PT Sarinah (Persero) is an Indonesian retail company owned by PT Aviasi Pariwisata Indonesia (Persero) (InJourney), a

state-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

holding company. Its flagship store,

Sarinah Building Sarinah Building ( id, Gedung Sarinah) is a 74-metre tall 15-floor department store in Gondangdia, Menteng, Central Jakarta, Indonesia. It was the first skyscraper to be built in Jakarta. Sarinah is located at the intersection of Jalan Kyai Haji W ...

in M.H. Thamrin Street of

Central Jakarta Central Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Pusat) is one of the five administrative cities () which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. It had 902,973 inhabitants according to the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 1,056,896 at the 2 ...

, was the first skyscraper to be built in Jakarta as well as the first modern department store in the city. In addition to Thamrin, Sarinah also has a number of other outlets namely at Pejaten Village in South Jakarta, Banyumanik (

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

) and

Malang Malang (; ) is a landlocked List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of Singhasari, Singhasari Kingdom. It is the second most popul ...

History

Sarinah was incorporated on 17 August 1962 as PT Department Store Indonesia "Sarinah". In the early 1960s, Indonesia was hit by very high inflation rates. President

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

believed that a department store would act as a price stabilizer to help keep prices under control, citing similar department stores in Communist states used as such price stabilizers (for example, the Soviet

GUM Gum may refer to: Types of gum * Adhesive * Bubble gum * Chewing gum * Gum (botany), sap or other resinous material associated with certain species of the plant kingdom ** Gum arabic, made from the sap of ''Acacia senegal'', an Old World tree s ...

, the Czech

Bílá labuť Bílá labuť (in English 'White Swan') is a department store on Na Poříčí Street in central Prague, Czech Republic. It is considered to be one of the finest examples of interwar avant-garde architecture. It is recognised by the Prague Munici ...

, and the Polish CDT). The first store in Jakarta was built by Obayashi Corporation using Japanese war reparation funds, and opened in August 1966. The project was conceived by President

, who named it Sarinah after his childhood nanny. In an effort to pursue its price stabilization agenda, state-owned Sarinah department store published weekly grocery price lists. Sukarno affirmed that ''"The Sarinah department store will become one of the important tools for the organization of Indonesian socialism..."'' and ''"if Sarinah sells a kebaya for 10 rupiah then another retailer will not dare to sell the same kebaya for 20 rupiah"''. However, it failed almost immediately in this role as there was a limit to what one store or even a few stores could do in such a large country. Sarinah struggled to compete with other retailers and went into debt as it expanded aggressively into other cities in Indonesia. In the early 1970s, in an effort to survive, Sarinah moved its focus to local handicrafts, especially batik. It was renamed into the present name in 1979. On 6 October 2021, the government of Indonesia handed over the majority of the company shares to PT Aviasi Pariwisata Indonesia (Persero), as an effort to form a state-owned holding company engaged in aviation and tourism.

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External links

* {{Commonscat, Sarinah Department stores of Indonesia InJourney Retail companies established in 1962 Indonesian companies established in 1962