Anime Shop Simulator Beginner Guide: Your First Days

The first-day loop

The opening tutorial walks you through the same steps every new shop follows. The computer behind the counter is where almost everything happens:

Name your shop. You pick it at the start, and it shows on the sign.
Buy a product license. Licenses decide what you are allowed to stock. Your first one covers basic manga and common booster packs.
Order stock. Ordering adds a delivery fee ($10 in the demo), so order in batches, not one box at a time.
Pick up the boxes from the delivery zone out front and carry them in.
Put products on shelves. Open a box and place items one by one.
Set prices. The pricing screen shows the market price and has quick buttons for plus or minus a percentage, with rounding.
Flip the sign to Open. Customers come in, pick things up and queue at the register.
Run the register. Scan the items, take cash or card, and give change. The screen tells you how much change is owed, and you hand it back from the drawer.
End the day. The ledger shows revenue, supply costs, upgrade costs, employee wages, payments, fines and profit.

In the demo videos, players reach shop level 2 inside the first in-game day. What each later level opens is on the shop level page.

Start at or slightly above the market price. Streamers priced 10% to 20% over and still sold, but at 20% some customers complained and walked out.
Check the market price every morning. A launch tips video’s first habit is reading the computer’s market price before opening, because some product prices move day to day. Players have asked for a daily price-change overview, which the game does not have yet.
Rare items can go higher. Big-ticket figures and rare cards sell to the occasional big spender, and one customer can clear a shelf.

More on margins, loans and bills in how to make money.

Launch week’s biggest complaint was the number of customers in the first days, with one player doing everything. What helps:

Flip the sign to Closed to catch up on restocking and cleaning, then flip it back. Players report no penalty.
Let the queue wait. Several players say customers waiting at the register don’t leave or get angry, so restock first.
Hire a cashier as soon as you can afford one. The second employee slot opens at shop level 16; see the employees guide.
Update the game. Hotfix 1.0.2 cut the number of thieves, vandals and trash after launch complaints.

Manga genres are on the back of the book. When a customer asks for a genre, hold the book, hold the middle mouse button and move the mouse to turn it over.
Boxes on the floor count as mess. So do windows and graffiti on the outside walls. See thieves, vandals and trash.
The bat is not available at the start. Thieves arrive before you can stop them. Winning card battles is part of how it unlocks.
Check IDs on 18+ manga. Selling age-restricted stock to a customer under 18 is not allowed.
Tab opens your collection album, where opened cards go.

Spending your last money on one order. A launch tips video makes this its final rule: keep a buffer for the next restock.
Opening your own boosters on day one. It’s fun, but one demo shop nearly went broke doing it. Sell packs first and open them when you can afford to.
Leaving holes on shelves. Customers who come for a product and find an empty spot leave without buying. Restock gaps right away.
Crowding the aisles. You need room to carry a delivery box past a customer.

If the game crashes when you hire a restocker, it’s a known bug with a quick workaround on the known issues page.

Was this guide helpful?