Difficulty in Finding Mascots

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Local visitors line up to buy 2018 Asian Games merchandise on Aug. 18 at the Super Store official souvenir outlet at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Jakarta. Many official stores and shopping mall booths have begun running out of the Asian Games mascots due to high demand.

The three Asian Games mascots are hard to find. Local and foreign visitors of the Games are disappointed, as they have been unable to purchase the mascots. Not only have the souvenir dolls disappeared from sports venues, but also from shopping malls.

It is difficult to win medals, as is hunting down Asian Games merchandise. The difficulty in locating the souvenirs is evident at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) sports complex in Jakarta as well as at several shopping malls in the city.

People are willing to wait in line for the souvenirs, even forming a 200-meter queue on Tuesday (28/8/2018) although the souvenirs’ availability was uncertain. The queue stretched from the GBK Pavilion Zone to the entrance of the Super Store, the official Asian Games merchandise shop.

Rafinata Ashila, 20, a visitor from Yogyakarta, was disappointed because she could not find any souvenirs. “I waited in the queue for two hours, only to find that all the Asian Games merchandise had sold out,” she said.

Asian Games mascots Bhin-bhin, Atung and Kaka were the most sought-after items among the merchandise. Aside from the mascots, the Super Store also sells other official merchandise such as bags, T-shirts, jackets, hats, lunch boxes and water bottles, as well as packaged foods and beverages bearing the Asian Games logo. All official souvenirs are marked with a hologram.

Poppy Hanif, 57, decided to buy other merchandise instead of the Asian Games mascots she sought. “So as not to return home empty-handed, I bought a lunch box. The organizer needs to supply [more] mascots. Many people are disappointed because the mascots are sold out,” said Poppy, who lives in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta.

The Super Store, as well as several other official vendors and booths at shopping malls, had sold out of Asian Games merchandise, especially the mascots. Customers that did not want to wait in line at the Super Store chose to buy the merchandise at shopping malls.

The situation was the same at the two shopping malls near the GBK authorized to sell the souvenirs, with both malls running out of merchandise.

Aliong, 66, a visitor, visited the official booth at the Senayan City shopping mall and bought an Asian Games T-shirt. “I wanted to buy the souvenir [T-shirt] for my grandchild, but it was sold out, as were the mascots. So I bought only a regular T-shirt,” Aliong said.

The Asian Games souvenir vendors at other shopping malls are experiencing the same situation as the booth at Senayan City. Several items are already sold out, and the shelves do not have many items left. That day, the shelves only held several bags, cushions, water bottles, pencil cases and key chains.

Some visitors left their contact numbers at the booth, hoping that the vendor would contact them once the merchandise became available again.

Indonesia 2018 Asian Games Organizing Committee (Inasgoc) merchandise vice director Mochtar Sarman offered a solution in response to the large number of visitors seeking to purchase the Asian Games mascots: Inasgoc would provide a pre-order facility for the Asian Games mascots.

“We will reproduce the mascots. People can pre-order online and we will ship [the items] to them,” said Mochtar.

He said that the Asian Games souvenirs were available for purchase a year ago, but people were trying to buy them only now. He understood why the people’s enthusiasm had risen after the Asian Games began.

Unfortunately, the story that the Asian Games mascots were selling out differs from the story for the other merchandise that city-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) had produced. The MSMEs complained about their limited sales during the international event. One of the obstacles was that they were not licensed to use the Asian Games logo on their products.

“That’s the rule. We cannot grant everyone the right to use the Asian Games logo for copyright reasons,” said Mochtar. (E18)