Jakarta supermarkets nursing hangovers after booze ban

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"We've taken them off our shelves, but if you like I could get a bottle from our store for you," an attendant at a supermarket in Jakarta told a customer looking for a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label.

Ever since the Jakarta Industry and Trade Agency issued a circular banning supermarkets and hypermarkets from selling "type B" (including wine and champagne) and "type C" (spirits) alcoholic beverages, more and more stores have taken them off their shelves.

Besides French hypermarket Carrefour and the Ranch Market in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta, which stopped selling liquor before the beginning of Ramadhan, The Jakarta Post found Thursday that both Hero and Sogo supermarkets in Plaza Senayan, Central Jakarta, had also followed suit.

Both of the stores's liquor sections have now been filled with potato chips and beer. Neither Hero nor Sogo were available for comment.

Jakarta administration spokesman Catur Laswanto said that the agency's circular was issued in line with a 1997 Presidential Decree on the monitoring and control of alcoholic beverages as well as a 1997 decree from the now defunct ministry of industry and trade on monitoring and controlling the production, importation, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Type A beverages are those that contain between 1 percent and 5 percent alcohol, while type B beverages contain between 5 percent and 20 percent, and type C between 20 percent and 55 percent alcohol.

The ministerial decree stipulates that the selling of type B and C alcoholic drinks is banned except in duty free stores, while the presidential decree states that the sale of such beverages are banned except in hotels, bars, restaurants and other places approved by the local administration.

"And so the Jakarta Industry and Trade Agency, as part of the Jakarta administration, has banned supermarkets and hypermarkets across the city from selling these types of alcoholic drinks," Catur said.

As to why the city took eight years to impose the ban, he said that it was simply a matter of preparation.

The prohibition comes following a similar ban in neighboring Tangerang municipality, where a bylaw outlaws the sale and distribution of all alcoholic drinks, including beer.

Catur also said that the administration will impose sanctions in respect of any violations of the rules based on the punishments provided for in the ministerial decree, which include the revocation of the company's business license.

"We will see how this goes before considering a more permanent regulation," he said.

According to the ministerial decree, duty free shops are only allowed to sell liquor to members of the diplomatic corps, foreign experts working at international institutions, those traveling abroad and those who have just returned from abroad.

While supermarkets and hypermarkets in Jakarta may no longer sell liquor containing more than 5 percent alcohol, you can always ask an attendant, and who knows, you might get lucky.