Great Sale no big deal for Senen traders

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.