a market at your doorstep….
2009.08.10 19:12
When malls become too boring and traffic gets in the way of one’s shopping session, worry not, seasonal night markets will come to those with limited budget in need of a little quick get-away from their crampy one-room rent houses.
No need for air-conditioned buildings with brightly-lit window displays, for the highly mobile vendors at these markets, any vacant lot or even narrow alleys will do. And they will not only bring goods just meters away from your doorsteps, but also a playground for your children.
One Tuesday night, just a fortnight away from the start of the fasting month, what is usually just a 1.5-meter-wide alley inside kampongs in South Jakarta’s Cipete turned into a night’s festivity.
Along some 15-meter-stretch of that alley where a car won’t fit, vendors are setting their makeshift stalls where pirated DVDs, children’s toys, headscarves and undergarments are piling up.
“Sorry,” said a woman as her large plastic bag brushed another customer checking out the latest Indonesian movie on offer in front of a pirated DVD vendor. Turning his head, the man’s annoyed look quickly turned into a polite smile as he recognized the woman as his neighbor.
And their exchange of greetings soon grew into a five-minute conversation. One that forces others to line up behind, waiting to pass through for their “window shopping” session.
Set up in and for the neighborhood, that instant market is more than just a place for transaction.
“This was the idea of Pak Damus,” said the market’s garment vendor Dina Uchrowi, mentioning a man known to people there as the former neighborhood unit head.
“This is already near the fasting month and people usually start shopping,” she added. “He talked with people here and they agreed to have this market for a night.”
For people like Damus or Dina, the reason for their being there is perhaps just for a night’s profit. But, for the neighborhood, it’s their own mall, one with a little bit more feeling of familiarity of the people you meet and greet.
In the midst of increasingly socially-sterile malls, trade centers and mini markets where people only browse, pick and pay for the goods they buy, these kinds of premises offer an antidote.
People are here not only for shopping, or at least even if they do, they get so much more than just the goods they bring home.
“We went here just to get together and enjoy the bazaar,” said high-school student Michael Bunbunan, who was just sitting on motorcycles with three of his friends, snacking on burger buns from a vendor that parked his cart on the tip of the alley.
Once in a while, their laughter broke as each take turns flirting with girls from the neighboring alley who also come in groups. That they would not dare do when sitting in cafes in malls.
Word of mouth becomes the replacement of glossy advertisement and flyers, both for the vendors and for the customers.
Dina, who lives some three alleys away from that seasonal market, heard of the opportunity for a windfall profit from a friend at her Quran recital group. And youths like Michael, who turns out to live on the other side of the urban kampong, know it from a friend of a friend of a friend.
That’s how it goes.
Some vendors are not even vendors during the day and the word of mouth turn them into one that night.
“I wash laundry in the morning. My husband said that there will be a market here and I borrowed some money to buy these hair accessories from Blok M to sell here,” said Nuriyani, who’s actually a bit worried that her revenue from that night won’t be able to cover her debt.
Set up in a public space by local initiatives, at least vendors there don’t have to worry about setting aside some of their revenue to rent space or pay the ‘protection money’ to thugs.
Its apparent mutual benefit for vendors and their consumers is all that the market needs to work. And perhaps also the fact that it’s only a one-night affair that doesn’t allow for any kind of forming of certain elites exploiting others.
A different seasonal night market in Depok’s Pangkalan Jati tells a different story.
Occupying a vacant lot in front of a mosque, it features more or less the same kinds of goods on offer. The same kind of garment, the same kind of pirated DVDs, just with an addition of more spacious playground for children.
But, it works in a different mechanism.
Coming quite regularly to the neighborhood filled with people of the middle-lower income group living in small rent houses, the market is one more organized. Informally organized, that is.
“We come here once a month. At first it was only five vendors, but then we thought we needed more to attract more people,” said Ghiwani, the leader of a group of around two dozen vendors there.
Some selling their goods there are his friends and relatives from Central Java’s Gombong and a few are locals who come to him to open their stalls for the night. Each of them pays him Rp 25,000 to display their goods at the seasonal market.
“It’s to pay for the electricity and the cleaning up the morning after,” he said.
Having been in the business of organizing mobile seasonal market, Ghiwani knows what to bring to the neighborhood to spice up the temporary establishment. His group of vendors has move about in more than a handful of spots in Depok.
With the experience of going from one vacant lot to another, his team of three already knows where to ‘steal’ electricity from and knows places where they have to bring their own generators. That last one is crucial for the entertainment part of the market.
That night –while mothers are shopping or chatting and teenagers are posing and giggling– younger children are entertained by Ghiwani’s makeshift playground.
Half a dozen toddlers were concentrating on fishing for tiny plastic balls floating in a three-square-meter plastic pool while four others enjoy a five-minute ride on a colorful train. Some waited eagerly for their turn, while a few observed with envy as their parents wouldn’t allow them to join both activities which cost Rp 1,000 each.
Similar like the alley market in Cipete, Ghiwani’s night market relies on word of mouth. And its power should indeed never be underestimated as people come from neighboring kampongs.
Locals chatting, children playing, vendors reaping profit. What more does one need?
Related posts:
2 comments on “a market at your doorstep….”
Kuwi kok ene Bunbunan mangan bun?
“Bunbun makan bun” dong namanya… *garing* :p
kowe dikeplak bapak’e loh mengko…
btw (m)bunbunan iku yen cara jawa lak yo unyeng2…
baru ngeh…hehehe..
Leave a reply