Saya

Mbak! sudut di dekat pintu masuk itu mau dibuat apa! *grogi keringat dingin*

Mbaknya

Starbucks…

Ah ternyata Starbucks buka di Jogja. Tambah lengkap nih khazanah perkopian kota gudeg yang semrawut. Tak lama lagi, kenikmatan kopi joss angkringan tugu akan dilengkapi oleh caramel macchiato Starbucks. Moga-moga Starbucks betah ya.

Foto pinjam dari j.s. wright.

“Cuma kaos mas? Nggak nambah lagi? Nanti bisa dapat gift voucher Rp 250.000 lho”

“Saya harus nambah berapa?”

“Mmmm, belanja minimal 1,5 juta”

Hohohoho, kok banyak? Sempat kepikiran… 1,5 juta itu beli baju berapa banyak ya? Tapi, ternyata di toko itu, menghabiskan 1,5 juta cukup mudah. Satu celana jeans yang paling simpel harganya sudah 1 juta.

Tapi itu ternyata belum apa-apa. Di toko lain, celana jeans Juicy Couture dibandrol mulai dari 1,7 juta, sementara jens distressed merek dSquared (lengkap dengan saku belakang yang belum dijahit) malah bisa 5,4 juta satu potong.

Padahal kalau diperhatikan, celana-celana mahal ini terlihat seperti rongsokan. Sudah belel, birunya pudar, ada lubang dimana-mana pula. Kalau disumbangkan kepada Yayasan Bencana Aceh, jeans-jeans ini mungkin akan langsung dibuang karena tidak layak pakai.

Aneh ya? Malah biasanya, kisah tadi akan diserempetkan sebagai ‘pertanda kiamat’.

Tidak juga

Setiap benda itu harus memberikan manfaat kepada penggunanya. Jeans distressed yang sobek-sobek memberikan manfaat membuat penggunanya terlihat mahal dan trendy. Otomatis yang beli pun cuma orang yang mampu dan yang mengikuti mode. Sementara itu, saudara kita di Aceh lebih memerlukan pakaian yang bersih, rapih dan sukur-sukur melindungi badan dari cuaca yang tidak ramah manusia. Jelas-jelas jeans distressed tidak memenuhi kriteria tadi.

Terlihat kalau dua kelompok tadi memang memiliki kebutuhan yang berbeda-beda, dan barang yang cocok buat kelompok pertama belum tentu cocok bagi kelompok kedua. Dan demikian juga sebaliknya.

Jadi dunia belum mau kiamat. Eh maksudnya: harga jeans distressed yang selangit belum menunjukkan korelasinya sebagai sebuah pertanda kiamat.

Dan seperti yang diduga semua orang, pembukaan Plaza Ambarrukmo tanggal 5 Maret kemarin menyedot ratusan orang Jogja untuk tumplek blek di satu tempat. Sayangnya, walaupun tingkat okupansi sudah mencapai 86%, toko yang benar-benar buka bisa dihitung dengan jari. Bahkan, beberapa space belum di-fitting-out sama sekali oleh tenant-nya. Dari lima anchor tenant, hanya Carrefour yang sudah buka. Aneh juga ya para tenant ini, udah bayar sewa, tapi kok gak dipakai buat jualan?

Dan Carrefour kemarin ramainya minta ampun. Apa mungkin karena barangnya memang sangat murah ya? Soalnya semua orang sangat bernafsu untuk membeli, sampai rela antri panjaang banget. Bahkan ada segerombol orang yang berebut buah pear. Kayak jaman perdjoeangan aja Bedanya kalau dulu bayarnya pake kupon, sekarang bayarnya pake duit.

Terlepas dari interior mall yang nggak kalah dengan Plaza Senayan, layout tenant-nya menurut saya agak sedikit janggal. Misalnya, atrium utama ground-floor diisi oleh toko sepatu dan pakaian eksklusif dan mahal. Nah, lazimnya, lantai diatasnya diisi oleh produk busana yang tidak semahal ground-floor tapi masih eksklusif. Tapi di Plaza, lantai 1 malah diisi dengan Timezone dan pakaian anak, yang pasti bikin ribut dan jauh dari citra eksklusif ground-floor. Untuk tetap merasa eksklusif, pengunjung harus berjalan melalui atrium panjang disebelah utara, kemudian naik ke lantai 1 untuk menuju Centro (yang sedikit lebih eksklusif daripada Matahari) , tapi sebelumnya pengunjung harus melalui Carrefour (yang jualan barang murah dan jelas-jelas tidak eksklusif). Perubahan zoning yang terlalu sering ini kurang nyaman buat pengunjung dan tenant.

