Peep Shop Preferences in 1.10

[Bullethead]

Shortly after PC was released, I did a comparative study of peep preferences for 1 type of shop over another. Turns out, peeps greatly prefer certain gifts, food, and drink over others. Since then, we've gotten beaucoup new shops plus vending machines. So it was time to do the test again to see how the new shops fit in with the old, and whether any old peep preferences had changed.


To do this, I created a simple park to bring in about 1800 peeps. Then I put all the different types of shops in courts near the middle of the park, so that all the travel distances to the same types of shops were about the same. Then I let the game run for 4 months and averaged how many customers each shop got. Then I changed things and ran another 4 months, repeat.


Here's what the park looks like. The shop courts are the blue paths. From left to right, you have the gift, drink, food, and vending machine courts. In this pic, I'm testing food vending machines. Later on, I deleted all them and replaced them with drink vending machines.

Here are the results:


TL/DR VERSION:
* Balloons 4x more popular than hats, hats 2x more popular than mementos.
* Vending machines are universally hated and despised even if there's no other choice.
* Energy drinks don't sell if you have benches in the park.
* Most popular drinks (80% of all sales): smoothies, juice, water
* Nobody ever wants coffee.
* Burgers are overwhelmingly the most popular food, followed by sushi, ribs, Mexican, and hotdogs. These are 80% of your sales.
* Everybody still hates frites and donuts.




GENERAL TRENDS


Gifts:
No changes from before. We still have the same 3 types of shop (balloons, hats, and mementos) and peep preferences for them are still the same. Everybody wants a balloon, some want hats, and hardly anybody wants a snowglobe.
* Balloons: 84/month
* Hats: 20/month
* Mementos: 9/month


Shops vs. Vending Machines
This works the same for both food and drink. Peeps would pretty much rather die than use a vending machine, even if there are no shops of the same type (food or drink) in the park. When both shops and vending machines are open at the same time, the vending machines get zero business. If only the vending machines are open, the vending machines get ALMOST zero business.


NOTE: This is more extreme than seen in real parks, due to the small size of this test park. In real parks, I've found that vending machines in the middle of very long paths with no attractions (such as going down a cliff or crossing a long bridge) get slow but steady business. In general, however, vending machines are highly UNpopular.


Old Food and Drink Preferences Remain
Prior to all the new shops, certain food and drink were far more popular than others. For the most part, those same types have retained their overwhelming popularity with most of the new shops getting little business. The following details will show this.


Benches and Energy Drinks
It is still the case that if you have a lot of benches in your park, you'll hardly sell any energy drinks. However, if you take away all the benches, energy drinks become almost the most popular.




SPECIFIC RESULTS
(all numbers are average customers/month over 4 months)


Drink Shops with Benches
Smoothies have catapulted into the lead (they used to be only as popular as shakes). But otherwise, the order is still about the same as always with water and juice still far ahead of anything else. And still nobody likes coffee.
* Smoothie: 83
* Juice: 66
* Water: 52
* Slush: 23
* Soda: 18
* Shakes: 12
* Energy: 4
* Coffee: 2


Drink Shops with NO Benches
Smoothies are still the most popular but energy is now a strong #2 with water and juice still rounding out the top-sellers. And even without the free energy of benches, STILL everybody hates coffee .
* Smoothie: 83
* Energy: 59
* Water: 40
* Juice: 33
* Soda: 11
* Shakes: 7
* Slush: 6
* Coffee: 4


Drink Vending Machines
With the drink shops open, the machines got zero business. The below thus only shows the results of 4 months with the drink shops closed and only the machines open. Note the HUGE fall-off in overall sales between the shops (above) and the machines (below), from several hundred to less than 10. Peeps really HATE vending machines, even though they're about 1/2 to 1/4 the price of the shops.
* Pipshot: 6
* Cosmic Cow: 2
* Streetfox: 1
* Gulpee: 0.25


Food Shops
Of the original types of food, burgers and hotdogs are still by far the most popular and the 1st batch of new food (with things like Missy Good) are still unpopular. However, the Worlds Fair foods range from very popular to not so much, but still better than the less-popular original stuff.


