'Sogo Jongkok' traders want businesses back

'Sogo Jongkok' traders want businesses back

JAKARTA: Some 400 street vendors called for the City Council
to allow them to reopen their businesses along Jl. Fachruddin,
near Tanah Abang on Sundays and public holidays.

Hasan, 45, one of the traders of "Sogo Jongkok", or "squatting
Sogo", where the sellers sit on the ground and buyers have to
squat to examine the merchandise, said the authorities had
evicted them from their spot on Sunday. Sogo is the name of a
Japanese retail chain.

"We only trade with buyers who shop on weekend holidays and we
do not cause traffic jams because there are many alternative
roads (motorists can take) there. I hope councillors will allow
us to occupy our workplace again," Hasan said.

"We also do not disrupt the work of offices there because they
are also closed during holidays," he said. -- JP