Booming pusat perbelanjaan di Jogja bukannya tanpa alasan. Sektor ritel Jogja kebanyakan masih terpusat di Malioboro dan sekitarnya sehingga diperlukan pusat perekonomian baru untuk memindahkan polarisasi perdagangan. Selain itu, memang sepertinya diperlukan katalis baru untuk menggairahkan sektor ritel untuk menyokong perekonomian Jogja yang diutamakan untuk pendidikan, pariwisata, dan UKM. Tidak heran dalam tiga tahun terakhir telah muncul 2 mall dan sebuah pusat grosir.

Pertanyaannya, apakah Jogja harus mengandalkan konsumsi untuk meningkatkan laju pertumbuhan ekonomi lokal. Kenapa ya tidak bisa seperti Jepang yang pertumbuhan ekonomi tahun 2005-nya dibangun oleh investasi. Ini tanggung jawab bersama kan?

Tapi booming mall kelas tinggi tidak berhenti disini: hanya beberapa kilo dari Senayan City juga telah berdiri kokoh Sudirman Place. Beberapa kilometer setelah itu, di dekat Bunderan HI, tengah dibangun Grand Hotel Indonesia yang lengkap dengan Shopping Town-nya, yang juga dikonsep elit. Di seberang GHI tengah direncanakan pengembangan Plaza Indonesia Extension. Masih tetangga, di areal SCBD, Grup Tan Kian tengah membangun Pacific Place, sebuah mal oval yang perimeternya lebih panjang daripada Orchard Rd., Singapura. Whew!

Lucunya, semua mal ini mengaku sebagai mal high-end yang menjual barang-barang mahal dan mewah. Tidak ada yang mengklaim sebagai pusat grosir murah atau supplier kaos distro.

Walaupun sangat menyenangkan jika kita memiliki butik-butik mewah berjejeran di jalan protokol ibukota, tetapi sepertinya lahan yang ditawarkan untuk butik-butik mewah dan eksklusif ini menjadi terlalu banyak. Padahal butik mewah sendiri sebenarnya tidak terlalu banyak. Nah, lalu mal-mal malang ini mau diisi apa? Apakah menjadi seperti saat ini dimana Jakarta memiliki tiga toko Gucci, Hugo Boss, Aigner, Versace, dll yang terletak di jalan yang sama. Hmmm, sepertinya ini malah melawan konsep eksklusif.

Dan jika membuat beberapa cabang butik di jalan yang sama adalah opsi yang dipilih, apakah warga Jakarta sanggup menyerap semua benda-benda mewah ini mengingat populasi cream society kita sedikit sekali?

Some of you might blame my taste for underground designs, but it is infact not about the design. Most of distro t-shirts are fabulously designed. It is the way it fits into my challenged (i.e. not slim) body…… simply doesn’t look good. Should I blame my body or distro’s ridiculously sized t-shirts?

I prefer to blame distros’ fitting rooms. They are so small that I can barely breath, and poorly lit. In turn it reduces my desire to buy the t-shirt, even though is 1/3 less expensive than say Rip Curl t-shirts. So I tought I share a few tips for effective fitting room for anyone thinking to open a new distro (or boutique), which in turn should improve your sales because your costumers feels good about their body and the clothing they put on:

