Klojen (malangkota.go.id) – The recent boom in online trading at low prices has had an impact on the sales of traders at the Wilis Book Market in Malang City. As conveyed by one of the traders, Daliyah (74), Saturday (23/9/2023) who admitted that her sales had decreased significantly. However, this woman admitted that she was grateful because she could still meet her living needs.
After 23 years of selling, Daliyah admitted that the many marketplace platforms today have brought about a big change in her income. "Usually, I could get IDR 3 million a day during the new school year. Now, when everything is online, I get around IDR 500 thousand, and that is quite high," she added.
Meanwhile, to enter the online market, Daliyah admitted to having difficulties due to limited access to technology and age factors. "Honestly, I can't because I'm old. Here, the young people use online. I'm just like this, so I have no choice but to survive. At least there are still buyers every day, so I'm grateful," she added again.
Residents of Polehan, Blimbing District, hope that sales can be busy again in the future. As previously known, the Wilis Book Market is currently undergoing renovation. Regarding this, Daliyah hopes that this change will have a positive impact. "Hopefully, when this repair is complete, it can be busy again, even busier," she hoped.
This decline in turnover was also expressed by the Chairman of the Wilis Book Market Traders Association, Muharto (44). At this location, he said there were 68 stalls that were all affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, now the economy has started to recover, although until now the decline is around 70 percent compared to before Covid-19.
"My turnover is between 1-3 million rupiah per month, whereas before the pandemic it could be 5-10 million. But I'm just grateful, because God has already arranged our fortune. What's important is that we have tried and let God Almighty determine everything," he said.
Meanwhile, regarding the mushrooming of online markets, the man who is familiarly called Harto emphasized that some traders have switched to online platforms, although there are still some traders who have not followed this trend due to age factors.
"There was also an offer of training for e-Commerce, but the concept was not in accordance with what we wanted. So there are indeed human resources who are able to go online and some who are not. But we also do not force traders to go online," he explained.
In line with Daliyah, Harto also hopes that the current market renovation will bring more support in terms of infrastructure and increase customer appeal. In addition, he also hopes for collaboration between the Malang City Government and universities to hold various workshops and exhibitions, in order to boost sales turnover.
"We hope to hold something like a book fair here. There is collaboration with universities, for example, that invites many students here. Then create workshops for traders, for example. So it's not just physical support for the market, but also support to enliven this market again," he said.
Responding to this, the Head of Diskopindag of Malang City, Eko Sri Yuliadi hopes that traders remain optimistic and do not give up on the situation. He said that currently it is indeed the era of digitalization.
Regarding the decline in turnover and the lack of buyers, his party will help traders as much as possible, such as training. Eko admitted that he will later facilitate traders so that traders are able to compete in the global market. "Currently we are still focusing on revitalization. After everything is finished, we will run other priority programs," he said. (say/yon)
