Presyo check, September 2026: what your bestsellers cost right now, and what to charge

Every few months the same question comes over the counter: "Ate, bakit tumaas?" And every few months the honest answer is that the supplier raised it, and you are still deciding whether to pass it on.

This post is a presyo check for September 2026. It has three parts: what the government numbers say this month, what a sample of your bestsellers costs on a Philippine online grocery shelf today, and the small arithmetic that turns a pack price into a tingi price you can defend.

The big picture, in three numbers

The Philippine Statistics Authority released the August figures on September 4. Three of them matter to a tindahan:

Two things to read from that. First, food prices are still going up, just more slowly than earlier in the year. The average for January to August is 5.2%, still above the government's 2% to 4% target, so nobody should expect the supplier's list to go back to last year's numbers.

Second, and more important for a sari-sari store: your customers are living the 8.2% line, not the 6.1% headline. The bottom 30% figure stayed flat while the national number eased, because the things that weigh most in a low-income basket, food and utilities, are the things still rising fastest. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels were up 7.9% year on year. That is your refrigerator bill and your customer's LPG refill in the same number.

If your suki are buying smaller sizes and fewer pieces per visit, this is why. It is not you.

Where DTI stands on suggested retail prices

The Department of Trade and Industry froze prices on basic necessities and prime commodities from mid-April until May 10, 2026, citing the Middle East situation. That freeze has ended. DTI's most recent Suggested Retail Price bulletin is dated May 11, 2026 and covers the usual list: canned sardines, processed milk, coffee, bread, locally made instant noodles, bottled water, laundry soap, toilet soap, candles, salt, canned meat and condiments.

Two practical notes:

• SRPs are written for supermarkets selling whole packs. A tingi price a peso or two above SRP for a single sachet is normal and expected. A tingi price far above it is what gets reported.
• The bulletin is a PDF on the DTI website, and the e-Presyo page shows prevailing prices by region. If a customer says "sobra naman," it helps to know the official number before you answer.

Live shelf check: 18 September 2026

The table below is not a wholesale price list. It is what shopsuki.ph, an online grocery that delivers around the Philippines, was charging on the morning of September 18, 2026. Think of it as "what a supermarket would charge my customer if they did not buy from me." Your wholesale price should sit below these; your tingi price will usually sit at or a little above them.

Where the shelf sells a multipack, the per-piece figure is the pack price divided by the pieces, so you can compare it with what you charge per sachet.

Almusal: kape at gatas

Ulam sa lata

Noodles

Sawsawan at pampalasa

Sabon at panlaba

Shampoo at conditioner sachets

Inumin

Meryenda

Bigas, asukal, mantika, itlog

Sigarilyo

How to read the table

A pattern jumps out. On this shelf, the everyday sachet, whether coffee, detergent, shampoo, fabcon or dishwashing liquid, lands between ₱5.40 and ₱7.70 per piece when bought as a multipack. That is very close to what a sari-sari store pays a wholesaler for the same sachet, sometimes a little above.

So the tingi price you see on most counters, ₱8 to ₱10 per sachet, is not greed. It is roughly a 25% to 45% markup on a cost that has moved up with everything else. Anyone charging ₱5 or ₱6 per sachet of Surf today is selling at cost.

Noodles and canned goods are the ones to watch. A Lucky Me Beef at ₱9.55 on the shelf leaves very little room: if your wholesaler is at ₱8.50, a ₱10 tingi price is a 17% margin, and ₱12 is where most stores actually sit. Sardines around ₱25 in a supermarket usually sell for ₱28 to ₱30 tingi.

The tingi arithmetic, once and for all

Take the Surf 6+1 pack: ₱45.15 for 7 sachets.

1. Cost per piece: ₱45.15 ÷ 7 = ₱6.45
2. Sell at ₱8: margin is ₱1.55, or 24% on cost
3. Sell at ₱9: margin is ₱2.55, or 40% on cost
4. Sell at ₱10: margin is ₱3.55, or 55% on cost

Do the same with anything you buy by the pack. Divide the pack price by the pieces inside, then decide how many pesos you need on top. Round to a coin your customer actually carries: ₱8, ₱9, ₱10, not ₱8.75.

If you use TindaJuan, this is already built in. On any product, type the pack price you paid and the number of pieces in the pack, and the item page shows the per-piece cost. If you have not set a sell price yet, it suggests one at 30% on top, which you can accept with one tap or change. And when the shared catalogue knows what an online shelf charges for the same product, the item page shows that too, with the source and date, so you can see at a glance whether your price is above or below the supermarket.

Three moves for the rest of September

1. Re-check your ten fastest sachets against the table. Coffee, detergent, shampoo, fabcon, Magic Sarap. If any is priced below ₱8 and you are buying at today's wholesale, you are probably losing on it.

2. Watch rice, sugar and oil separately. Packworks, which tracks sales from more than 300,000 sari-sari stores, reported in July 2025 that a 5kg pack of premium rice went from ₱235 in 2023 to ₱295 in 2024 before settling at ₱285 in 2025. Staples move in bigger steps than sachets and customers notice every one. If you sell rice by the kilo or oil by the sachet, recompute your price every time you restock, not once a season.

3. Stock for typhoon season now. In a study released September 2025, Packworks looked at seven provinces hit by six late-2024 typhoons and found sari-sari sales rose 27% in daily value and 50% in transaction count during and after the storms. The items that carried it: powdered coffee, detergent, cigarettes and, in the Bicol provinces, gin. Candles and canned goods sit on the DTI list for a reason. September to November is the season. A shelf walk this week that marks those items Low before they are Out is worth more than any pricing tip.

The short version

• Inflation is easing on paper, at 6.1%, but the households you serve still feel 8.2%.
• The DTI price freeze ended May 10. The current SRP bulletin is dated May 11, 2026.
• On a Philippine online shelf today, most sachets cost ₱5.40 to ₱7.70 apiece in multipacks. A ₱8 to ₱10 tingi price is a fair 25% to 45% markup, not a rip-off.
• Divide the pack price by the pieces. Add what you need. Round to a real coin.

We will run this presyo check again. If there is a product you want in the next table, tell us from the Contact us page inside your store.

Sources. Philippine Statistics Authority August 2026 CPI release as reported by Philstar and GMA News, September 4, 2026. DTI price freeze announcement, April 2026, and the latest SRP bulletin page. Packworks studies via Marketing-Interactive: price increases at sari-sari stores, July 3, 2025, and sales during typhoons, September 10, 2025. Shelf prices are from the public product listings of shopsuki.ph, captured September 18, 2026, and will have changed by the time you read this.