Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Hyper stores in Bali

Carrefour opened in Bali yesterday, and a number of expat sites were gushing over the opening - how great the store is, all the things to be bought, etc. Great for the expats and wealthy Indonesians, but as yesterday was Labor Day what about the workers? As these giant stores are built which cater basically to the tourist/expat/wealthy Indonesian population what happens to the local stores that just squeek by? I just happen to be old enough to remember the mom and pop corner stores in Chicago when I was a kid. They were great because of the personal relationship that existed between the shopper and the owner. If you didn't have enough money to pay for something, you'd be carried over until tomorrow. Want something special. They'd do their best to have it for you.

No, I'm not thrilled about this recent development. I see it as another step on the road to the depersonalization of Bali.

2 comments:

baliwwwdotnet said...

The Carrefours development on Sunset Road is built already, and is basically a shopping center itself, with numerous merchants and the megastore concept of Carrefours pretty much covering all merchandise categories. It’s not open yet, because of a (probably spurious) land dispute which arose strategically at the last moment (better chance of getting a big payoff).

more at http://blog.baliwww.com/bali-news-events/689/

Anonymous said...

hey bruce.this is adrian.say hi to su and the kids 4 me.was in skgkng 2 weeks ago.went to your place but no one home.take it easy.+61412424883