Supermarket Simulator Review - Let's Speed This Up, I've Got Cheese to Sell
I’ve played what some might call an “unhealthy” amount of Supermarket Simulator over the last week since it launched into 1.0 after spending time in Steam Early Access. I hadn’t played the game in Early Access, but I had seen a lot of folks online trying it out and I knew when it launched in full I wanted to give it a try. I haven’t played a lot of simulators (with the exception of Powerwash Simulator), but Supermarket Simulator might be my new favorite.
As you can imagine, your goal in Supermarket Simulator is to create a thriving, money-making market that’s a one-stop shop for everything your customers need. You’ll start out very small with just a handful of products and one cash register, but soon enough you’ll be expanding and will have a massive store to manage.
Things can get a bit overwhelming once you finish the tutorials and you’re suddenly given free reign to do what you want with your market. You have to decide what you want to prioritize. More products? Expanding the store? Unlocking storage so you have a place to put all your boxes? It's up to you to decide, but things will come at you pretty quickly because there’s a lot more to it than just scanning products.
Each product that you put on the shelves must be given a price that competes with the current market price. You’ll want to set your prices a bit higher than the market price but not too much or your customers won’t buy them. Thankfully, your customers will let you know when prices aren’t to their liking so you can adjust accordingly. As you progress you’ll have to manage much more than just product prices and customer check outs.
Much like real life, you’ll have to manage your bills, loans and employees each day to help with your supermarket’s progression so you can’t just buy more products willy nilly. And you must make sure you’ve got enough shelf space for everything or customers will start getting angry that they can’t find certain things. The fun part is designing your market exactly how you like it and want it, so you can keep track of how things move from day to day.
I think I first realized that things were getting much more difficult when I started selling produce. In order to sell produce you’ll have to purchase a scale and weigh each customer’s bag before they head to checkout. And, unfortunately, your cashiers are SLOW AS HECK, so managing it gets harder and harder. But that’s what’s truly magnificent about Supermarket Simulator - no matter how difficult it gets, you’ll want to keep playing one more day.
Of course, like most games that have just launched, Supermarket Simulator has some kinks to work out. Sometimes, getting furniture to fit can be a bit awkward. You’re given guidelines that turn green when something can be placed, but oftentimes I wasn’t able to place a shelf or cash register despite not having anything obstructing it. I also didn’t like that the only way to remove a cashier was to fire them. When things were moving particularly slow and I only had one cash register, it would be nice to be able to send my cashier home and finish up the day myself with my lightning fast check out abilities. Occasionally, you might find that a product has fallen through the floor or you get a tutorial for something hours after you’ve figured that mechanic out already, but not a single one of these small things stopped me from wanting to go back to the game again and again.
Supermarket Simulator doesn’t look particularly impressive, but it is damn entertaining. The progression makes it so that things don’t get overwhelming too quickly and you can turn off things like shoplifters in the settings for an even more laid back experience. There’s a few bugs here and there to be ironed out, but overall, I couldn’t put it down and will be recommending it for a long time.
Breakdown
Game: Supermarket Simulator
Developer: Nokta Games
Publisher: Nokta Games
Availability: PC
Reviewed on PC
Final Thoughts
These days with hundreds of simulator games out there, it’s hard to stand out but Supermarket Simulator does just that. After spending time in Early Access and adding features suggested by the community, Nokta Games has created a really fun sim that is impossible to put down. Like most sims, there’s some kinks and glitches, but after a few more patches, Supermarket Simulator is sure to be one of my very favorite games ever.