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2 Mar, 2013

Meet the real ‘neo-libs’ of Indonesia | The Jakarta Post

Traditional markets may be coming under a lot of pressure from the modern, big-money supermarkets and hypermarkets, but small traders know a thing or two about surviving the competition. And that may just be their saving grace.

Anyone looking for evidence of how a free market operates based on the forces of supply and demand — simple economic theory — only needs to pay a visit to one of these markets. If prices are fixed at supermarkets, here shoppers can haggle — they are expected to haggle — over prices and both traders and buyers come away happy when they have struck a good bargain.

The opportunity to negotiate is one of many attractions that have kept housewives sticking to traditional markets — clean or dirty is irrelevant — in purchasing some of their daily needs in preference for the more convenient, large supermarkets.

Read the rest: Meet the real ‘neo-libs’ of Indonesia | The Jakarta Post.