Cash-strapped Indonesians turn to online Sunday market

Rani Nurwitawati by no means thought she would lose her job at an Indonesian market analysis firm the place she labored for 17 years.

The actuality hit months after the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The impact is quite big for me,” the 41-year-old mentioned. “My brother lost his job, my sister got a 25% pay cut. And finally, I also lost my job.”

Armed with the data from her former employer that the meals and beverage enterprise will survive in the course of the financial downturn, Nurwitawati determined to start out promoting meals from her personal kitchen.

She discovered an ally in Omah Wulangreh, an artwork and cultural neighborhood in South Jakarta that started a web based model of the Pahingan Sunday market in August, solely days after Nurwitawati misplaced her job.

The neighborhood used to host the Sunday market at its location, but it surely solely accommodated restricted tenants. As the pandemic tore via Indonesia, leaving many with out earnings, the artists moved the market on-line, offering house for sellers to register on-line whereas patrons are required to preorder.

Sellers should observe some guidelines, together with providing native artisan merchandise and use minimal plastic packaging.

Aside from offering earnings for her day by day dwelling, Nurwitawati mentioned that the Sunday market is giving her extra expertise in working a brand new enterprise.

“I have learned about networking, got new knowledge, and more people know my products,” she mentioned. “When I joined for the first time, I was really sad because there was only one buyer, after that it increased to more than 10. It was not bad, from less than one 100,000 rupiah ($7) to hundreds of thousands rupiah.”

She prepares baked spaghetti and mango sticky rice.

Parahita Satiti, 37, additionally joined the Sunday market. She has at all times dreamed of working a enterprise associated to conventional vogue merchandise. She hopes to get additional earnings after her workplace minimize her month-to-month allowance by half in the course of the pandemic. She sells conventional Javanese kebaya — girls’s higher long-sleeved garments — and camisole — a loose-fitting sleeveless undergarment — fabricated from Javanese batik material.

“This is a new business, but seeing the enthusiasm and orders from the Pahingan Sunday market, I think it will be a promising business for me,” Satiti mentioned.

Reny Ajeng, one of many organizers of the Sunday market, mentioned it’s held as soon as each 35 days, following the five-day Javanese calendar.

Strict social restrictions imposed in Indonesia in the course of the pandemic have stopped the bodily market in addition to different cultural and artwork actions at Omah Wulangreh. The on-line model got here to life when Reny and her six pals determined to launch it in early August.

There had been 46 tenants who joined the third on-line occasion final month. Buyers had one week to preorder merchandise, reminiscent of conventional snacks, batik garments, or espresso. During one week, there have been virtually 500 gadgets offered, price about 25 million rupiah ($1,770).

“To be honest, we are really happy,” Reny mentioned. “Our first mission was to make an online Sunday market since we can do nothing offline during the pandemic. But it turns out, enthusiasm is high, so many sellers are having high hopes.”

(This story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content.)

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