Today’s shoppers have a myriad of choices when it comes to shopping for food in Indonesia. From the neighbourhood gathering of vegetable sellers, to traditional markets, to mom and pop grocery stores to modern supermarkets, and the hypermarkets which have been opened with investment from foreign grocery store chains.
Shoppers in Indonesia, both expatriate and local, have a good choice of pleasant, hygienic surroundings in which to shop for food. Hero Supermarket remains a favourite with the expat community, with stores in Kemang, Terogong, and Pondok Indah continuing to cater well to international residents with a wider selection of imported foodstuffs than you will find in most local supermarket branches.
In Jakarta there is, in addition, Kem Chicks — now anchored primarily at its Pacific Place location — Food Hall Supermarket, and Ranch Market, as well as some small chain or family-owned neighbourhood supermarkets. Village Market and All Fresh have also become popular with expat shoppers seeking premium and organic produce. Many major malls in Jakarta have a supermarket anchor tenant — increasingly Ranch Market, Farmers Market, or a Lotte Mart, depending on the mall’s market positioning.
Hypermarkets include Transmart Carrefour — operating under the Trans Retail Indonesia group — Lotte Mart, and Grand Lucky, which has expanded in recent years with well-regarded locations in BSD City and South Jakarta. Makro continues to operate on a wholesale and membership model, useful for bulk buyers and small business owners.
Most neighbourhoods have small convenience stores such as Indomaret and Alfamart that sell basic foodstuffs and snacks. As these chains have grown they have opened stores throughout the archipelago in all the larger cities, and it is now rare to find a neighbourhood in any Indonesian city that does not have at least one of the two within easy walking distance.
Ethnic Grocery Stores
With the number of expats from around the world, shop owners have started to cater to specific ethnic groups. For example, many ingredients used in Japanese cooking can be found at Daiso, which now has multiple locations across Jakarta and is a reliable source for Japanese pantry staples, kitchen goods, and snack foods. Papaya is also still open and carries a good range of Asian and international ingredients.
Indians can find many of the spices and food items they need in the “Little India” cluster of shops, or at Supermarket Mustafa and India Papadam, most located in the Sunter and Kelapa Gading areas.
Korean expats can find Korean ingredients at Mu Gung Hwa in the Senopati area. The Korean expat community in Jakarta has grown considerably in recent years, and additional Korean grocery options have also emerged along the TB Simatupang and Pondok Indah corridors.
It is worth noting that many Japanese, Korean, and Indian grocery items that once required a dedicated specialty store visit are now readily available through online platforms and delivered directly to your door — a significant convenience for expats living outside the main expat corridors.
Most of these establishments are run by people of the same ethnic background who understand what fellow compatriots will be looking for and need.
A World of Choice
Today’s modern Indonesian supermarket and hypermarket features a selection of local and imported goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh milk, dairy products, meat, household and cleaning items. The bigger chain stores feature cash registers with optic scanners for quick checkout services. Full service stores have baggers, and most offer both plastic bags and reusable shopping bags — though the landscape here is changing.
Jakarta and several other major cities, including Bali, have moved toward broader single-use plastic restrictions. In many supermarkets and hypermarkets, plastic bags are either charged for or no longer offered at all. Bringing your own reusable bags is now strongly recommended and in some stores is the only option available.
Most expats are pleasantly surprised at the variety of produce they find in supermarkets in Jakarta. You may not have the vast selection of certain items that you might find in North American or European superstores, but a wide selection of good produce is available, and the range of imported goods in the expat-facing stores has improved considerably over the past decade.
Perhaps unusual for foreign shoppers is the use of deposit counters in the supermarkets. Bringing bags from outside into the store premises is discouraged or not permitted. You deposit these goods at a counter near the entrance, where they are safely held until you are ready to depart. You are given a numbered tag when you drop off your items and you surrender this tag to reclaim your goods upon leaving. Laptops and electronic items of higher value are not accepted at deposit counters, as the stores do not want to be responsible for them.
In some stores, small distributors operate counters within the premises. When you purchase an item from them, you may be required to wait while they write up a bill listing the items and their prices, called a nota. Take the nota to the cash register and pay for these items along with your other goods. This practice is less common than it once was as point-of-sale systems have modernised, but you will still encounter it in certain stores, so it is worth knowing about.
Many supermarkets offer additional services on their premises, including shoe repair, dry cleaning, pharmacy, or small restaurants. This benefits the shopper in a hurry and makes one-stop shopping possible.
Online Shopping Apps
Since 2020, online grocery shopping has moved from a convenient alternative to a primary channel for many expat households in Jakarta and other major cities. The combination of heavy traffic, competitive pricing, and rapid delivery times — often under two hours — means many families now do the majority of their grocery shopping without leaving home. Most major supermarket chains also now offer their own delivery services or partner with third-party platforms, so you can shop from Ranch Market, Farmers Market, or Lotte Mart via app as easily as visiting in person.
Popular grocery and delivery apps include HappyFresh, Sayur Box, Club Sehat, Namaste Organic, and Javara, which allow you to order groceries and other goods delivered via motorcycle to your home or office at a scheduled time. Beyond these, the platforms that now handle the largest share of online grocery shopping in Indonesia are worth knowing about:
GoMart (via the Gojek app) and GrabMart (via Grab, the app most expats already use for transport) both offer on-demand grocery and convenience delivery, often within the hour. Tokopedia and Shopee have extensive grocery and fresh food categories and are widely used by both expats and locals. For bulk or specialty purchases, these platforms also give access to a wider range of imported and health-focused products than you might find on the shelves of your nearest store.
