Pasaraya near closing time

Pasaraya near closing time

On March 16, 1996, my young daughter and I were shopping at the Pasaraya department store in Blok M, South Jakarta. At 9:00 p.m. we were asked to leave by the young floor manager, who stated that they wished to close 30 minutes early.

Upon trying to leave from the seventh floor I discovered that the only way down, the escalator, was locked up and inaccessible. Of the two small capacity and slow elevators, only one was in operation.

We and some other customers waited over 30 minutes for the lift to carry us down with no guidance. We then discovered that the ground floor destination was also sealed off. Luckily, we were able to exit on the first floor via the parking lot doorway.

When the seventh floor manager was queried by nervous customers as to whether this lockup policy was normal, he replied yes and stated it had been this way for some time. He said that each floor is routinely sealed off at escalator entrances even with customers still in the store.

In many of Indonesia's commercial facilities with little or no government monitoring, there is little concern for safety. The otherwise attractive Pasaraya facilities have no fire escapes, no fire extinguishers are noticeable, no passageways are marked for emergency use (none available anyway) and the management shirks its responsibility for patron safety.

I strongly suggest that customers shopping in Pasaraya be on their guard near closing time.

JAMES D. FILGO

Jakarta