The year 2020 has been one of the challenges and uncertainties for many people. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived suddenly into the economy and pushed Indonesia into recession in the third quarter of 2020, the first recession since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 appeared in Indonesia in March 2020 and were quickly followed by public health measures and restrictions on movement, which led to decline in consumption and investment. The pandemic has unarguably affected all business sectors. Department stores, categorised within the non-discretionary retailers, are among the most negatively affected businesses during the pandemic. As the pandemic impacts also vary from area to area, and given that Matahari has a vast and robust network across Indonesia. Matahari managed to reduce the overall risk of impacts from certain areas.