In this guide, I’ll share tips and tricks to help you profit more and understand the mechanics of Tobacco Shop Simulator better.
Tobacco Shop Simulator: Tips & Tricks for Beginners
Credit: Gamer433
General Tips & Tricks
Here are some general tips & tricks to know:
| Tips & Tricks | Description |
|---|---|
| Maximize Customers | Save your game in the morning after filling shelves, then load and open the shop when a customer is about to enter. This may add 1-3 customers daily. |
| Fixed Customer Count | Serving customers quickly doesn’t increase their number; daily customer count depends on shop level. |
| Additional Checkout | Always have an extra (closed) checkout to avoid EXP loss from customer complaints. |
| Don’t End with Customers Inside | Ending the day with customers inside loses items they’ve taken. Always wait until they leave. |
| Stock Adequately | Keep at least 16-20 items of each kind in the shop to avoid running out. |
| Storage Tips | Usually, one box per item is enough, except for items with very low content. Use “Inventory > In Storage” on the computer to check stock. |
| Price Adjustments | Check prices daily and use recommended ones via “Set Prices > Products with Price Changes” on the computer. |
| Trash Recovery | Items thrown into the green trash bin can be retrieved. |
| Shelf Interaction | No free box is needed to pick items from shelves; just have a free hand and right-click. |
| Additional Item Placement | Items can also be placed on other boxes or storage shelves, not just display shelves. |
| Aesthetic Elements | Speakers, decorations, wall/floor designs, and customer/employee colors don’t affect behavior or quantity. |
| Future Updates | Planned customer reviews will add EXP, and decorations will have an impact. |
| Furniture Effects | Furniture style doesn’t affect customer attraction. Shop size doesn’t affect customer count; only shop level does. |
| Selling Furniture | Furniture and mops sell for 100% of their original cost. Ensure no items are inside furniture being sold, as they will be lost. |
| Disabling Features | Dirt and thieves can be disabled, but catching thieves earns EXP. |
| Alarm Systems | Buy alarms for both warehouses; upgrades protect delivery area boxes. |
| Tablet Purchase | Buy a tablet for $5000, then sell the computer to free up space. |
| Loans | Loans have no taxes or interest; you repay the exact amount borrowed. |
EXP Tips
You cant lose EXP or “leveling backwards”.
If you terminate a contract (and paying a lot of money), you can subcribe this contract again and getting again the EXP. If you dont know where to bury your Millions, but you need badly a lot of EXP, this is your trick.
One of the most asked questions, is to make more EXP for faster progress. This affects your EXP:
| Action | EXP Gained/Lost |
|---|---|
| Happy customer leaving your shop | +5 EXP |
| Completed online order | +10 EXP |
| Subscribing a contract | +xx EXP (varies by contract level) |
| Hitting a thief | +xx EXP (varies by shop level; mop or guard action) |
| Customer reviews | +xx EXP (not implemented yet) |
| No free checkout slot | -1 EXP per customer (each checkout allows 4 waiting slots) |
| High item price | -1 EXP per customer |
| Unavailable item | -1 EXP per customer |
| Dirty shop | -1 EXP |
Money, Money, Money!
What is those kind of game without making money? Here are some tipps on how to do this more efficiently:
- Dont buy storage shelves, decorations, floor and wall paintings, bag and employee colors in the beginning or too early!
- Wall racks costs more money than other shelves you have to place on floor, both have same effect on customers.
- Dont buy the smaller storage shelves, they larger ones are better (price > space relation).
- Always set your prices to the recommended prices. You COULD take more, but its not recommended (because, the more profit is too low and you will risk of losing EXP).
- Subscribe every contract as early as possible, but only, when you have money for a shelf or enough space in shelves, to offer your new products.
- Avoid running out of an item! You waste money AND EXP.
- Complete each online order. Dont care about how much money this brings. It IS extra money and you dont want to miss the EXP.
- Expand your shop and your storage ONLY, when you need the space! A larger store and larger storage space mean higher rental costs, but neither brings in more customers.
