Picture books and young adult novels stack differently from other books on the very same shelf. Check the capacity for each of your main titles before choosing shelving.
1. Opening steps#
- Decide which products and services you will carry, and the space for them. Compare floor area, neighborhood and capacity in the building list with the actual lease terms. Check in game that a Bookstore can open there before you sign.
- Set the business type to Bookstore. Check the requirements in the business management screen.
- Prepare the equipment. Prepare the display equipment and stock for the products you chose. If you also sell a service, check that person's workstation and equipment separately.
- Check shifts, supply and security. Get customer service cover and a cleaning schedule in place before you widen the range of books.
- Review the results once you open. Watch demand by hour, gaps in the schedule, stock-outs and the sales equipment, and adjust.
These steps are an editorial guide. The minimum floor area, the full list of required equipment, exact quantities and headcount have not been verified in game — check the business management screen as well.
2. Products, services and supply#
Main products
| Product | Display equipment / capacity | Supply route | Lowest sale price / unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 60 Bookshelf (Large)holds 180 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $25.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 90 Bookshelf (Large)holds 270 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $6.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 60 Bookshelf (Large)holds 180 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $90.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 60 Bookshelf (Large)holds 180 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $28.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 90 Bookshelf (Large)holds 270 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $14.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Bookshelf name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 60 Bookshelf (Large)holds 180 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $44.00prices by neighborhood |
4 additional products
| Product | Display equipment / capacity | Supply route | Lowest sale price / unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display Table name needs checking against the furniture tableholds 16 | no wholesaler listedBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $159.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Display Stand (Tiered Product)holds 40 Rounded Shelfholds 40 | 6 wholesalersSeaSide Internationalssupply detailsfactory recipe | $25.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Rounded Shelfholds 200 Product Panelholds 100 | 6 wholesalersBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $18.00prices by neighborhood | |
| Product Panelholds 100 | 6 wholesalersBlueStone Importssupply detailsfactory recipe | $24.00prices by neighborhood |
Sale prices are reference values at 100% satisfaction with trained staff. Purchase data assumes default difficulty and a fully skilled purchasing manager, and can move with supply. A missing entry does not prove an item cannot be bought. We do not quote a margin from comparing wholesale and import prices that use different units.
3. Equipment and setup cost#
This links the display equipment from the product table, the staff workstations and the listed security equipment. It includes alternative displays and equipment for additional products, so it is not a shopping list. Read product capacity and customer capacity as two different things.
| Equipment | Why it is listed | Customer capacity | Lowest listed price / unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| main product · Motivational Book main product · Picture Book main product · Limited Edition Book main product · Novel main product · Youth Novel main product · Technical Manual | 50 | $780.00AJ Pederson & Son1 stores
| |
| extra product · Flower (Cheap) | 15 | $450.00AJ Pederson & Son1 stores
| |
| extra product · Flower (Cheap) extra product · Gift (Cheap) | 15 | $1,200.00AJ Pederson & Son1 stores
| |
| extra product · Gift (Cheap) extra product · Umbrella | 10 | $500.00AJ Pederson & Son1 stores
| |
| 1 unit counted in the example total | staff workstation · Customer Service | 20 | $900.00AJ Pederson & Son4 stores
|
| 1 unit counted in the example total | staff workstation · Cleaning | — | $100.00AJ Pederson & Son4 stores
|
| 1 unit counted in the example total | listed security equipment | — | $2,500.00Essential Appliances2 stores
|
| 1 unit counted in the example total | listed security equipment | — | $1,200.00Essential Appliances2 stores
|
Names to check: Bookshelf, Display Table. The product table and the furniture table disagree, so these were not linked or priced into the total.
Equipment links or prices are incomplete, so no example total is shown. Budget from the equipment prices you can confirm.
The example total is neither the full startup cost nor a minimum requirement. It counts one unit each, without duplicates, of the first listed display equipment for every main product plus the staff workstations and security equipment that could be linked. Equipment only used by additional products is left out. Budget separately for rent, deposit, desks, chairs, other furniture, stock, delivery, wages and extra units as you grow.
4. Staff and shifts#
| Role | Listed workstation | Recruited at |
|---|---|---|
| Cash Register | Anderson Recruitment Corp. | |
| Cleaning Station | Anderson Recruitment Corp. |
Get customer service cover and a cleaning schedule in place before you widen the range of books.
The listed roles are not a headcount. Build the schedule from the hours you actually open, the number of workstations and the contract terms, and check in game whether roles missing from the list are needed.
Listed security equipment: Security Camera · Security Panel.
5. Opening hours and footfall#
Averaging the daily figures hour by hour, 14:00 · 15:00 · 16:00 is the busiest slot, at 80.6%. That is the mean across all seven days — see the table below for the differences between days.
| Day | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 60 | 60 | 17 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Tue | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 63 | 63 | 63 | 49 | 49 | 14 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Wed | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 60 | 60 | 17 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Thu | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 81 | 81 | 81 | 63 | 63 | 18 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Fri | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 | 57 | 57 | 57 | 57 | 57 | 86 | 86 | 86 | 67 | 67 | 19 | 19 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Sat | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 70 | 70 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Sun | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 70 | 70 | 20 | 20 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
These are visitors as a share of maximum capacity, not revenue or margin. A 0% is a recorded value, not a closed hour. Blanks show as ‘—’. Set your real opening hours by weighing demand against wages and running costs.
6. Checks while running#
What to check first in a Bookstore
A shelf can still hold stock while the title a customer wants is sold out. Check stock and display per book type rather than the total number of books.
The equipment is there but nothing runs
Check the business type and opening requirements, then whether staff are linked to workstations, then the hours they work. If you sell products, check stock and display equipment too. The capacity column alone does not tell you how many customers can actually be served.
Checking supply and delivery
Check the vendors in the purchase data per item. If you import, review the warehouse, vehicles, drivers and logistics setup in Importing and delivery.