Corner Grocer: Market Sim

Subject: Re: Slightly confused

Thank you, and I’m glad you’re enjoying the game! 😊

You understood the ordering system correctly: stock ordered from the office is delivered the following morning, so planning a day ahead is part of managing the store. The Day 1 “Quick Setup” provides only a small starting supply to introduce the system, but your feedback is fair—it may not provide enough bread for the first day’s demand, and we can make that clearer or adjust the starting quantity.

The final customer was still able to buy one loaf because customers take products from the shelf before joining the checkout line. That loaf had already been placed in the customer’s basket, so the shelf showed zero even though the item was still waiting to be scanned at the register.

Thanks for pointing this out. It helps us see which parts of the first-day tutorial need clearer explanations!

Thank you so much for playing Corner Grocer and for such clear feedback. It really helps.

You’re right about the morning news. On a day like the big match, the game says snacks and drinks will sell well even if you don’t sell them yet, and sticking to your basic products early on is exactly the right call. In the next update (1.0.3), the morning news will also say when those products aren’t in your shop yet, for example: “You don’t sell snacks or drinks yet, so this doesn’t change your day.”

Door sounds: there is already a separate sound for a customer leaving happy, but in the default Real sound set both are recorded shop bells, so they sound close. If you’d like them clearly different now, go to Settings, Sound, Sound picker, and choose Classic for Door chime: coming in is two rising notes, leaving is one low note and a click. We’ll also work on making the leaving bell in the Real set easier to tell apart.

Footsteps: thanks for pointing that out, we’ll listen to the default footsteps again. Meanwhile you can turn them down or off in Settings, Sound, Customer footsteps, or pick a different footstep style in the Shop Studio.

Also coming in 1.0.3: a Write to us screen in the main menu, so you can send ideas and bug reports and read our replies right in the game.

Thanks again, and happy shopkeeping!

Hi Lucretia, thank you for reporting this, and you’re not doing anything wrong: it’s a bug in how the button explains itself.

The Water and chips line needs somewhere to put its products before you can license it. Your bread basket only holds bread, so you first need a Basket (or a Snack shelf) in the Snacks section. Until then the license button stays dimmed. The game was supposed to tell you why, but the reason came out empty (“Needs first”) and the button itself only said dimmed.

How to get past it now:

In the store, double-tap Build mode.
Double-tap Next free slot, choose Basket and buy it for $6.
Go back to the Office, Growth tab: Buy the Water and chips license now works for $5.

The morning panel’s Growth opportunity card (“Try something new: Water and chips, $11 in total”) has an Open build mode button that takes you straight to step 1.

I’ve already fixed it for an upcoming update: the row and the button will both say “Needs a shelf unit in Snacks first: add one in Build mode”. Thanks again; reports like this are exactly how we find these.

Hi, thank you for writing this up, it helps a lot.

What you ran into is how small jobs were designed, and it was the wrong design for VoiceOver. When a customer came to the register, the game closed the small job and sent you back to the register on its own. That screen change is what threw VoiceOver focus to the top of the screen and then to the register, and on the first day customers come often enough that a job rarely gets finished. Your progress is kept, though: when you open the same job again, it continues where you left off.

I’ve changed this for an upcoming update. The small job no longer closes when a customer arrives. You hear “A customer is waiting at the register” once, and the button in the job changes to “Back to register · customer waiting” in the same place, so your focus stays where it is. You can finish the job or go back whenever you’re ready.

Small jobs are optional and only give a small bonus, so until the update you lose nothing by skipping them when the shop is busy.

Thanks again

Thanks Karok, that’s a good idea and I’m adding it. When a small job is offered, the register’s main button will get two actions in the actions rotor: “Start small job: Wipe the floor” (or whichever job it is) and “Not now”. You won’t have to leave the register button to take or skip a job.

This goes together with another change for the same update: a small job will no longer close by itself when a customer arrives. You’ll hear that a customer is waiting and go back when you’re ready, so VoiceOver focus won’t jump anymore.

Thanks for the ideas, they keep making the game better.

Hi Joe, thanks for giving it a try, and thanks Karok for jumping in. You're both on the right track.

Here is how the pieces fit together.

Crates are just packaging. What you order arrives in the Stockroom as cardboard crates. Customers never buy from a crate: you open it and put what's inside out for sale.

Shelves and baskets are where customers take products from. Each product has its own section of the store: bread goes in Shelf A, dry goods; water and chips go in Shelf B, snacks; milk goes in the fridge.
- A basket is the simple kind. It holds one kind of product, and you empty a whole crate into it in one step. You start with a free bread basket that holds up to 24 loaves, and a crate of bread has 5.
- A shelf has rows and can hold several products. You put stock on it a row at a time or the whole crate at once, and it can keep the oldest stock in front.

The easiest way with VoiceOver:
1. On the morning panel, when crates are waiting, there's a button right after the heading that says Place all crates, with the number, for example "Place all 3 crates". Double-tap it, and every crate goes to its own shelf or basket as far as there's room. Whatever doesn't fit stays in the Stockroom.
2. During the day, open the Stockroom, pick a crate, open it, then choose "Put on shelf", or "Empty into basket" if it goes in a basket.
3. The cart is optional. It lets you carry several crates out and place them row by row at the shelf yourself. You can ignore it at first.
4. To hear what's left, go to the register: the button that starts with "Stock" reads every product on the shelves and in the baskets, lowest first.

When you want to sell new products, you add a basket or shelf for their section in Build mode, which opens from the morning or evening panel.

How to play, in the main menu and in the pause menu, has a "Stockroom and shelves" topic that covers this too. If you get stuck again, just ask here, or use Write to us in the game. Enjoy the store!