BAU: Visitors to Serikin weekend market dropped drastically, obviously being scared away by the spread of Covid-19 virus.
A visit by New Sarawak Tribune to the weekend market on Saturday found that the number of visitors to the market has drop sharply, while several traders have closed their stalls.
Many of the more than 200 traders at the market who are mostly Indonesians from Pontianak, Sambas and Singkawang complained they were losing income due to the situation.
Zaid Zakaria, 50, who is from a village in Pontianak and has traded at Serikin for more than 10 years, estimated that there are 60 to 70 per cent drop in the number of visitors to the market on Saturday.
“The number was lower than the previous weekend,” said Zaid, who sells clothes and textile.
He said all the traders were affected, adding that some of them have not opened their stalls fearing that their income would not be sufficient to cover their costs.
According to Zaid, a trader has to spend about RM200 which covers transportation cost, accommodation, stall rental, local council fee and passport fee.
“Before the outbreak of the Covid-19, I easily made between RM2,000 and RM3,000 in sales each weekend, but last weekend I made less than RM1,000,” he said.
Another trader, Agus Tian, 42, from Sambas who sell herbs also said the drastic drop in the number of visitors had badly lessened his sales and those of other traders there.
He said if the spread of Covid-19 virus continued, he expected even less people coming.
“I may stop trading here for a while until the situation returns to normal,” he said.
Agus spend about RM200 to come over to trade at the market but last week he earned just RM250.
“This week may be less than that, so I would make a loss,” he said.
A shopper, Rayner Robert, 31, who was at the market yesterday, said there were fewer people than those he saw during his previous visits.
