Jakarta Great Sale campaign has few enthusiasts

JAKARTA (JP): Aiming to become as successful as the annual event in Singapore, the one-month Jakarta Great Sale has turned out to be a dud as it did not significantly affect the number of visitors or boost revenue for mall vendors.

The Jakarta Great Sale has been held in 17 shopping malls across the city since it began on June 14 and it will end on Saturday. But the event will be officially closed on July 19 by Governor Sutiyoso at Mal Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta.

This has actually been the eighth time the promotion was held, but it was called the Jakarta Great Sale for the first time this year. It was previously called the Discount Fair or Shopping Festival.

The event was a joint effort between the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), with PT Sarinah, Panorama Communication, the Association of Indonesian Shopping Center Operators (APPBI), the Association of Garment and Accessories Suppliers (APGAI), the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) and the Association of Indonesian Direct Sellers (APLI).

However, the event has failed to generate a significant increase in the number of visitors or revenue during the sale.

Marketing Communication manager of Supermal Karawaci in Tangerang G.E. Jannywati said on Wednesday that the number of visitors coming to the mall had increased three times from 30,000 to 90,000 a day over the past week.

"But I guess that's not because of the event, but because of school holidays," she said.

Agustin Ayuningtyas, the marketing division head of Pasar Festival in Kuningan, South Jakarta, said that there had been no significant increase in the number of visitors nor revenue during the event.

But according to Agustin, the school holidays was the reason.

"Many parents took time off from work so that they could go out of town with their children to spend their holidays," she said.

The event also seems to have lacked in promotion as many people had no idea about the event.

A woman visiting Supermal Karawaci on Wednesday said that she went to the mall every weekend with her children.

"Great Sale? Oh, I thought the mall was having just a regular sale," she said.

According to the managing director of Panorama, Rocky B. Kalalo, the problems were a result of a lack of preparation in organizing the event.

"Kadin appointed us as the organizer only two months before it (the event) happened," he said on Wednesday.

Another problem, he said, was the lack of help from the government, or in this case the city administration.

"Not one single penny came from the government. They should have given the malls a tax break, so that they wouldn't have had any losses from giving discounts," Rocky said.

As a result, he added, several malls such as Plaza Senayan in Central Jakarta and Mal Pondok Indah in South Jakarta refused to join the Jakarta Great Sale.

"Some malls who took part in this event had to mark up the prices first before giving discounts. If not, they would have lost out," Rocky said.

Corporate secretary of PT Sarinah Yesaya Christian Oenas said that Sarinah, located on Jl. M.H. Thamrin in Central Jakarta, enjoyed a 10 percent to 15 percent revenue hike.

However, he said, they had to spend extra money on promoting the sale, especially because his company sponsored the event.

"We could have at least gotten a tax break for the banners. But they wouldn't give us one. The city administration was too afraid it would lose revenue. It doesn't have any business perspective," he said.

"If mall owners had been exempt (from the taxes), the event would have been more lively," he added.

Rocky said the executives in city administration did not give their full support to the sale.

"Unfortunately, their subordinates in the field did not conduct this event properly. They even tried to make money out of it," he said.

"Hopefully next year, the event will be better organized and have more support," Rocky said.(hdn)