NOTE: The 1800 peeps in this park weren't enough to support all 18 food shops: 7 shops got zero business over 4 months. Thus, I can't rank all the shops here with so many ties. Still, the fact that 7 shops got zero business while others got so much shows the strength of peep preferences. Strangely, this list includes both pizza and tikichiki, both of which were fairly popular originally. It seems the new shops stole their business. But still nobody likes frites or donuts.


* Burgers: 48
* Sushi: 25
* Ribs: 22
* Mexilante: 18
* Hotdogs: 15
* Burritos: 13
* Wurst: 8
* Gelato: 5
* Vingt: 3
* Chow Mein: 0.25
* Ice cream, donuts, pizza, sweets, churros, frites, and tikichiki all got 0.


Food Vending Machines
Again, these numbers come from having the machines open and the shops closed. Again, there was a huge loss of business because peeps just hate vending machines.


It might appear that peeps prefer different vending machines than they do shops. However, the sample size here is too small to justify that. In general, the machines that got any business at all only serviced 1 group in any single month, and groups vary from 2-6 peeps. Thus, machines showing a 4-month average of 3-6 peeps got 1 group of customers per month, so are all about equal. Those with smaller averages did not get customers every month, and some got zero business at all.


1 group/month:
* Mexilante: 6.25
* Gelato: 5.75
* Churros: 5.5
* Ice Cream: 4.25
* Chow Mein: 3


1 group every 2 months:
* Sushi: 2.25
* Wurst: 1.75
* Sweets: 0.75


1 group in 4 months:
* Sweets: 0.75
* Tikichiki: 0.75
* Frites: 0.75


Zero business over 4 months:
Ribs, Vingt Sept, pizza, burritos, burgers, kebobs, hotdogs.

 

[Citytrader]

Thank you for doing all this work. Very interesting. In one of my parks, I get constant comments about what a bargain the popcorn is at X vending machine, however , there are never any sales!

I wonder what would happen if you change the conditions? Are peeps morre attracted to very nicely themed areas? Put one of the low sales shops in a very nicely done environment, and does that increase sales?

 

[KickAir8p]

Wow, thanks! [heart] Looks like some guest-pref rebalancing may be in order -- if the guests don't wanna use some things then it doesn't matter how much players love 'em, they're still practically useless in-game.

 

[Bullethead]

@ Cityrader and KickAir: Thanks for the props

In one of my parks, I get constant comments about what a bargain the popcorn is at X vending machine, however , there are never any sales!

I didn't do the popcorn and gumball machines because they don't have shop counterparts and I was looking to see how the vending machines compared to shops selling the same stuff. I should have mentioned that above. I'll now have to go back and add them to the mix, even though I doubt they'll make many sales. Peeps seem to demand the personal touch that only a minimum wage part-timer can provide . Which is a bummer because I'd LOVE to replace all those lazy, whining, millennial vendors with machines .

As I mentioned in the OP, vending machines seem to work only in very isolated locations, where the walk is long enough that peeps need a drink to finish it. Setting aside the fact that such paths are bad park design except where unavoidable due to topography, that would make vending machines most useful as the boundaries between adjacent work rosters for janitors. After all, somebody has to sweep that long path and it's better to have janitors working from each end doing 1/2 of it. BUT, vending machines also require the attention of mechanics, and mechanics should never stray so far from their assigned rides. So, vending machines even fail in this scenario. A restroom or even just an entertainment point (not actually used, but can be selected when making work rosters) would be more cost-effective.

I wonder what would happen if you change the conditions? Are peeps more attracted to very nicely themed areas? Put one of the low sales shops in a very nicely done environment, and does that increase sales?

I figure scenery's a wash. There's always the same general level of theming throughout a park. So having none at all everywhere is the same as having lots, in terms of the effect it has on the popularity of shops.

Wow, thanks! [heart] Looks like some guest-pref rebalancing may be in order -- if the guests don't wanna use some things then it doesn't matter how much players love 'em, they're still practically useless in-game.

Well, it's not as bad as all that. Remember, this is what peeps prefer when given ALL the choices. If you limit their choices, they'll take what's available. The data I got here is to show what shops can coexist close to each other, nothing more.

