Supermarket Simulator

1. Summary

Supermarket Simulator wins people over with a simple routine: order stock, unpack boxes, price shelves, scan groceries and slowly grow a corner shop into a full supermarket. 21% of the longer reviews call it relaxing, addictive, cozy or satisfying, and players describe losing whole evenings to "one more day". Players who like organizing enjoy laying out the store, and co-op with a partner or friends adds to the appeal for some. Returning players credit the free updates they say added multiplayer, bulk pricing, grid snapping and an employee overhaul.

Complaints start with the paid DLC packs: 10% of the longer reviews object to them, often saying the new product lines should have been free updates to the base game. A fifth mention bugs, which range from cosmetic glitches to stock vanishing, shelves duplicating and saves wiped after an update. Players who stay long enough also describe a late-game wall where profits stop growing while expansions keep getting pricier, and six restockers can't keep up. Smaller groups object to AI-generated art, point to cheaper or free rivals, and ask for basics like key rebinding.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A relaxing, addictive store-running loopHigh

Filling shelves, the sound of the register and the slow growth from a tiny shop to a large store are what players enjoy. 21% of the longer reviews describe the game as relaxing, chill, cozy, addictive or satisfying, and the short reviews say the same in one word. "Ideal for just zoning out and not thinking about anything, and for pretending something in your life is at order for once." Some play it with a podcast or video running, and retail workers joke about coming home from a store shift to run a virtual one. Even some negative reviews concede that the first stretch is fun before other problems take over.

Organizing and designing your own storeMedium

About 8% of the longer reviews talk about organizing, arranging or customizing the store. Players enjoy working out layouts, choosing which licenses to stock and setting their own prices, and several say it scratches an organizing itch. A smaller group wants more to customize: decorations such as plants and posters, more paint and lighting choices, shelves that snap together (reviewers note grid placement arrived in a later update), and a choice of character or staff appearance instead of identical male employees.

Free updates that keep improving the gameMedium

Returning players list multiplayer, bulk pricing, grid snapping, highlighted shelf sections, a bigger text option and an employee leveling overhaul as reasons they came back, and some say the developers listen. "Finally added the grid-snap for setting furniture, and fixed a bug with labels not being editable in certain displays. 10/10 Dev listens" A few reviewers hit by the March 2026 stock-loss bug say they were compensated with in-game money, and several flipped earlier negative reviews to positive after the spring fixes. Elsewhere the same updates draw criticism, because new patches regularly introduce new bugs and break mods (see the bugs section below).

Where players are split

Co-op with friends and partnersHigh

Couples and friend groups are behind much of the praise here. 11% of the longer reviews mention multiplayer or playing with someone, and 4% praise it outright. "There's nothing like running a supermarket with your bestie and throwing boxes of product across the street because you don't want to pay the shipping prices." Against that sits a set of sync problems that mostly hit the player who joins: boxes that appear empty or invisible, shelves the host sees but the guest doesn't, players kicked mid-session, vending machines a guest can't stock, and scrambled saves. "The only reason I don't recommend this game is because of how buggy it is in multiplayer." Several reviewers recommend the game for solo play and warn against buying it mainly for co-op, and a few ask for crossplay with the console versions.

Employees and automationMedium

Hiring cashiers, restockers, cleaners and security changes the game, and the 15% of longer reviews that mention staff disagree about whether that is good. Some love automating as much as they want and stepping back into a manager role. Others say the game turns into waiting for the day to end once staff are hired. Restockers get the specific complaints: 4% of the longer reviews say they are slow, get stuck holding boxes, refuse to stock when rack space is free, or can't keep up once the store is big, and reviewers say the hiring cap is six. "Restockers are... really bad at their jobs." Reviews written after the employee overhaul are more forgiving, and a few say the restocking changes made the mid game manageable.

RepetitionMedium

About 5% of the longer reviews call the game repetitive, monotonous or tedious, and the word means different things to different people. For fans the predictable routine is something to zone out to. For others the loop of ordering, unpacking and pricing gets dull once the novelty wears off, and some say they had seen everything after the first few hours. Some describe playing intensely for a week or two, dropping it for months, then returning after an update.

Deliveries, wholesale runs and the produce scaleMedium

Reviewers describe updates that added online orders you drive to customers, cheaper wholesale shops around the city, and fruit and vegetables that must be weighed at a scale. 8% of the longer reviews mention deliveries. Some players like the variety and the extra margin from buying wholesale. Others call these systems busywork: "In a game about automation, I should not constantly get dinged that I need to pack an order and drive it somewhere". Wholesale runs mean carrying one box at a time to your vehicle, and reviewers ask for a trolley, a dolly or a bigger truck. The produce scale draws pointed complaints because customers and staff don't weigh produce themselves: "Having to manually weigh produce for every customer slows everything down and turns checkout into repetitive busywork instead of fun management." Some reviewers ask to hire a delivery driver or to switch deliveries off.

