Great Sale no big deal for Senen traders
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As part of the celebrations for its 476th anniversary this month, Jakarta will hold a city-wide sale offering discounts of up to 70 percent.
However, not all retailers are thrilled by the Jakarta Great Sale. Some 1,500 retailers at the Pasar Senen flea market in Central Jakarta are unable to get caught up in the excitement because they are worried about their future since the government banned the trade in imported second-hand clothes.
There were only a handful of buyers milling about the once crowded market on Wednesday; loyal customers defending this second-hand clothes market, saying it offers relatively good products at very reasonable prices -- like a total of three dresses for no more than Rp 10,000.
"You only have to choose carefully," said Ibu Kato, 55, who lives in Pekayon, West Bekasi.
She said she had lived in Tokyo for five years, and that in Japan the very same clothes were sold in some of the nicer stores.
"I know many rich ladies who shop here, and when they wear these clothes no one can tell where they originally came from," said Kato, who shops at Pasar Senen every month and recently brought some guests from Germany to the market.
Several of the retailers said that some celebrities were regulars at the market.
Kato said it would be a great loss if the market had to close down because it was becoming more and more of a convenience and surprisingly safer, contrary to the image of Pasar Senen as a haven for criminals.
Anton, who has been a retailer at the market for seven years, said that he and most of the people involved in the apparel business there were ex-cons, including pickpockets, robbers and even murderers.
"The business gives us the chance to make an honest living. It has changed our lives," he said.
Getting started there is relatively easy because with working capital of Rp 50,000 anyone can start doing business. Even better, retailers can work on consignment and thus need no initial capital, he said.
Anton and his fellow retailers said they could accept the government's decision to ban the import of second-hand clothes, as long as it imposed the ruling gradually over a two or three- year period, giving traders time to shift to another line of business, such as selling local apparel.
However, they said they would need assistance from the government to sell local products, perhaps being allowed to sell the products on a consignment basis.
The Industry and Trade Ministry has banned the import of second-hand clothes, saying the trade has brought the domestic textile industry to the brink of collapse.
Moreover, Minister of Industry and Trade Rini MS Soewandi warned that the imported clothes could be carriers of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus.
"If they were SARS carriers, then we, the retailers, would be the first to die. But look at us, we are all alive and healthy," Anton said.
The ban has succeeded in reducing the trade significantly. However, retailers and distributors still have some reserves in stock, but only enough to last for about three weeks, he said.
"I usually have daily sales revenue of up to Rp 1 million, but now I am only getting Rp 100,000 a day," said Anton.