Gift shops make debut in Jakarta

Gift shops make debut in Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): It isn't easy selecting a gift. Some people
spend hours shopping but find nothing. Others, who are too
desperate to think for a new idea, buy the same gift over and
over.

To meet the demand of gift hunters, keen entrepreneurs have
opened gift shops in Jakarta. Not only do they provide unique
items, but they can also help find gifts for all budget and wrap
the presents beautifully.

Chic Mart home accessories and art store, which opened at Jl.
Kemang Raya five years ago, is possibly the pioneer of gift shops
in the city.

"When we opened five years ago, we're the only one, but now,
just look, how many gift shops are in this street," Xania Maya
Christina, Chic Mart's director, told The Jakarta Post recently.

Xania said it was her mother's idea to open a store where
Indonesia craftspeople could sell their products. Later, to meet
the growing market and fiercer competition, Chic Mart gradually
started to import unique items from around the world.

"Now, we have to be creative if we want to sell something
different," said Xania.

However, today it is almost impossible to have items which are
not sold by other gift shops, she added.

"If we have something new, it's easy for others to copy or to
import the same things," she said.

To be different, the two-storied Chic Mart, which concentrates
on home accessories, offers an interior design service.

Chic Mart, 70 percent of whose buyers are expatriates, sells a
large range of home accessories in its nicely-decorated store. It
also has traditional Indonesian handicrafts like ikat, batik and
rattan, and environmentally friendly items like postcards printed
on recycled paper and miniature furniture. English translations
of Indonesian authors, like the short-story anthology Menagerie,
are also available.

A Naturale, which opened in Kemang, South Jakarta, late last
month, offers environmentally friendly items designed for those
who like clever works.

Among them are various kind of candles, candle holders, soap
bars shaped like shells, picture frames, recycled-paper boxes
decorated with shells, dried flowers, napkins and wooden
cupboards. They are artistically displayed in the deftly designed
shop.

The shop, designed like a Mexican hut, has rough walls and a
floor ornamented with pebbles. Unfortunately, air conditioners on
the walls ruin the natural feel of the shop.

Recycled paper is A Naturale's speciality. Writing pads,
envelopes and blank cards made of recycled paper are on the
shelf.

A Naturale's owner Elisa told the Post that she has a machine
to produce paper. "We can make paper any way we like, sometimes
we put rice, onion peels or just grass in it."

Most of products are made in Indonesia, said Elisa.

"We import some boxes from the Philippines and then we
decorate them with shells," Elisa said, pointing at a brown box
with a cover ornamented with shells and flowers.

Elisa opened the shop to give Jakartans new gift ideas, "We
choose environmentally friendly items as our main merchandise
because it's now trendy everywhere, like in the U.S., and
personally I like it too."

Despite its name, A Naturale is obviously not fanatically
green. Elisa's comments and the use of plastic bags illustrates
that they are cashing in on the trend toward environmentalism.