70% Pinoys ‘hustle’ to make ends meet

Seven out of 10 Filipinos found ways to manage their family’s needs and many of them are hustling to do so, based on the annual Shopperscope study of Kantar, wherein 2,000 households from across the Philippines were interviewed to share their point of view about their current financial disposition and personal economic outlook.

Data from Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, shows that in 2024, 73 percent of Filipinos say they are managing their resources to make both ends meet but that may entail some extra work.

“Despite the challenges, Filipinos who are managing are looking for means to extend their resources. Our Shopperscope respondents who classify as managing reveal that they are adding an extra job on top of a regular one or are starting a business to augment their primary source of income. We’ve observed that this behavior has resulted to a ‘hustle culture’ among Filipinos, as they try to earn more but at the expense of time for chores, personal interests, and other activities,” Laurice Obana, consumer and shopper insight director at the Worldpanel Division of Kantar Philippines, said.

Fielded from February 2024 to April 2024, the Kantar study also shows that 19 percent of local households describe themselves as struggling to keep afloat due to job cuts or less working hours that affect their take-home pay.

Meanwhile, the remaining 8 percent of respondents feel a sense of comfort with their current economic situation. These figures are seen to be slightly better than those struggling (less than 3 percent), managing (up by 2 percent) and being comfortable (up by 1 percent) with their personal financial situation compared to the previous year’s Shopperscope results.

Mindful spending

With a slightly better financial disposition compared to last year, Kantar has found that Filipinos are seen to be buying bigger baskets and there is a notable volume increase in packaged goods purchase.

Figures from Kantar show that purchases of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) among Filipino households registered a 5 percent growth in terms of value in 2024. This growth is driven by beverages (softdrinks, coffee, water, family/children’s milk) as well as snacks (instant noodles, biscuits, and crackers).

However, Filipinos continue to be mindful of their FMCG choices and purchases. In their buying decision, Kantar says that those who are managing are stretching their funds to get more value for their money.

Filipinos who struggle to budget funds are looking beyond discounts and are making cuts on their overall FMCG spend. This group does grocery shopping less often and are buying even less than what they intended to when they visit stores.