Shoppers go gaga over gadget sales

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.