Traders blame hypermarkets for decreasing earnings
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
When Amisah, 47, and her husband opened their business at Senen Market in Central Jakarta in 1976, their income steadily increased until it reached as high as Rp 75,000 (US$8.3) per day in the 1980s.
Now, however, they are complaining that their earnings have steadily decreased, with an average income of Rp 35,000 daily due to mushrooming hypermarkets in the capital.
"Would you have guessed that I could earn up to Rp 75,000 per day during the 80s? Now I only earn about Rp 35,000," she said.
Amisah and her husband opened their business in 1976, when the Senen Market first opened. They sell mainly vegetables and fruit. According to her, she could earn more previously because she had more power when customers would bargain.
"People were willing to pay high prices for fruit and vegetables. Now, they will leave if I do not want to reduce my price," she said.
Darus, 40, a local resident, has observed a decrease in visitors since the Atrium Plaza was built.
"I think that the situation is due to the existence of Atrium Plaza," he said. "It is just across the road from one of the market's blocks."
The Matahari Department Store logo on the Atrium Plaza, only 300 meters away, can be seen over the asbestos roof of the vendors' stalls.
According to City Decree No. 2/2002, any non-traditional retail store like the Matahari Department Store, which sells food among its products, with a floor size of up to 200 square meters must be located at least half a kilometer from a traditional market, while a hypermarket with a floor size of more than 4,000 square meters must be at least two-and-a-half kilometers from a traditional market.
Many hypermarkets in the capital, however, are located very close to traditional markets. For example, Slipi Plaza in West Jakarta, which also has a Matahari Department Store, is located just a few hundred meters away from the Slipi traditional market.
The bylaw also requires large shopping centers and commercial complexes to allocate between 10 percent and 20 percent of their space for informal, traditional or small-and-medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
Most companies managing shopping centers, however, opt to pay a sum of money to the administration as compensation to the SMEs for the space that should have been allocated for them. While legal, this practice has long been criticized by councillors and others, as most of the compensation money does not go to the SMEs.
Even the commercial complex touted to have been the first to embrace the law, the Jakarta City Center in Waduk Melati, Central Jakarta, allocates no more than 6 percent of its space for SMEs.
Out of the total area of 13.6 hectares, located in Waduk Melati, Central Jakarta, only 7,200 square meters, or no more than 6 percent, will be dedicated for what it calls an SME center.
Much of the five-story wholesale center will be occupied by offices, a hotel and a convention center.
This commercial complex is about 400 meters from Kebon Melati traditional market, 800 meters from Kebon Jati market and one kilometer from Gandaria market.
The developer, PT Jakarta Realty, asserted last year that the center would be fully operational by the end of 2005.
The Indonesian Market Retailers Association (APPSI) alleged last week that the city administration had ignored the decree by allowing mini-markets, supermarkets and hypermarkets to be built too close to traditional markets.
"Nine traditional markets have closed so far, due to the violation of this decree. If this continues, it will be the end of the 151 traditional markets left in Jakarta," a member of the APPSI advocacy group, Ryad Charil, said. (005)