City AmbitionsOrdering
Orders from a local wholesaler arrive the next morning. Other suppliers and containers take longer. Store Pulse tells you every day how many items shoppers want; if that number is larger than what is on the shelf, stock runs out first.
A good habit: after the Daily Close, look at what sold today and make sure tomorrow's shelf can cover at least that, plus a margin for the busier days of the week.
Unsold stock is not a loss. It stays on the books at what you paid for it and counts toward your net worth. The cost of goods only hits your profit when something sells.
The shelf
Your first store's shelf holds 120 units. Shelving upgrades add more. Anything you order beyond the shelf needs storage.
Storage
Storage holds overflow stock and refills the shelf every morning. It opens (with the Full Game) on any of three roads, and never during the first week:
- three closes lost to an empty shelf,
- every shelving upgrade already bought, or
- a day whose demand is at least half the shelf.
| Unit | Holds | Rent per day |
|---|---|---|
| Small unit | 400 | $60 |
| Large unit | 1,200 | $200 |
Rent is charged at every close, full or empty, so rent the small unit first. The large one is sized for containers.
Containers
Importing by container cuts the unit cost of a product, often by a lot. In return you wait days for the ship, pay for many units at once, and accept that customs, strikes and damage can change what arrives and when.
The importer only offers once your company moves an average of 45 units a day over the last week. A container is 300 units, so that makes it about a week of sales: worth the wait, without leaving money sitting in a room for a month.
When you order, you choose:
- the source: cheaper sources take longer and carry more risk,
- the box size: bigger boxes are cheaper per unit but must fit in your storage,
- how to pay: paying up front is cheapest, paying on landing keeps cash in the shop for longer.
When the ship lands and the new stock lowers your average unit cost, the game shows a Margin Win: what each unit cost before and after, and how much more you now make on every sale at the same price.
Branches and delivery routes
Once you run more than one storefront, a van and driver can carry stock from your storage to the branches each morning, up to the van's capacity and the driver's number of stops. A branch's unit cost blends in the cost of what the route brings.