Tingi economy · daily P&L

Cigarettes by the stick. Shampoo by the sachet.

A sari-sari store runs on selling things one swallow at a time. Drag the day's foot traffic and the monthly rent, and watch the household's net income flip from black to red.

Net income · per day

₱—

after rent & utilities

Revenue₱—

Gross margin₱—

Rent / day₱—

Margin by item · ₱/day bar height = daily margin · % = markup

margin (sell − cost) × units cost of goods

The two dials

Foot traffic · customers/day120

Monthly rent & utilities₱3,000

Break-even traffic—

Customers/day needed just to cover rent.

How to use

Drag foot traffic and monthly rent. The store P&L recomputes per item — each bar is one product's daily margin, with its markup printed on top. Watch net income flip from positive to negative, and the red line on the break-even bar mark where rent eats the whole day.

The tingi premium

A 6.5g shampoo sachet costs ₱8 from the sari-sari but ₱4.30 unit-cost when bought as a 200ml bottle. Tingi pricing extracts ~85% effective markup.

Why people still buy: ₱150 for a bottle requires capital. ₱8 for a sachet is one wash. Liquidity, not cost, drives the format.

Real margins

Cigarettes per stick: 100% markup. Coke per glass: 60%. Detergent sachet: 35%. Most items hover around 20–30%. A working sari-sari clears ₱400–800/day net.

Citations

Hsiang & Schoenholtz (2018) — Sari-sari microenterprise economics, AIM working paper.
Pinoy Marketing Inc. / Kantar (2023) — sachet economy share-of-wallet survey.
BIR Rev. Regs. 5-2003 — micro-business income-tax exemption thresholds.
DTI (2023) — MSME statistics, sari-sari accounts for 94% of retail outlets.
Levitt (2006) — The Lure of Tingi, NBER w12442, on liquidity-constrained pricing.

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