Tip Top is one of the supermarkets that has been around for quite some time. Unlike other supermarkets, Tip Top adheres strictly to Islamic principles in running its business.
The Man Who Built Tip Top
The founder behind the success of the Tip Top supermarket business is Rusman Maamoer. He was born in Padang on November 3, 1933, and passed away on December 26, 2007. Rusman Maamoer grew up in a family of traders. His father often taught him how to trade in accordance with Islamic teachings.
According to finance.detik.com, Rusman’s business success story began when he was a child. At the age of 11, Rusman’s father gave him capital to start a business.
Armed with capital from his father, Rusman started selling coconuts. A cart became Rusman’s capital for selling his wares. However, Rusman’s business was temporarily halted because education remained a top priority for his father.
After completing his education at the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia, Rusman entered the workforce. He held the position of Director of the Regional Development Bank.
However, the lure of business was too strong. His determination was firm. Rusman only worked for seven years at the Regional Development Bank. He chose the path of business.
That choice was not as smooth as he had imagined. After several ups and downs in building his business, Rusman decided to go to Europe. His goal was to gather as much information as much as possible about the business he was going to run.
The Birth of Tip Top
Satisfied with the knowledge he had gained, Rusman was determined to start a new business. Retail was his business of choice at that time. In 1979, he established his first 400-square-meter convenience store called Tip Top Plaza in Rawamangun, East Jakarta. His business continued to grow, so he had to expand his store every year.
In 1985, Tip Top was renamed Tip Top Supermarket and Department Store with an area of 3000 square meters and equipped with a playground for children. Then in June 1991, the Tip Top Rawamangun store burned down, but was successfully rebuilt in October of the same year. In 1992, Rusman opened a second outlet in the Ciputat area of Tangerang, followed by outlets in the Cimone area of Tangerang (1999), Pondok Bambu, East Jakarta (2001), Depok, West Java (2004), and Pondok Gede, Bekasi (2007).
After Rusman’s passing in 2007, the Tip Top retail chain was continued by the next generation, who built their seventh store in the Tambun Selatan area. Rusman took only a 2-3 percent profit from each sale.
A Quiet Voice
Amidst a modern retail landscape that is increasingly noisy with aggressive discounts, relentless expansion, and margins squeezed as high as possible, Tip Top’s presence feels like a quiet voice that has been almost forgotten. It does not shout. It does not compete to be the biggest. Nor does it pursue national market dominance. But precisely because of that, Tip Top survives.
Tip Top is not just a supermarket chain. It is a reminder that businesses can survive for a long time without being greedy.
Founded by Rusman Maamoer, Tip Top grew out of a simple but radical belief: trading is about blessings, not just accumulating profits. At a time when most retailers made margins their main goal, Rusman chose a path that was rarely taken—taking only 2–3 percent of sales as profit.
In modern business logic, this decision is considered irrational. But that is precisely where its uniqueness lies.
The industry is generally built on the logic of scale: the bigger, the stronger. Rapid expansion is considered a success, while slow growth is often seen as a sign of falling behind. In this framework, Tip Top is an anomaly.
Its growth is gradual. Its outlets are limited. It has no ambition to be present in every corner of the city. However, what is often overlooked is that slow growth is not always a sign of weakness. In many cases, it actually reflects a discipline of values.
Tip Top does not use Islamic principles as a marketing label. These values are not displayed in bombastic slogans, but are manifested in daily operational decisions: business sustainability and a reluctance to pressure others for unilateral gain.
This is where Tip Top is different. Values do not stop at being a symbolic identity, but become ethical boundaries in business decision-making.
The Choice of Quiet Leadership
Rusman Maamoer’s story is interesting not because he started from scratch without an education, but quite the opposite. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Indonesia and once served as Director of the Regional Development Bank. He understood the system, power, and career stability.
However, he chose to leave and built Tip Top. This decision shows that true leadership is not about climbing to a higher position, but the courage to choose an arena that is in line with one’s values in life. Rusman did not leave the professional world because he failed, but because he knew what he wanted to build.
This is important to note amid today’s leadership culture, which often measures success by position, scale, and visibility. Rusman shows an alternative: leadership that works quietly, consistently, and sustainably.
Small Margins, Great Resilience
Taking a 2–3 percent margin is not just a matter of idealism. It is a sustainability strategy. Small margins force discipline. There is no room for excessive speculation, reckless expansion, or fragile debt-based growth.
This model may not generate profit spikes, but it builds trust—from customers, suppliers, and employees. This trust is often more crisis-resistant than aggressive, rapid-growth strategies. Many businesses fail not because of a lack of opportunity, but because they lose sight of their limits. Tip Top survives precisely because it knew those limits from the start.
Silent Criticism of Modern Business
Tip Top does not explicitly criticize retail capitalism. It does not write manifestos. It does not conduct ideological campaigns. However, its very existence is a criticism in itself.
It quietly asks: Does business always have to grow quickly? Does maximum profit always mean success? And does ethics really slow down business?
The answer is simple, but powerful: no.
In an increasingly competitive and impatient business world, Tip Top shows that sustainability is not about who is the fastest, but who is the most consistent.
Tip Top’s story is relevant precisely when many organizations today are experiencing fatigue—fatigue from targets, expansion, and change. In situations like this, Tip Top offers a refreshing perspective: that businesses can grow without losing their conscience.
It is not perfect. It is not big. But it is whole.
And perhaps, amid a crisis of confidence in the business world, what we need is not a bunch of giant companies, but more businesses that know when to grow and when to hold back.
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