Seeing The Money Changing Business On The Roadside In Bekasi City

Sepri, one of the business activists in exchanging coins on the side of the road in Bekasi City/ Photo: Antara

BEKASI - A number of protocol roads and densely populated residential areas in Bekasi Regency, West Java have begun to be crowded with change money services. This phenomenon occurs again entering the beginning of the 2022 Eid homecoming music.

On Jalan Raya Pantura, Inspection Kalimalang, Jalan Cikarang-Cibarusah, to the industrial areas of Lippo Cikarang and Jababeka as well as densely populated housing such as Mega Regency Serang Baru and Tambun Selatan, money exchange services are starting to be seen lined up with a distance of 100-300 meters.

"I chose to open here because this route is the main route that is often passed by two-wheeled travelers from Jakarta to West Java to East Java," said a money changer, Marulian (23), on Jalan Pantura Tambun Selatan, Bekasi Regency, Sunday. .

Marulian admitted that he had been running this dime exchange business since 2018, every time he enters the Lebaran homecoming season and this year, he again offers this service with four members of his family.

This man who works as a laborer takes advantage of his free time outside of working hours to run this service business. In this year's homecoming season, he has opened a business since D-20 until D-1 Lebaran later.

"When I get a night shift, I start changing in the morning, then go home in the afternoon. But when I go to work in the morning, I just stand by in the afternoon, I go home at eight at night. Now it's still quiet because Lebaran is still long. Sometimes it's only one or two days. only people. The crowd is usually D-7," he said.

Meanwhile, Seprianto (28) admitted that he took advantage of the Lebaran homecoming momentum to increase rupiah coffers by opening a dime exchange service in the roundabout area of the Hyundai industrial area, South Cikarang District.

He prepared loose change starting from IDR 2-20 thousand denominations with a minimum exchange of IDR 100,000. "Rp 2,000, 5,000, 10 thousand to 20 thousand. If Rp 50 thousand is not available, because it can be taken through an ATM machine," he said.

He took advantage of the dime exchange service of 10 percent of each nominal transaction and when entering D-7 Lebaran the tariff rose to 12 percent.

"So if you exchange as much as Rp. 100 thousand, the cost is Rp. 110 thousand. If it is Rp. 200 thousand, it becomes Rp. 220 thousand. Anyway, the rate is 10 percent. But on D-7 it becomes 12 percent," he said.

Sepri admitted that during the homecoming season last year he was able to make transactions of up to Rp. 25 million per day, although at this time he has not been able to generate much because the peak of transactions only begins in the middle of next week.

"Hopefully there will be more this year because the government has allowed going home," he said.