Burgers and kebabs need the industrial grill, fries the deep fryer, pizza the pizza oven. Prepare the equipment and the stock for a menu item as one pair.
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 Fast Food Restaurant can open there before you sign.
- Set the business type to Fast Food Restaurant. 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. Plan shifts from the customer service and cleaning roles in the data. The number of menu items or machines does not by itself tell you how many staff you need.
- 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
2 additional products
| Product | Display equipment / capacity | Supply route | Lowest sale price / unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden Product Crateholds 50 | 6 wholesalersSeaSide Internationalssupply detailsfactory recipe | $2.89prices by neighborhood | |
| Wooden Product Crateholds 50 | 6 wholesalersSeaSide Internationalssupply detailsfactory recipe | $2.35prices 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 We do not quote a margin from comparing wholesale and import prices that use different units.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Burger main product · Chicken Kabob Skewer | 20 | $1,400.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · French Fries | 30 | $4,400.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Hotdog | 30 | $2,200.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Ice Cream | 30 | $1,800.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| main product · Ice Cream | 15 | $2,800.00Square Appliances1 stores
| |
| main product · Ice Cream | 30 | $4,800.00Square Appliances1 stores
| |
| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Pizza | 20 | $10,756.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Salad | 20 | $4,000.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | main product · Soda Can | 20 | $875.00Square Appliances1 stores
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| main product · Soda Can | 50 | $2,200.00Square Appliances1 stores
| |
| extra product · Bag of Apples extra product · Bag of Bananas | 15 | $150.00Square Appliances1 stores
| |
| 1 unit counted in the example total | staff workstation · Customer Service | 20 | $900.00AJ Pederson & Son4 stores
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| 1 unit counted in the example total | staff workstation · Cleaning | — | $100.00AJ Pederson & Son4 stores
|
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. |
Plan shifts from the customer service and cleaning roles in the data. The number of menu items or machines does not by itself tell you how many staff you need.
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.
The security field is empty in the source business data. Do not read that as security equipment being unnecessary.
5. Opening hours and footfall#
Averaging the daily figures hour by hour, 11:00 · 12:00 · 13:00 is the busiest slot, at 77.9%. 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 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 15 | 15 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 56 | 56 | 56 | 56 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Tue | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 14 | 14 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Wed | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 51 | 12 | 12 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| Thu | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 14 | 14 | 70 | 70 | 70 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 53 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| Fri | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 16 | 16 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Sat | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 85 | 20 | 20 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 75 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Sun | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 18 | 18 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 68 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
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 Fast Food Restaurant
If a single item stops selling, check that item's stock and equipment. If everything stops, check register cover and opening hours together.
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.