Indonesian merchandise businesses cash in on election fever
Vendors say sales have been brisk as voters rush to snag T-shirts, banners, pins, and other merchandise, with just a week to go before polling day.
A shopper holds a t-shirt featuring presidential candidate Anies Baswedan at a market in Jakarta.
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JAKARTA: Indonesian businesses selling merchandise are seeing a sales boom, as campaigning for the presidential poll heads into the home stretch.
Vendors say sales have been brisk as voters rush to snag T-shirts, banners, pins and other election merchandise, with just a week to go before polling day.
Shoppers say wearing the colours of their preferred candidates is one way to declare their support.
ELECTION FEVER HITS STORES
At markets and malls, a colourful variety of clothing and accessories are adorned with the faces of presidential hopefuls and their running mates, party logos, slogans, and catchphrases.
Stores at a central market in the capital Jakarta told CNA that merchandise sales have given their overall revenue a huge boost.
“We are receiving up to 5,000 T-shirt orders per week. That's up 50 per cent from the usual,” one vendor that mass produces and sells T-shirts said.
Smaller items are also selling like hotcakes.
A store owner told CNA that pins and caps are flying off his shelves. His shop sells hundreds of accessories daily during this period, a jump from just 50 pieces on a regular day.
PRINTING BUSINESSES BOOM
Printing services that cater to such stores are speeding up production to deliver orders on time and cash in on the election fever.
Businessman Mr Iskandar, who like most Indonesians goes by one name, said his printing business has raked in an additional profit of 60 to 70 per cent in the lead-up to elections.
The Jakarta local sells a variety of clothing items – shirts, vests and jackets – everything that can be printed on.
He has been involved in three elections now, and has worked out a formula to incentivise customers to place their printing orders with him.
“For every 1,000 orders, we will give a gift of 50 (small, handheld) flags,” he said.
Of all the merchandise, businesses said the most profitable are T-shirts – which also happens to be the most popular and effective campaigning tool used by candidates.
Costing upwards of about 70 cents each – depending on the design and quantity – vendors receive large t-shirt orders from political parties or mass organisations, which allows them to bank in over US$3,000 or more per order.
Aside from wearables, profits are also soaring for others in the printing business as demand for banners, flags and posters surge.
The volume of work at some factories has increased two-fold, with income jumping by a full 100 per cent, said owners.
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At one shop, four printing machines with the capacity to print up to 3,000 sqm of material per day have worked day and night to produce over 200,000 banners in this election alone.
However, a shorter campaigning period has meant that vendors have made less money than in previous elections.
But as the electoral race heats up, with hundreds of thousands of Indonesians attending rallies, the increase in demand for election merchandise is still expected to nudge the economy upwards.
Over 200 million Indonesians in the world’s third-largest democracy will head to the polls next Wednesday (Feb 14).
