Kebertahanan Pasar Monza dalam Menghadapi Thrift Shop Online (Studi Etnografi di Pasar Melati Kota Medan)

Abstract

This article is entitled The Survival of the Monza Market in the Face of Online Thrift Shops (Ethnographic Study at the Melati Market in Medan City). This research aims to determine the factors that enable Monza traders to continue selling at the Melati Market, the obstacles that Monza traders face in facing competition with online thrift shops, and the strategies of Monza traders at the Melati Market in facing the era of digitalization. This research was conducted at Pasar Melati which is located on Jl. Bunga Sakura, Tanjung Selamat sub-district, Medan Tuntungan sub-district, Medan city, North Sumatra. This research uses a qualitative approach with ethnographic methods. The technique used in collecting data is by conducting observations in the field and in-depth interviews with informants. In order to obtain more complete data, the author uses field notes, documentation and literature studies. The results of this research show that the reason Monza traders are still selling at the Melati Market in the era of digitalization is that they are still profitable and selling well, as their only livelihood, traders are still comfortable selling at kiosks and traders have regular customers or subscriptions. Then there are several obstacles that monza traders at Melati Market face with online thrift shops, namely the existence of online thrift shops which makes market reach increasingly limited, requires more labor to trade, requires greater capital to stock goods and has limited selling time compared to thrift shop online. There are several strategies for Monza traders in maintaining their existence in the era of digitalization, namely displaying trendy goods as window displays. This strategy aims to attract potential customers who pass by the kiosk. Items used as display cases have quite high selling prices. This is in accordance with the interests and demands of people who are intensively looking for products with exclusive brands or those that are trendy. With these trendy items, traders can sell them at high prices. The cultural adaptation that occurred in this research includes two dimensions, namely selling adaptation and buying adaptation. From a trader's point of view, the adaptation that occurs is the development of the seller's knowledge of the merchandise brand. Meanwhile, from the buyer's side, there are no significant transactional changes.