Hundreds Of Thousands Of Grocery Stores Help Prevent The Spread Of COVID-19

JAKARTA - Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are one of the business sectors most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because many Indonesians have changed their consumption patterns.

However, in this situation, the grocery store around the house is actually a wise choice as a place to shop for basic necessities for everyone. This is in accordance with the government's appeal in order to maintain the economic resilience of the small community, namely so that everyone can help each other in their neighborhood by shopping for basic necessities at the grocery store.

Shopping at the grocery store near your home can also help reduce the spread of COVID-19 by avoiding activities in crowded places, in other words doing physical distancing.

Sampoerna Retail Community (SRC) as a grocery store community now plays a role in supporting the government in breaking the chain of the spread of COVID-19. Many initiatives have been carried out by SRC shop owners as a preventive measure for the spread of COVID-19.

These initiatives include making a transparent barrier on the cashier's counter, using a mask and transparent face cover, providing distance dividers for consumers, providing a place for washing hands, providing hand sanitizers, conducting digital promotions on the "AYO SRC" application, and online ordering services take it yourself / deliver).

"We are all taking preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19 so that our customers can shop more comfortably to meet their needs. In addition, we also want us to continue to have income to support our families. We don't know how long this situation will last. However, we believe that all will be missed, "said Salim, owner of SRC Salim from South Jakarta, in a statement received by VOI, Thursday, May 14.

Entering its 12th year, the presence of SRC, which has empowered more than 120,000 grocery stores in all provinces in Indonesia, has increasingly felt its role in the surrounding community. In current conditions, the SRC wants to play a role again in helping the government's efforts to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the MSME sector, which is the driving force of the Indonesian economy.

Head of SRC Commercial Business Development Affairs, Henny Susanto said, SRC will directly help spread a positive spirit in facing this COVID-19 pandemic situation, not only among grocery store owners, but also to the surrounding environment.

"For this reason, the SRC initiated the Joint Grocery Store #KitaSalingMenolong movement as an effort to provide convenience for consumers in shopping, by implementing preventive measures in accordance with government directives," he said.

This movement, according to him, is also an invitation for consumers to support grocery stores by making shopping near home more comfortable. Henny added, that his party conducted preventive action education through the "AYO SRC" application. This education includes efforts to promote physical distancing in shops, in line with one of the programs of the Ministry of Cooperatives and UKM, which actively promotes the practice of physical distancing in stalls / grocery stores.

Through the "AYO SRC" application, SRC owners are encouraged to carry out the "Together Against COVID-19" activity as a concrete form of the SRC shop's active role in taking preventive action as well as providing education for the surrounding community.

SRC also provided another form of support for the government to cut the chain of spread of COVID-19, namely by giving 650 thousand cloth masks and 80,000 liters of hand sanitizer liquid to hundreds of thousands of SRC shops in Indonesia.