Essential Sari-Sari Store Product Price List

Setting up a new business like a sari-sari store can be an exciting venture, even with a small budget. But it requires a lot of thinking and execution of plans. Sourcing your capital money, designing your shop, registering the business, and promoting it are just a few of the items on your checklist.

Our aim is to help you plan your business and this article tries to provide a basic checklist of items that you can consider selling as you launch your sari-sari store business. For shop owners already starting their businesses, the list below can also help generate ideas on what to add or replace in your existing merchandise inventory.

Factors in product selection

• Which items are in most demand in your neighborhood? Is it a residential area far from larger supermarkets so buyers are willing to pay a premium for convenience? So daily needs like shampoo, detergent soap, or soy sauce often bought nearby are popular items in your shop.
• Which items are currently being sold by competing shops nearby? Will these products, while popular, be available at every sari-sari store in the neighborhood? Consider items that are not often bought every day but are unavailable at other shops.
• Which items are most profitable? These are items that are sometimes not the easiest to sell out, but research in your sales logbook can reveal which items are most profitable and you can start building up your stock inventory.

How you can decide which ones to pick

1. Should you consider fast-moving consumer goods that sell out fastest as priority items?
Even with tiny markup, as long as goods are sold fastest, profits still accumulate compared to those with longer shelf life but sell out longer. It allows you to both a) collect profits from items exhausted in the inventory and b) earn that reputation as the go-to shop for those types of goods.

2. Which items are sold year-round?
Will the bulk of your inventory consist of items that customers often use/consume like rice, soy sauce, or shampoo? Or those that your competitors don’t normally display and give you the edge in customer loyalty?

3. Which items do your competitors sell or do not sell?
It’s hard to compete for products that are commonly sold in all sari-sari stores so you can consider establishing a niche. Beyond the FMCG items listed below, you can think of unique merchandise not found in your neighborhood stores. For example, your store can be the go-to shop for things manicurists need: nail polish, nail cutter, cotton balls, and other accessories. They may not be your top sellers but your niche customers identify your shop as a solution to their needs.

The list below is a sample inventory of products your sari-sari store may want to consider. Prices are based on research from online shops and DTI’s latest suggested retail price as of writing time. It contains the purchase cost of merchandise, the volume of purchase, and the selling price based on a 20% mark up.

You’ll also factor in expenses such as transport, packaging and other costs to be deducted from your income and computation of profits.

Hopefully, it helps us answer the question of how much does a sari-sari store actually earns. You can then decide if the sari-sari store is the way to go and confident you can grow it, or it’s a bad business to invest your money in.

Read more:

• How to Register Your Sari-Sari Store Business in the Philippines
• How to Chase Unpaid Sari-Sari Store Debt
• 10 Great Benefits of Managing Your Own Sari-Sari Store
• How to Pick a Name for Your Business
• Top 4 Reasons Why Your Sari-Sari Store Failed

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