THE doughnuts made by Khoerussalim aren’t becoming smaller. The price is still Rp4,000 per doughnut. Yet, the two things are incapable of increasing sales. Prior to the fuel price increase in May 2008, the home industry could sell 400 doughnuts a day. Today, it’s dropped to a mere half. “The buyers have disappeared,” said Salim, Khoerussalim’s nickname, last week.

In his analysis, the freefall in sales of Country Donat—Salim’s com