the arriving
and departing vendors, including those who run their business on
the permanent premises in the main building.
They gobble breakfast standing up and chat noisily. Traders
exchange information on what is going on during their daily
"standing ovation".
There is, however, a slight mood of competition between the
permanent tenants and the sidewalk traders.
"But we don't kill each other," one of them said. "Trading
here is just like traffic in a heavily congested road.
"We have to give way to others to keep everything moving,
albeit at a slow pace. Otherwise, the whole thing will come to a
standstill."
Simple words, but a philosophy that could well be adopted by
those big businessmen forever at each others' throats in pursuit
of being number one.