Guide 06 of 20
Customers and Negotiations
Customers do not all arrive with the same budget, patience or shopping list. They browse the visible goods, consider your prices and decide what they can justify buying.
How a purchase begins
A customer walks to an available stall position and starts thinking or browsing. Their shopping list then shows the goods, quantities and agreed unit prices they are considering.
Customers only request goods that are currently unlocked for the player. If the stall does not contain a requested good, the customer may adjust the order, leave or create a genuine missed-demand note for the evening report.
What influences a decision
The result can depend on:
- The town's fair market price
- Your Low, Fair or High pricing stance
- The customer's budget
- Local shortage or surplus conditions
- Freshness
- The customer's priorities and temperament
- How much of the good the town already received that day
A demanded good is easier to sell, but demand is not a blank cheque. Customers react more strongly as your price moves away from fair.
Negotiations
Some customers make a counteroffer. You can accept or reject it when the shopping list allows negotiation.
The shopping-list price is locked for that order. If the fair market price changes while the customer is waiting, the agreed unit price does not change. Accepting always uses:
quantity × listed unit price
A counteroffer above the price you posted is rejected automatically, with dialogue explaining why.
Rumour customers
Some visitors bring information instead of buying. Clicking a rumour customer opens their message, after which they leave the stall.
Use the question-mark icon in the top-right of the dialogue box to reveal the practical implication, such as “Cheese may become cheaper to buy” or “Fish may become more wanted.” The tooltip explains the direction of the opportunity without revealing an exact day.
Rumours may concern goods, towns or rival plans. They are useful leads, not guarantees.
Named customers
Named customers may have recognizable preferences or concerns, but the game does not expose their full shopping logic as a hover tooltip. Learn from what they ask for and how they react over repeated visits.
Reading the final response
After a sale or rejection, the customer's finishing dialogue remains visible long enough to read at the selected market speed. When it disappears, the customer leaves immediately instead of standing silently at the stall.