Businesses and shelves

Opening a business

Your first two business slots are free, but you still pay each business's opening cost. Additional slots unlock in order, up to 10 businesses in total. Regular sectors allow at most 7 businesses of the same type; the Export Office is limited to 1 across all cities.

• Slots 3–10 cost $20,000, $60,000, $120,000, $240,000, $480,000, $1,000,000, $2,500,000 and $10,000,000.
• You need an unused business slot, enough cash and compliance with the action's debt restrictions.

How shelves unlock

A new business starts with one shelf. Further shelves unlock from the lowest base product price to the highest; you cannot skip the order. Shelf number N costs the sector's opening cost × N. The number of shelves is limited by the sector's product range.

A shelf is not stock. Its product must be available in your warehouse in the business's city. Businesses selling the same product draw from that city's shared stock.

Sales speed and revenue

Every open shelf follows its sector's interval. Greengrocers, butchers, cosmetics, clothing, footwear, cafés and supermarkets sell a base 2 items per minute per shelf. Furniture and hardware stores sell 1 per minute; electronics and automotive stores sell 1 every 2 minutes; the Export Office sells 1 every 4 minutes.

Sales boosts affect quantity, while VIP sales additions and home collection bonuses affect their respective revenue components. The market tier does not directly raise a shelf's base selling price.

Collections and staff

A business accumulates sales for 1 hour after collection without staff, or 6 hours with an active employee. Further sales stop when that window expires. Collecting the till restarts it. Before expiry you need at least 5 sales to collect; that minimum no longer applies once the window has ended.

An employee works for 7 days and costs 2% of the sector's opening price. Bulk collection has a 5-minute cooldown. The standard collection tax is 1% of the collected amount and is added to tax debt rather than deducted from the till at that moment.

Work the counter and expand

Eligible businesses offer counter shifts with 5 customer orders. Each business allows 10 completed shifts per day, with a 3-minute wait between shifts. A shift rewards 4% of the sector's opening cost. The Export Office has no counter activity.

Before expanding, consider the next shelf's cost, the cash needed to keep it stocked and how often you can collect. A large till balance alone does not establish that an investment is profitable.

Naming and closing a business

Registering a custom business sign costs $5,000. This naming fee is separate from the sector's opening cost.

Closing a business through the Tax Office calculates a 75% refund on the current opening and unlocked additional-shelf costs. Its existing till balance is also included in the closing payment. Buying a business slot and opening the business are separate investments; do not assume every expense receives the same refund.