Shoppers go gaga over gadget sales

Evi Mariani, Jakarta

The man holding the megaphone looked frantic and sweaty as he stood among the eager shoppers in the parking lot of the Electronic City store in the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in South Jakarta on Thursday.

He desperately tried to get the crowd in order, explaining to disappointed shoppers unable to get their hands on certain items that there was a limited stock of discounted electronic goods in the parking lot. Dozens of the shoppers ignored him, crowding around a computer screen waiting to put their names down to purchase an item.

A security guard, Darmawan, estimated the number of shoppers had tripled from the normal 2,000 who visited the store on a weekday.

A parking attendant said the number of cars entering the parking lot was twice the usual 1,000 that parked there on a normal weekday.

"The number of cars does not include those parked in the Kafe Taman Semanggi parking lot and those parked on the street in front of the Kusuma Candra apartments," he said.

Electronic City manager Rudy Priambodo said that because the management did not expect such an overwhelming response to the sale, they failed to inform the Jakarta Police, whose headquarters is adjacent to the SCBD, of the event.

"The police called us this morning and asked what was happening at our store because there was such heavy traffic congestion," he was quoted as saying by www.detik.com. "We did not expect the sale would draw a huge crowd."

From about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., long lines of vehicles inched their way along Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan through Jl. Sudirman, about a distance of 3.25 kilometers.

Thousands of eager customers started to queue in the store's parking lot at 7 a.m. in response to an ad placed in Kompas daily offering discounts of up to 90 percent on electronic goods.

"The discounts have been offered since July 31 but we didn't advertise the price cuts until today," Darmawan said.

An official from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, Sularsi, said the store should have included details about the sale -- such as the fact that stocks were limited -- so customers would not be disappointed.

Since the stock of discounted goods was limited, many of the shoppers went home empty-handed.