A fairly nice simulator
The way this game works seems to remind me a lot of how Roller Coaster Tycoon works; certain things become popular for a while and good placement of those as well as dealing with the long lines and small issues is integral. This game works in a similar manner with placement of items and pricing being crucial to the success of the store.
What I didn't understand at first is where the front of the store was. I'm not sure if it's something that I missed in the instructions or if it wasn't said. However, the front of the store is actually towards the left side and so items in the rows of shelves closer to that side are purchased more often, not shelves towards the front of the aisles (which I thought were the ones in the front).
Thankfully food in-store doesn't spoil, just in the warehouse and that makes the game a bit easier to play (if you had to juggle that as well it would make this game a whole lot harder).
What's interesting is that you can juggle inventory based on what's a hot product, but it doesn't appear to be required to do well. Of course I tend not to do this as clearing a shelf wastes what ever product there was on the shelf, so either you wait for that shelf to empty or you waste that inventory. Personally really wish it would just put the food back in the warehouse since you could end up wasting 2+ shelves worth of food juggling things for best sales.
A couple of odd bugs I've found is that sometimes the shelf reports a value of -1 for the items left on the shelf (which could probably be solved with an if statement that would prevent purchase of more than the store has on the shelf). Another error that I've found is that the per item price in the "research" menu information tab (next to the upgrade cost) is "undefined" which probably just means a spelling error happened with the calling up of the price variable.
Overall this game is pretty good. While it seems like a lot to remember when playing, it really isn't. In fact a few more features might be nice for the sequel. Things like the ability to play with "disasters" would be interesting (it should, however, be able to be turned on or off in the gameplay options). Disasters such as earthquakes (wasting inventory on the shelves), supplier shortages (hence price hikes and limited amounts for purchase on certain items), and seasonal food (so prices for certain items would fluctuate seasonally depending on the local availability) might make things extra challenging.
