Walk into any major mall, light rail transit hub, or commercial center in Metro Manila, and you will see the exact same sight: a massive, winding queue of local consumers waiting for a quick snack. High-volume, low-ticket local micro-franchises—like the Famous Belgian Waffles franchise—seem to absolutely dominate consumer foot traffic.
We are not affiliated with Famous Belgian Waffles and all copyrights and images are owned by them. We are simply using them as an example as they are a very popular brand in the Philippines (I eat there very often!)
To a Western expat, digital nomad, or remote operator looking into investing in the Philippines as an expat, it looks like a slam dunk business model. You see low initial entry fees, endless foot traffic, and an incredibly simple product. You start doing the quick napkin math: If they sell $X$ amount of waffles per hour, the return on investment (ROI) should take less than a year.
However, looking at the raw foot traffic creates a complete operational illusion.