Guests refuse to purchase any merchandise

Nioell

Nioell
Does this happen in all your zoos or just the one? Also: did you change the prices and where are the shops located? If it's too expensive the guests won't buy anything and gift shops usually do best in the most populated area of the zoo, close to the entrance and food courts or popular animals. And make sure your guests are happy, if they're not they won't buy as much.
 

Imagin

Imagin
I've noticed that guests don't buy merch until they've been in the park for a while and their happiness is high. Check how long your guests are staying before leaving.
 

VioletGrey

VioletGrey
That's happening in my game, too. They form long lines to eat or drink, but the merchandise stores are always empty, without a single customer as far as I can tell. I've never changed any prices on anything in them, so they're all at their default prices. I wonder if this is a bug, because my merchandise stores are near the food/drink shops, so they should be gettting at least an occasional customer. It's not like they're on the far end of the zoo or something.
 

LN

LN
If they buy a balloon at the first balloon stand, obviously they won't buy another one.

7 balloon shops is pretty much overkill.
 

Jileha

J
Several things are worth mentioning regarding you finance overview. Not from your current year, which still has incomplete numbers, but from the total numbers of your previous years. Without having a better idea of what and how many animals you have in your zoo, scenery, layout of zoo and habitats, guest happiness, etc., the comments might be relevant or not. But this strikes me as noteworthy:

  • Don’t just look at where you can raise your income, but also where you can save expenses. You definitely have a problem with too high expenses vs. income. What causes the highest expenses? Maybe you can (or should) try to cut some costs. If your feed costs are too high, reduce the number of animals or even get rid of some high costs animals altogether. Polar bears are highly problematic in this regard. Or Japanese macaques if your herd gets too large. If your shops are not running well, maybe you have more than actually needed. As mentioned, the many balloon shops are a bit much. How many guests do you have in your zoo?
  • your income from tickets is so much higher than that from donations. In my zoos, the income from donations is much, much higher than that from ticket sales. Maybe you can improve that aspect by placing animals with higher appeal, adding more donation bins (I don’t think, though, it’s really necessary to place them every 5 meters), adding education stuff, scenery. Do you have enough ATMs? if the guests don’t have enough money, they can’t spend it.
  • Maybe your lack of business in gift shops is related to your guests’ meagre donations. Drink and food shops fulfill guests’s needs, but I assume that gift shops need happy guests to flourish. The happier guests are, the more they are willing to donate and to buy souvenirs. How happy are your guests? Do refunds contribute to your high running costs?

The management of the zoos is an intricate system of interdependencies. Maybe look at the large picture instead of focusing on a single factor, which might just be one of the symptoms.
 
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