Your shop received tokens from a sale. That pile is revenue: money coming in from sales. Profit is what remains after costs are counted. It is not the whole selling price.

Costs are amounts the business pays. A shop may pay for the goods it sells, for space or for workers. Paying for the item is not necessarily its only cost.

Here is a pretend example. The shop receives ten tokens. Its item cost six. Another chosen shop cost is two. Ten minus six minus two leaves two tokens of profit in this simplified game.

If the chosen costs were more than the revenue, the model would show a loss instead. No real sale is needed to investigate the difference. Move the paper tokens and watch the received pile shrink as costs are paid. Then compare the amount left with your first guess. Label every invented cost and price pretend.

Imagine a second round in your pretend shop. You have the same objects ready, but fewer customers buy. Would every cost disappear because sales fell?

Some costs can remain even when a shop sells less. Space and workers may still need paying under the business’s agreements. The shop also has stock: goods kept ready to sell. Stock is not the same as a customer payment.

In our model, choose one shop cost that stays the same for the round. Compare a busy round with a quieter one. The amount received changes. The unchanged cost takes a larger share of the smaller pile.

This is another reason a price tag does not tell you a shop’s profit. You would need sales and costs over the relevant period. Your household shop leaves out many details, but it lets you notice the difference between having things to sell, receiving money and having something left after costs.