Shopping at 'Sogo Jongkok' gains popularity

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): It's a usual hectic day in Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta. But on Sunday morning, a line of expensive cars and scores of fashionable customers bring a different atmosphere to the market.

Amid the crowds, customers leisurely walk from one stall to another, observing the products for sale and bargaining for desired ones.

Meantime, vendors are busily trying to grab their attention by yelling and promoting their products.

"Look here, non. Here's the latest Guess bag, it's genuine and it's not expensive," yelled one of the traders, while displaying the bag to a passing customer to grab her attention.

Obediently, she stops to check out the black bag.

"It's only Rp 500,000 here. In the shopping center, you have to pay over Rp 800,000," the trader said convincingly.

Not willing to give up easily, the woman tries to bargain for Rp 200,000 cheaper but is flatly rejected by the trader.

"Trust me, you won't get this bag cheaper anywhere else," he said. After bargaining some more, the woman and the trader settle at Rp 400,000.

The woman, an employee of a cell phone operator, said her main intention to come to the area was to search for a new bag.

"My friend bought a nice bag here and told me about this place," she said. "And I see that this bag is a good quality one. It's not too small or too big, it's perfect for me," said Arin, which is not her real name.

Unlike most sidewalk vendors in Tanah Abang which sell daily necessities, traders in this shopping area sell new branded products -- ranging from bags, clothes and wristwatches to crystal and cell phones -- that are usually found in large shopping centers.

Opening only on Sundays and holidays from 5 a.m. to noon, the shopping area's variety of products and cheaper prices make it able to lure customers from the middle to upper classes, who fancy branded products but can not afford the expensive prices at shopping malls.

But since the traders simply hang or place their merchandise on the ground on a thin plastic mat, whether customers like it or not, they have to squat while examining their products, thus giving the shopping area the nickname "Sogo Jongkok," after Sogo department store and jongkok (squatting).

"I don't mind squatting because I have to carefully select what I'm buying. I don't want to find out that it's broken when I arrive home," said Sri Indrayati, a housewife living in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta, who is buying crystal flowers in one of the stalls.

With sweat almost dripping from her face, the woman finally selects five leaves made of green crystal and five flowers with white buds in the shape of tulips for Rp 35,000 and Rp 45,000 each respectively. In a big shopping mall, the price might be well over Rp 100,000 each.

"I don't think I can afford buying crystal flowers in shopping centers. It must be really expensive," said the mother of three, who learned about the shopping spot from a friend.

But she is an experienced customer since it was not her first visit there. Previously, she came to the shopping spot in search for, among other things, clothes and ladies bags.

Sri said she bought the flowers because they had become trendy in interior decorating. But when asked whether she was sure the crystal was real or not, she said, "I think so..."

With the raising popularity of Sogo Jongkok as an alternative place to shop, it is the traders who reap most of the profits.

Karnanto, who sells branded clothes and jeans such as Giorgio Armani, Guess and DKNY, has no idea who started the name Sogo Jongkok.

"I learned about it from other traders, but I like it and have started using it to refer to this place myself," said the man, who has run his business in the shopping area for three years and has not considered moving to another spot.

These days, business is going well for the father of two, who started business with an initial investment of Rp 10 million. But the situation was not always on his side.

"Last year was very bad for business. There was hardly any trading at all. But these days I can go home with a net profit of over Rp 200,000 per trading day," Karnanto told the Post after a customer left his stall with a T-shirt. The trader only pays Rp 2,500 per trading day to sanitary officials.

And to run his business there, he has to get up at 3 a.m. in order to arrive in time in Tanah Abang from his house in Bekasi, West Java.

"I need to run a business to support my family," said the 43- year-old man, who also works as a mechanic.

The trader, who claimed all the products he got from the products' distributors are genuine, said he now has many regular customers who need specific brands of clothing.

"They come regularly to see my new merchandise. Sometimes, they even request me to find certain brands," Karnanto said.

Compared to prices in well-known shopping centers, his products are much cheaper. DKNY jeans are offered at Rp 75,000 each, while a Giorgio Armani T-shirt is sold at Rp 50,000 each. Usually, people must dig deep into their wallets to get such products.

"I can sell at lower prices because I don't pay high rental fees like in the shopping malls."

Crystal trader Yanto also enjoys a lucrative business although he has run the business for only a year.

"I only help selling crystal for a distributor and I am paid based on a fee," said the single man, refusing to disclose the amount of the fee, but adding that his distributor also provides crystal for some stores in big shopping centers.

The price of crystal ranges from Rp 25,000 for miniature dolls to Rp 100,000 for a vase.

He explained the crystal was imported mostly from Hong Kong and Taiwan. "It is not fake... all of it is original."