At the end of February, Supermarket Simulator appeared on Steam — as you might guess, it’s a simulator for managing your own supermarket. The game is still in early access, but the developers from the Turkish studio Nokta Games are actively working on the content, listening to the wishes of the players. Within a year, they plan to implement all the planned mechanics and release a full version.

The project has already managed to collect many very positive reviews on Steam and has attracted the attention of both players and streamers. I couldn’t pass by either — and here I am sharing my impressions!

Supermarket Simulator Free Steam Account

At the very beginning, you have only a small store with the bare necessities: one cash register, two shelves for goods, a simple computer for managing the business, six available items for ordering, and only $50 in the account. There is little money, the choice is modest, but this is where any entrepreneur begins his journey.

To get the store up and running, you need to purchase the initial assortment, unpack the boxes, carefully arrange the goods on the shelves and set the prices. But trade is not just about putting the goods on display and waiting for customers. You will have to quickly replenish stocks, monitor demand and promptly buy what is running out. Another important aspect is working at the cash register. You will have to personally calculate the customers, quickly ring up the goods and not make mistakes, otherwise dissatisfied customers may turn around and leave. It is also important to monitor the fullness of the shelves: if the assortment is poor, sales will decline.

Each working day ends at 9 pm. After the store closes, the game will summarize: how many products have been sold, what profit has been made, what items are in demand. Then the “Start next day” button will appear, allowing you to continue developing the store. At first, trading will be slow, but over time, the business will begin to grow. Day after day, you will gain experience, expand your product range, and attract more and more customers.

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As you develop your store, you will open licenses for additional products, which means expanding your product range. You will be able to hire employees: first cashiers, so you don’t have to stand at the cash register yourself, then assistants to work in the warehouse. At some point, it will become obvious that there is not enough space, and then you can buy additional space, expand the sales area or warehouse. But along with the growth of the business, your responsibilities will also increase. You will have to pay rent, monitor bills, pay salaries to employees. Each new improvement is not only a step forward, but also new expenses that require competent planning.

The path from a small shop to a large supermarket is not the easiest, but incredibly exciting. Will you be able to turn a modest shop into a thriving retail chain? It all depends on you!

Prices, prices, prices: why is setting them up such a pain?

You have to manage the store alone, without assistants and automation, so most of the game time is spent on the most ordinary routine. The main task at the beginning is to carry goods from the street to the sales area or warehouse. As soon as a paid order arrives, boxes appear right at the entrance. Sounds simple? No way. You can only carry one box in your hands, which means you have to run back and forth every time. Unloaded? Great. Now drag the empty boxes back to the street to the trash bin – again, one piece at a time. It would seem that you can delegate some of the responsibilities to the warehouse assistant. But no. He only works with what is already in the warehouse, but getting the goods to him is exclusively your problem. Therefore, each new order turns into a marathon, where you are the main courier, loader and cleaner all rolled into one.

As soon as the store’s assortment starts to grow, a new concern is added – price tag control. It seems like a simple task, but it requires attentiveness and patience. In the game, prices are set manually for each category of goods. At first, this does not seem difficult, but as the assortment increases, checking turns into a test of strength. The developers tried to make this process easier and added a morning info block, which shows price changes on the world market. It sounds good, but there is a problem – it disappears too quickly. If you get distracted or do not have time to remember the information, you will have to act blindly. To somehow compensate for this shortcoming, an indicator of changed prices was added to the product menu. But is it more convenient? A moot point. Now the player needs to scroll a long list, look for the necessary products among tiny icons, remember what exactly has changed, and then manually edit the price tags in the sales area. Why can’t you make one button “Apply market prices to all products”? This would save a lot of time and nerves.

Customer service is another important aspect of the gameplay. During the day, you have to stand at the cash register, accepting payments in cash or by card. It would seem that there is nothing complicated. But in the case of cash, the buyer may ask for change, and it has to be counted out manually, opening the cash register. If the buyer pays by card, you need to enter the amount on the terminal. And all this is only with the mouse. Although the developers promised support for entering numbers from the keyboard, they have not yet delivered it. As a result, working at the cash register turns into another source of monotony, requiring extra clicks.

After a few days of playing, I wanted to compare my progress with other players. How do they organize their work? What strategies do they use? What stage are they at? Having turned on the streams, I realized that many players find their own ways to optimize the routine. Someone quickly reconfigures prices, someone builds more efficient logistics of goods, and some even turn the game into a real management simulator, taking into account profit, demand and seasonality. This gave me some ideas on how to improve the store and not spend so much time on monotonous actions. But still, despite these tricks, the game clearly needs. I want more automation, more flexible settings and, perhaps, additional assistants who will take on at least some of the routine tasks.

Supermarket Simulator deep gameplay with unexpected nuances

Experienced players usually build their supermarkets using the same tried and tested scheme. I decided to try this approach in my store – and here’s what happened. There are several cash registers in the sales area, each with a cashier. I bought a warehouse to store the goods, where I moved the work computer – without it, the supermarket does not function properly. Now, a team of employees works in the warehouse, who are engaged in replenishing the shelves in the sales area.

At first glance, everything is simple: the main task is to fill the warehouse with goods as tightly as possible, and assign their display in the sales area to assistants. However, now the lion’s share of the gameplay revolves around the warehouse: you need to monitor the availability of each product, replenish stocks on time and organize delivery. But this approach has a downside. When all the work is concentrated in the warehouse, the sales area is left without attention.

A queue may form in a store because the cashiers work slowly, and there is no way to speed them up. Customers may complain about inflated prices for some goods, but you can only find out about this by a short notification above their heads, which quickly disappears. The same thing with goods that are running out on the shelves – if the player does not have time to notice the message, the information is simply lost. The solution suggests itself: add a separate block in the interface, where all important messages from customers will appear. This would help to respond to their requests in a timely manner.

• Which product seemed too expensive?
• What couldn’t the customers find?
• Why was there a huge queue at the checkout?

But if you look at it more broadly, the absence of this block is a trifle compared to other problems.

1. There is no summary information on the remaining goods. You literally have to look with your eyes to see which shelves are empty and what is still in stock. This is inconvenient and overloads your memory. In real stores, such things have long been automated: at any time you can open the program and see that it is time to order. Why this is not the case here is a mystery. I hope the developers will fix this in updates.
2. There are no normal sales statistics. For example, which category of goods was the most popular yesterday? And for the week? Or for all time? Now the game only shows the total number of dissatisfied customers, but does not say which goods they considered expensive. As a result, the only way out is to manually check the prices of everything in the store. And if the supermarket is large, this turns into hell.

These moments noticeably spoil the impression of the game, and I really hope that the developers will improve them in the future. Because otherwise the idea is great – and I want it to be revealed to the fullest.

Supermarket Simulator System Requirements

How to play Supermarket Simulator for free on Steam via VpeSports

Want to try yourself as a store owner and build a successful business without spending a dime? Supermarket Simulator offers an exciting supermarket management experience, and on the VpeSports platform you can access the game completely free!

All you need to do is register on the site, go to the section with free steam account and find Supermarket Simulator. On its page, you will find a download button with detailed instructions. Follow the steps – and soon you will find yourself behind the counter of your own supermarket, managing purchases, prices and customer flows to bring your store to the top.

To make the gameplay even more interesting, share your impressions on the game review page. All comments are moderated, but if your review does not appear immediately, just make sure it complies with the rules. Once it is approved, the moderator will send you account data to the email address you specified during registration.

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