Students in Medan moonlight as food vendors
Apriadi Gunawan, Contributor, Medan, North Sumatra
"Stop for a moment, sir. Choose your favorite!" cried Sarah with a smile. She was standing by the side of the street shouting out to motorists, trying to drum up business for the snacks she was selling.
Sarah's approach to selling delicacies for breaking the fast was bold and unique. With a scarf over her head, she overcame any shyness she may have had to shout at the passing drivers to get them to slow their vehicles.
Even though each vendor here has a unique sales pitch, they all have something in common: they are all students at North Sumatra University in Medan trying to make a little money during Ramadhan.
They work from 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., selling their food along Jl. Dr. Mansur, which is part of the university complex. Unlike other vendors, the students sell the food from their cars. Parked along the street is every type of vehicle, from old Toyotas to the latest BMW, all doubling as food stalls.
These student vendors, with their unique style of selling, can be found only during Ramadhan. Each year during the fasting month, a roughly 800-meter stretch of the street is transformed into "elite vendor territory", bringing with it daily traffic jams.
Most of the students say they are only killing a couple of hours before breaking the fast. "Making money is not our first priority. This is just a good way to pass the time," said Sarah, who has been selling food here for the last couple of Ramadhans.
Costing between Rp 100 and Rp 400, Sarah offers quite a variety of cakes and fried foods from her sedan. She said that she did not make any of the food herself, but purchased everything from suppliers. However, she commented that her daily profit was not too bad, between Rp 50,000 and Rp 70,000.
A group of students from the School of Economics, who call themselves Mabaga Taste ("Mabaga" being an acronym for "students below the stairs"), make similar profits.
Bismi Azizah, representing the group of seven students, said their group was a joint venture, with each student contributing the Rp 100,000 to Rp 150,000 they needed in daily capital.
Their daily profit ranges from Rp 100,000 to Rp 150,000 as well, which is distributed to the "shareholders" in accordance with the amount contributed.
"It's like this. If I provide 25 percent of the capital, then naturally I get 25 percent of the profits," said Bismi.
He said they sold local specialities like toge penyabungan (bean sprouts), jongkong (sweet cake made of sticky rice), serabi (rice flour pancake) and roti jala (bread).
Most of their customers are people they know. "It's easier to sell to friends, so when they pass by we call out to them," said Bismi.
While Mabaga Taste relies on friends, Rangga, a group of eight friends from the School of Agriculture, sometimes has to ask their parents to buy whatever food they have left at the end of the day.
Rangga emphasized that their business was not meant to make big money, but was designed to give them something to do in the hours before they broke the fast.