- Automated checkouts are very expensive, but dont have daily costs (like a cashier). But only buy it if you really have the money to spare!
- Trained employees wanting more salary! But in the very most cases, you need this extra boost.
- You COULD save money by working the checkout and stocking the shelves yourself, but that can be very stressful. Btw: A restocker or cashier in pause still costs salary.
- Think one or two steps in the future. Do you need the money you want to spent, next day for subscribing a contract and buying these items?
Customers (Quantity and Behaviours)
Your customers means everything for your shop, for sure. With these tips, you will understand their behaviours:
- The higher your shop level, the more customers will come per day.
- The higher your shop level, the more items a customer can buy at once.
- Cheaper products attract more customers. So don’t ban cheap products from your shop!
- A customer will prefer a checkout with fewer customers.
- A customer will complain, when he/she dont find a free slot at the checkout or when the prices are too high. Also dirty floor and when they dont find their products, will all reduce the expected EXP from this customer.
- A customer dont complain, when the checkout takes too long! They only complaining, when they cant go to a checkout, when its too full.
- When the clock reached 10pm, no customer can entry your shop anymore, but all customers in your shop can still buy items. So, dont close your shop when you have customers in there! Customers kicked out in this way keep the products they took while shopping without paying for them!
- Right now, decorations (and all other stuff, like wall and floor designs) dont affect customers in any way (a change for this planned by the devs!).
Employees
At some point, you will need help keeping your busy business under control. Here are some informations about your employees:
Cashier:
- A cashier will work at the checkout and will take a free checkout automatically. If a checkout is closed, no cashier can work there.
- A cashier can have 4 customers in the row, more customers who wants to go to checkout will complain.
- If no checkout is avaiable, your cashier(s) will stand outside (in front of the shop) and waiting for a free/opened checkout.
- The cashier training only brings 20% speed, but before you can hire a second cashier, its better than nothing.
Restockers:
- A restocker will fill up your shop shelves and racks. He is not very fast, but even you could do this job by yourself way better, you will want them very early!
- In order for the restocker to work, he needs storage shelves with placed item boxes and these items must also be in your shop shelves/racks. When the shop shelf is not full, the restocker will take the box from the storage shelf and fill up the shop shelf until its fill or the box is empty.
- You can choose (in the employees menu) how the restockers should work. Consider this before hiring a restocker, so avoid chaos.
- Ordered boxes, laying on the ground of the delivery area, will be picked up by your restockers, if there is enough space in the storage shelves.
- You can also lay boxes on the ground of your shop, if you need a free hand. The restocker will pick is up also.
- Note: When you purchase items for your online orders, the restockers don’t know about it and could pick up those boxes in the delivery area!
- If you want to rebuilt your shop, the restockers can be very annoying. Send them to break in the employee menu (upper button). They stay there until you click this button again. They still cost salary, when you end the day and they are still on pause.
- When the restockers stand still behind the delivery area, means, that there is no item to fill up anymore. A good sign for checking if all items are in stock.
- The restocker trainings are only 10% movement and 25% faster restocking, but you want this upgrades as soon as possible, I bet!
Security Guards:
- This little fellow fight against thieves for you.
- If he hits a thief, you still get the EXP.
- Sometimes two thieves are robbing you at same time. Keep an eye on it, because, the security guard may not handle both!
- There is no point in hiring a security guard if you have thieves disabled in the options menu.
Online Orders
A great additional income (of money AND EXP) is online orders. All you need to know about it:
- The higher your shop level, the more online orders you will get.
- The higher your shop level, the more items may get ordered at once.
- By completing an online order you will not only receive money, but also 10 EXP.
- To do this, you have to accept the online order and carry the boxes with the wanted items to the post office and put the items in the box on the counter (like you would fill up a shop shelf).
- You will get only the money and the exp, when you brought ALL asked items. If you end the day, any brought items will be lost, if you dont completed the online order!
- Online orders have fixed times. For example:10 am and 2 pm.
- You can wait until the end of the day to complete your online orders, but note: you will no longer be able to order items after 10 pm. And any online order you haven’t fulfilled will be lost when you end the day.