Delivery fees vary by platform and order size, and many apps offer free delivery promotions or subscription models that make regular grocery delivery very cost-effective. Given Jakarta’s traffic, the time saving alone makes delivery services worth considering for most expat households.
A Little History
The last few decades have seen enormous development in retail supermarkets throughout the larger cities of Indonesia. Prior to the development of modern supermarkets, food in the cities was sold through local traditional markets (pasar) or from carts peddled around neighbourhoods. With industrialisation and the availability of packaged foodstuffs, mom and pop food outlets grew in the cities and towns.
In the 1970s, consumers saw the beginning of supermarket development when Hero Supermarkets opened their first outlet. By the end of the decade, Kem Chicks — which started out selling eggs in the early 1970s — and Gelael had also opened small stores in Jakarta. Duty free stores in Jakarta supplied hard-to-find imported food items and alcoholic beverages for diplomats, and small ethnic food stores imported items from India, Korea, and Japan.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, scores of new supermarkets opened. Some succeeded and expanded into small chains in major urban centres; others opened just a few stores in Jakarta only. Controversies arose over how the supermarkets were affecting traditional markets. Supermarkets in close proximity to traditional markets were not allowed to sell fruits, vegetables, and meat. In urban areas the public had a choice, and many were choosing the new modern supermarkets.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Makro, Transmart Carrefour, and Lotte Mart expanded steadily across Jakarta and into other major Indonesian cities. During the economic boom of the early 1990s, there was a significant upswing in the importation of foodstuffs and household goods. The expatriate community, and those Indonesians who had lived overseas, were pleased to find many food items that had not previously been available in Indonesia. Prior to this period, expatriates had used their baggage allowances to the maximum on home leave or trips to Singapore in order to bring back food treats for special occasions.
The availability of so many imported products changed drastically in early 1998 as the devaluation of the rupiah against foreign currency severely curtailed the importation of many items. Stock disappeared from grocery store shelves during the initial panic buying and took a long time to return. Consumers soon discovered that many locally produced consumer goods were also dependent on imported ingredients, so their prices soared or production stopped altogether.
In late 2008, contaminated milk products imported from China were found to have caused serious illness in a number of Indonesian children. Since this incident, the Food and Health Commission of Indonesia has required that all food products be approved by their agency before reaching the market. This is a time-consuming and costly process, and many importers opted to discontinue items they had previously been bringing in.
More Recently
Over the last decade, convenience stores have mushroomed in almost every neighbourhood across Indonesia. Alfamart and Indomaret are now the standard go-to neighbourhood stores for basic food and cleaning items. They stock small containers of everyday needs including cleaning supplies, shampoos, and baby products, and offer useful services such as debit card top-ups and bill payment. Their model — targeting everyday shoppers with a small markup and frequent, small purchases — has proven exceptionally well suited to the Indonesian market.
7-Eleven attempted to enter the Indonesian market but struggled to compete with the entrenched dominance of Alfamart and Indomaret, eventually closing all its Indonesian locations in 2017. Its reliance on snack food, cigarettes, and beverage sales proved unsustainable against two competitors with a much broader everyday offer and a deeply established community presence.
The shift toward online shopping that accelerated sharply during and after 2020 has permanently changed how many Indonesian consumers — and expats in particular — approach their grocery shopping. Busy professionals and families have embraced online grocery delivery, drawn by the convenience of home delivery, competitive pricing, and the ability to access specialty and imported products that may not be stocked locally. With organic foods, farmer-direct delivery, vegan options, and hard-to-find international ingredients available around the clock through websites and apps, there is no longer any need to fight Jakarta’s traffic just to stock the kitchen.
Frequently Asked Questions: Grocery Shopping in Indonesia
Where do expats buy groceries in Jakarta?
Most expats in Jakarta shop at Ranch Market, Food Hall, Farmers Market, or Kem Chicks for imported and premium goods. Larger hypermarkets like Lotte Mart and Transmart Carrefour offer good value for bulk shopping. Online delivery via GoMart, GrabMart, Shopee, and Tokopedia is increasingly popular and now handles a large share of expat grocery shopping.
Can I find imported food products in Indonesia?
Yes — Jakarta in particular has an excellent range of imported foodstuffs, especially in supermarkets catering to the expat community. Availability has improved significantly over the past decade, though the selection will vary depending on which city you are living in.
Are there organic food options in Indonesia?
Yes. Organic and health-focused grocery options have grown considerably. Village Market, All Fresh, and several online platforms specialising in organic and farm-direct produce now serve expat households in Jakarta and Bali particularly well.
Is online grocery delivery reliable in Indonesia?
In major cities — Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Bandung — online grocery delivery is reliable and widely used. GoMart and GrabMart typically offer delivery within one to two hours. Delivery times and availability vary in smaller cities and outside main urban centres.
What are Indomaret and Alfamart?
These are Indonesia’s two dominant convenience store chains, found in virtually every neighbourhood across the country. They stock everyday essentials, snacks, beverages, and basic household items, and offer useful services including bill payment and mobile credit top-ups. They are not well stocked for imported or specialty items.
Do supermarkets in Indonesia accept credit cards?
Most modern supermarkets, hypermarkets, and mall-based stores accept major credit and debit cards as well as popular e-wallet payments such as GoPay, OVO, and Dana. Smaller neighbourhood stores and traditional markets typically prefer cash.
