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Anyone have done some analysis on what yield the most amount of credit given a long period of time?
Assumptions:
It is most profitable to order for 3 stars first, but it takes more time to order, and there is no productivity when ordering. On the other hand, ordering 1 star job means less profit.
I did some quick calculations with the levels that had nothing in stock in my tower. I've provided the upgrade level as well as the total skills of the workers, and these all have three dream jobbers, but theoretically none of that should matter if we're only comparing relative values. This may not be perfectly accurate, as the "time" given to us might include rounding that isn't shown, but the general conclusions should be clear nonetheless:
Level Upgrade Skill Time Value Value per Minute
Mos Espa 4 26 22 2340 106.4
7 520 74.3
1 26 26
Ithorian 5 27 25 2520 100.8
18 1200 66.7
7 240 34.3
Ewok Sweets 6 27 29 3600 124.1
18 1500 83.3
3 150 50
Toydarian 3 24 22 2160 98.2
11 720 65.5
4 144 36
Pet Emp. 2 22 46 3960 86.1
23 1320 57.4
15 440 29.3
As you can see, the high-value item in each store generates credits more than twice as quickly as the low-value item, and often more than three times. This means that even if you spent all your time instantly restocking the low value item for as long as it would take to stock the high value one, you wouldn't make anywhere near as many credits. This holds true even if you have a dream jobber in the low-value but not in the high-value item. For that reason, it's usually a good rule to stock the highest-value thing first. However, note that if you have only two dream-jobbers, the mid-level item will likely be the most profitable (basically, just cut the high-level value per minute in half in the table above).
Occasionally it may make sense to optimize differently based on your knowledge of when you'll be playing. For example, if the Pet Emporium isn't stocked at all, and you're going to bed in 15 minutes, then stock the low-value one first, and get the high-value one stocking just as you're going to sleep. But that should be the exception and not the rule.
Generally I would say if you're giving it constant attention, always order the next smallest timespan order, on whichever level is available. The sooner you have products available, the more money you'll have.
The long term orders have endurance over profitability, with many units of stock available, and is useful if they're the only one available on a shop, and you have a Big Spender. However, as soon as you order the 1hr+ ones, you're locked out of that shop for that period, and if the other items go out of stock, you have a downtime.
Perhaps it's best to maintain uptime on the short period orders, and only pull the long period ones when you're going to bed or somesuch. You miss out on the 'Flurrys' by not having all items stocked, or the full benefits of Celebrities, but the cashflow might be smoother.
I'd just add one more strategy; big spender management. Figure out which floor or two floors have the most inventory, and use your upgraders there. Ideally, you want to send your big spenders to those levels when they are empty of level 1 and 2 items, and have a lot of level 3 stock, so plan accordingly. Just finished ordering level 3 stock? Avoid ordering level 2 for a while. Level 1 is okay, because when the big spender turns up, you can either wait out the end of the level 1 stock, without wasting too much time, or draining the level 3 stock too much, or pay just a couple of bux to empty it early. Paying 2 buxs to make, say, 60K money is a worthwhile tradeoff.
My $0.02 - If you are babysitting constantly, then it makes sense to stock the short time items, and when they are done, then stock a long item. This makes certain that you always have SOMETHING to sell.
This is especially true of something like Rebo's Karaoke: The 1 credit item takes about 10 min to stock, but the 3 credit item takes over 2 hours. 10 minutes generates a few extra credits to sell during the long stock time.
Its all about rhythm - matching the rhythm of the game to the rhythm of your time to play. Alex has a lot of data to show that the most expensive items are where the money is, but nevertheless I find that that stocking those first just doesn't work out for my rhythm.
When you start by stocking the low end items, you can check on the game at exponentially greater intervals. You will get many items stocked in just a few minutes, then 10 or 15 minutes later get more, then check in 30 minutes for more, then an hour for more.
This rhythm just works better for me, because I usually think about the game for a short time and as the day goes on forget about it. Yet by the time I begin to forget about it, I'm well stocked on low and middle items and am replenishing my high end items. Timing is everything! Later on in the day when I remember to come back, I'm often pretty well stocked and just maintain the low level stuff.
My 2c on this one.
I decided to compare a hour of trading when a store had plenty of all three items in stock compared to an hour of the same store when it only had level three items in stock. In each case I didn't go out of stock.
I found that the number of items sold remained reasonably consistent, but in the case of having all three stock items in place some items were sold at a lower value.
Test 1) Only item #3 - sold 583 in 1 hour = 583*3 = 1749 credits
Test 2) Only item #1 & #3 - sold 598 in 1 hour = 307*1 + 291*3 = 1180 credits
Test 3) All items in stock - sold 589 in 1 hour = 72*1 + 202*2 + 315*3 = 1421 credits
My conclusion is that where possible you should aim to sell only item#3 except for during restocking. So currently I aim to have each store selling item#3 only and whilst that is happening I restock item#2, when item#3 runs out I hit the stock button to start selling item#2 and then restock item#3, as soon as item#3 is ready I hit the stock button.
Clearly as has been mentioned before rhythm is critical and a sense of when you are next going to perform stock up keep. In my case before I go to sleep I let the store sell both item#2 and item#3 in stores where I think item#3 will run out overnight. It's a balance. For high quantity stores like Imperial Court I'm not stocking item#2 until item#3 is low. This is to let me view the stock levels, as a problem with my strategy is that stock levels can't be viewed without accepting a 'stock' item.
At my stage in the game, which is 29 stores, I am seeing passive store stock be consumed at about 600 items per hour with a level 3 (14PPM) elevator. I'm hoping that'll increase to about 860 with the 20 PPM elevator.
