<![CDATA[Purpose – This study comprehensively investigates how traditional grocery store (warung) owners in West Tanjung Jabung Regency integrate intuitive heuristics of customer price sensitivity with Islamic commercial jurisprudence (fiqh muamalah) to sustain micro-business operations and local supply continuity. Design/methodology/approach – Utilizing a qualitative descriptive research design grounded in multi-site fieldwork, empirical data were gathered from 20 purposively selected store owners operating across diverse commercial contexts including urban high-density neighborhoods, coastal market fringes, rural agricultural plantation zones, and suburban roadside corridors in Tungkal Ilir and Betara Districts. Data collection involved structured semi-structured in-depth interviews, 120 cumulative hours of field observations, and thorough manual ledger document inspection. Finding/Results – Rather than replacing conventional microeconomic rationality, the empirical findings demonstrate that Islamic commercial norms socially and normatively embed merchant heuristics within local community structures. Store owners evaluate customer price responsiveness intuitively through experiential indicators rather than by computing formal elasticity coefficients (|Ed|). For non-essential goods perceived as highly price-sensitive, merchants proactively compress profit margins to preserve customer retention (tasamuh). For basic staple necessities (sembako) characterized by low perceived price sensitivity, merchants refrain from opportunistic price gouging during supply disruptions, relying instead on informal wholesale cost transparency. Routine spot sales default almost universally to unvocalized mutual exchange (akad mu'athah), while informal delayed-payment credit (kasbon) operates primarily as a deferred merchandise sale debt (dayn) rather than a pure altruistic loan (qardh).]]>
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