Big Ambitions: location, demand and pricing
How not to judge sales by foot traffic alone
In short — foot traffic, market demand per item, sale price and building capacity are four different variables. The numbers in the calculator are assumptions for comparing them, not a reproduction of the game's formula.
1. Read the four values separately
| Value | What to check |
|---|---|
| Foot traffic | The flow of potential visitors past the building. Compare candidates in the building list before you sign. |
| Market demand | Demand by neighborhood, business type and item. Check the current value in Market Insider. |
| Sale price | Adjust against local rates and competitor prices. The saved averages are in the sale price list. |
| Capacity and throughput | Find the lowest of the building's limit, your sales fixtures, workstations, staff and register queue. |
2. What to research before opening
- Check demand for the business type and its main products in the target neighborhood, in Market Insider.
- Check where competitors are, when they open and what they charge.
- Compare rent, foot traffic and capacity across the candidate buildings.
- Enter market demand, capacity and expected sale prices into the business calculator so the candidates are compared on the same basis.
3. After opening, change one thing at a time
Change price, opening hours and staffing all at once and you cannot tell what worked. Run at least a week on the same settings, look at visitors by hour, units sold, stock-outs and queues, and then adjust a single item.
4. A bigger building does not guarantee more profit
Community experience reports large gains from big retail units, but the difference varied a lot by business type and local demand. So we do not treat any per-size profit figure as a general formula. The calculator's small, medium and large presets are editorial scenarios for comparing equipment and cost.
5. Headquarters, warehouses and factories use different criteria
A headquarters or warehouse takes no customers, so rent, floor area, vehicle bays and ease of getting in and out matter more than foot traffic. Do not score these against the same location criteria as a store.