For example, let's say you build your park as a cluster of self-contained "areas". Each area has 1 (or 2) main rides, 2-3 flats, and a selection of shops and facilities. All these things are a short distance from each other within the area but, due to scenery and/or topography blocking lines of sight between areas, it's a rather longer walk to the next area and the shops there. In this situation, proximity generally trumps preferences. Peeps in general (but not always) will eat what's close at hand rather than walk a good ways for something they like better. Of course, this assumes that the rides in the area are attractive enough to get peeps there to begin with.

IOW, it's definitely NOT that you'll never sell a cup of coffee of a sack of donuts. It's just showing that if you put a burger joint next to a donut shop, or a smoothie stand next to a coffee house, the donuts and coffee will die. But if you make an area with ONLY coffee and donuts, those shops will do as well as another area with burgers and smoothies.

Unless they're vending machines. Then they'll just flat suck no matter what they sell or what you do.

 

[KickAir8p]

Wow, thanks! [heart] Looks like some guest-pref rebalancing may be in order -- if the guests don't wanna use some things then it doesn't matter how much players love 'em, they're still practically useless in-game.

. . . Well, it's not as bad as all that . . . Unless they're vending machines. Then they'll just flat suck no matter what they sell or what you do.

Thanks for the clarification -- still frustrating 'bout the vending machines though. [cry]

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Did you add "toppings" to any of these shops products' or just use the default offering?
Did you try placing a burger stand at default, next to a donuts stand with maxed toppings to see what happens?

 

[Bullethead]

Did you add "toppings" to any of these shops products' or just use the default offering?
Did you try placing a burger stand at default, next to a donuts stand with maxed toppings to see what happens?

Nope, this is bare bones all default. No changes of price, no extras added, to establish a baseline.

As to extras, however, I have never seen those do anything except affect peep metabolism. That is, consuming the food or drink affects the state of the peep's other physical needs. A drink might also reduce or increase hunger slightly, or vice versa. Some food/drink adds or subtracts energy, some cause the toilet need to spike. The extras seem to play into this general scheme. They don't seem to affect the popularity of the shop.

I could be wrong, though. Why don't you help in the testing? Put 2 Chief Beefs side-by-side, one with extras and one without, and see what happens.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I have found toppings increase demand. Why test something with default variables that are intended to be used for an effect? If burgers are already in demand at default, don't add toppings which also increase costs. Donuts have low demand, so adding toppings increases demand. Play the game!

 

[Bullethead]

I have found toppings increase demand. Why test something with default variables that are intended to be used for an effect? If burgers are already in demand at default, don't add toppings which also increase costs. Donuts have low demand, so adding toppings increases demand. Play the game!

While it would be nice to see some data backing up that claim, I'll accept it for the nonce. However, I don't accept that tweaking extras to increase business at an unpopular shop is "playing the game". Quite the opposite, really.

Consider. The vast bulk of the operating cost of all shops in the vendor's salary, which is going to be the same (and as low as possible) across the park for a given skill level. Especially since vendors became interchangeable when the staff building became a thing. So, you have an unpopular shop, which means low workload, which means low vendor happiness, which means staff turnover.

This wasn't a problem prior to the staff building, the main purpose of which is scramble vendors between shops. Before that, you could, if you absolutely had to have that type of shop in that location, just cut that 1 vendor's salary and replace him every time he quit. But now one of your highly trained vendors from a popular shop might end up there after a break and you've invested too much in him to let him walk. So if you're determined to keep the unpopular shop, your only recourse is to throw money at the problem.

Throwing money at the problem is called "reinforcing failure", which is something you should never do in any aspect of life. The more money you throw at the unpopular shop, the less profit margin it can have should it ever ultimately turn one. And unless the overall park has grown enough significantly to increase the size of the customer population, the only way the unpopular shop can be made popular is to steal business from the shops that were already popular. So now your previously popular shops are less profitable, and that easy money has been replaced by a lower margin on the shops you've boosted. This is just bad every way you look at it.

So, if you have an unpopular shop, the best thing to do is scrap it or replace it with something peeps like better or need more. Never try to make peeps like something they hate.