Looting, arson cost retail stores $60m in financial losses
Looting, arson cost retail stores $60m in financial losses
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian retail stores may lose about Rp 600
billion (US$60 million) from the two days of looting, rioting and
arson in the capital and nearby towns last week, a retail store
association executive said.
Kustarjono Prodjolalito of the Indonesian Retail Merchants
Association (Aprindo) said the tentative estimate did not include
lost business from closures of the businesses.
"The total loss could reach over Rp 1 trillion if we include
the potential losses resulting from the closing of the stores,"
he said Friday.
Kustarjono told Bisnis Indonesia daily that retail companies
would have to meet the losses alone because insurance did not
cover losses due to riots.
He said many retailers would have no choice but to increase
their profit margins to be able to cover the billions in losses
caused by the looting and burning of their shops.
"Even with the profit margin increase, the retail stores still
need at least four years to recover their loss," he said.
At least 40 out of Aprindo's 110 members in Jakarta --
including such major retail chains as Matahari Department Store,
Ramayana and Hero Supermarket -- were hit by the looting and
arson.
Kustarjono said Aprindo would hold a meeting today to count
losses and decide the best time to resume operations.
"With a safety guarantee from the government, we expect to
start operating again Monday," Kustarjono said.
He added that it would take three weeks for shops which had
been looted and damaged to begin their operations again, while
burned shops would need at least three months.
Jakarta was totally paralyzed last Thursday and Friday as
thousands of people damaged and burned hundreds of buildings and
vehicles, and looted the contents of the destroyed properties,
mostly malls.
The Association of Indonesian Retailers and Shopping Centers
Operators (AP3I) said Saturday that middle and small scale shops
were the worst hit by the orgy of violence.
The association's chairman H.J.A. Sinungan told The Jakarta
Post most of the burned and damaged shops were tenants in small
shopping centers in Jakarta's suburban areas.
He said major shopping centers in Jakarta, such as Plaza
Senayan and Plaza Indonesia, only suffered "minor losses" because
they were closely guarded by security personnel and they closed
their stores during the riots.
He added that it would take a long time for damaged shopping
centers to begin operating again because they would have repair
their facilities first.
Sinungan said that several of the association's members would
reopen on Monday if the situation returned to normal.
Heru Nasution, senior shopping center manager of Lippo
Supermall in Karawaci, Tangerang, said his company was unable to
give an estimate of losses from vandalism to the mall.
"We haven't got the results of loss calculations here. We are
still counting it. But we will announce the total loss soon, and
I hope we can do it on Monday," Nasution told the Post. (gis)