Tips for Money Making Fitting Room

1. Your fitting room should be spacious. I’m not saying that it should big enough to fit an olympic sized swimming pool, but your costumer should be able able to see her/his entire body in the fitting room mirror. Distance between fitting room mirror and your customer should be no less than 80 centimeters. Any less than that will only make your costumer crosseyed (i.e. juling).
2. Your fitting room should be well lit. This is an age old problem. Why? Because during art class everybody (including your teacher) are concerned more about color and shape. But no one cares about lighting. Good lighting makes your costumer looks more attractive and sublimally suggested to buy your product, which a super bright flourescent lamp won’t help. A prime example of well lit fitting room is at Giordano.
3. Your fitting room should be a personal space for your customer. I’ve seen many fitting room uses a cheap fabric as door. Some are tightly spaced that you can overheard the conversation next door. These are problems because it makes your customer feels uncomfortable to try on clothes at your distro, which is a bad thing because the more time they spend to try on clothes the more they feel good about themself.
4. Your fitting room should be enough for your costumer. Don’t be cheap, if you have many customer maybe its a good time to invest on more fitting rooms, because fitting room is where purchases start.
5. Your fitting room should be well ventilated. Ok, this one might sound ridiculous, but its true, because putting on clothes can be a big calorie intensive activity. Nothing help than a fresh supplies of Oxygen.
6. Your fitting room’s mirror shouldn’t lie. Your mirror shouldn’t make your costumer looks like an Abercrombie & Fitch model, but it also shouldn’t make your costumer looks like Quasimodo. Use good and flat mirror. They should see what they should see.

Yes it makes people buy thing even though they might not need it and makes people work harder than they should be. Extreme consumerism often leads to natural resources depletion.

On the other hand, it drives national economy, helps reducing the ever growing unemployment rate, and improves overall public welfare. Remember that the massive growth of US’s economic in the 50s is due to consumerism, so is Japan. If Indonesia wants to improve is economic, it might have to rely on consumerism.

I, personally find it short-sighted if people said that consumerism is an evil thing. Like everything in the world, everything has it pros and cons. If I have to choose, I’d rather eat bakery-made bread, ready-to-wear clothes, and off-the-shelf soaps & detergents

First, they will always refer you as ‘kak’ (means brother or sister in Indonesian). Maybe I should remind them that nobody has been using that word centuries ago! Not only I feel alienated every time they call me ‘kak’, but it also makes me feel weird and uncool.

Secondly, they will force you to try on their garments like a mad Amway salesperson. If you eventually decided to try it and decided not to like it, they will offer you other models. And it will go on and on and on and on.

So I you are a Giordano newbie, I share a few tips on: How to avoid and escape from Giordano’s clerks

1. The ground rule: Don’t go to Giordano if you are not going to buy anything.
2. Avoid any eye-contact with any Giordano clerk. Some of them are cute, but in the inside they are eeeevil. Once you are making eye-contact with them, they will start forcing you to go inside their stores, forcing you to try on their product and eventually forcing you to buy it. So everytime you saw a Giordano store, look away and pretend it doesn’t exist.
3. Just say no to Giordano clerks. These critters are going to use any possible argument to make you buy their products. Imagine one of those Amway nut but far more attractive and fashionable. It’s a lot easier to say ‘No’ to those clerks.
4. If they asked you why you said ‘no’, answer them with: ‘Because you are ugly!,’ or ‘Because you’re not a virgin!,’ or ‘Because I slept with your mom!’
5. For the last resort: RUN!

Maybe the year of Rooster is bad luck for me, because every single store no longer stock the size 9 (my size) of my favorite model. Okay, I’ll buy another model which I less like. Guess what? The size 9 of the less liked model is also out of stock. Mmmm okay, I’ll buy the model that I least like, because I seriously in need for a new shoes. Guess what, they also don’t have the size 9!!!

Geeeezzz, whats with all of this shoes scarcity! First they no longer sell casual Nike shoes? Now they no longer sell size 9 Converse shoes? Whats next? I have to go to Giordano stores and forced to try on something before I can buy a pair of shoes?

What is this world turning to?

Since my old Converse starts tearing down, I decided to buy a new pair of shoes. Frankly, after hopping from one shoes store to other shoes store I still can’t find a good model. I dont know why, but these days, every single shoes sold in shoe store are very lame looking. And then, I started noticing something really queer: nobody sells Nike shoes anymore.

Then I decided to go to Semarang, hoping to find a really cool looking shoes, only to be dissapointed by the fact that Semarang stores sells the exact same models as in Jogja. Just as lame and mediocre as the shoes sold in Jogja. Even worse, they also doesn’t sell any Nike shoes.

Are we being embargoed by Nike? I hope not.

I might ended up buying those Converse shoes at Malioboro Mall….

I want my hard-earned S$73 back.