Performance as the store growsMedium

Reports on performance pull both ways. Some players say it runs fine on old laptops, Macs or the Steam Deck, while others, among the roughly 5% of longer reviews that talk about lag, stutter, frame rate or optimization, say the game slows down as customer counts climb late in a save, sometimes until it is unplayable. A couple say it makes their machines run hot. "As the game progresses it gets laggier and laggier to the point it is unplayable."

Loans and bankruptcyLow

Some players treat crippling debt as part of the fun ("I TOOK 3 LOANS AT ONCE AND I'M NOW IN CRIPPLING DEBT! 10/10 very relaxing game"). Others describe being forced into a large loan after a small shortfall, then spiraling into bankruptcy and losing a long save, and ask for a small overdraft or a way to recover.

What frustrates players

Paid DLC packs that feel like cut contentHigh

The packs (reviewers list bakery, ice cream, vending machines, clothing, electronics, hardware and essentials) came out together in early March 2026. 16% of the longer reviews mention the DLC and 10% complain about it, saying the packs add product lines and shelves that should have been free updates. Several add up the total and say the DLC costs as much as the base game or more. "I'm spending more than the game cost for a few different shelves and copy and pasted items that I can put on said shelves." Others point out design gaps, such as DLC products having no wholesale stores, which keeps their margins thin. Long-time owners with 50+ hours raise the DLC more often than players in their first ten hours. A minority defends the packs as cheap and optional, and the vending machine gets occasional praise.

Bugs: vanishing stock, duplicating shelves and lost savesHigh

A fifth of the longer reviews mention bugs or glitches, and some of them call the bugs minor and say they get fixed quickly. About 3% describe items or furniture disappearing, duplicating or turning invisible, especially around the March 2026 patches. "Every time I load into the game shelves are duplicated, items disappear, and I have to constantly fix the toggles". Players also report prices resetting to zero, customers wandering without checking out, the cursor vanishing from the in-game computer, the light switch disappearing, and staff freezing in place. About 1% report losing a save or days of progress, often after an update, and several ask for autosave and backups. Another complaint that comes up is that each patch fixes old bugs and adds new ones, and that updates break the mods many players rely on.

The late-game grindMedium

Early progress feels quick, but around store levels 40 to 50 players say daily profit stops growing while expansions and licenses keep getting more expensive. 7% of the longer reviews talk about grind, the late game or expansion costs. "Your income barely goes up compared to the cost of your upgrades and supermarket size increases, so the gameplay becomes a full slog of grind." Achievement hunters describe hundreds of hours of near-idle play to buy the final expansions, and some turn to money mods or exploits. Several players say they enjoy a slow grind, so this lands hardest on people who want to finish the game.

Crashes, freezes and games that won't startMedium

4% of the longer reviews report crashes, freezes or the game failing to launch, often after an update and sometimes on saves that worked before. Players describe crashes every 10 to 30 minutes, freezes when pressing New Game or Continue, and stores that load empty. Reviewers who quit within two hours bring this up more often than others, though they are a small group.

AI-generated artMedium

3% of the longer reviews object to what they identify as AI-generated images on the store page, product labels and some textures, and several say the game should disclose it. "many assets are made using generative AI, and even after the game's success they still haven't been replaced." Some of these players enjoy the game but say they won't recommend it until the art is replaced.

Cheaper or free alternativesLow

About 2% of the longer reviews compare the game with rivals, usually Supermarket Together (which they note is free and has co-op) or Megastore Simulator. "Supermarket Together has WAY more in the basegame than supermarket simulator has with DLC's." These comparisons mostly come up alongside the DLC complaint. A few positive reviews call this the original that the others copied.

Missing quality-of-life and accessibility optionsLow

4% of the longer reviews ask for basics they consider missing: key rebinding (one reviewer warns left-handed players and people with disabilities), larger or clearer text, a sprint toggle, sales and inventory statistics, end-of-day reports, automatic reordering, and separate sliders for the constant ambient bird sound. "Its 2026, all this work to make a good game and you failed to add the ability to rebind the keys". Some of these, like text size and grid placement, were added in updates, and reviewers who noticed say so.

3. The player conversation

The tone is mostly warm. Short reviews are a few words ("fun", "addictive", "chill"), some players say they found the game through YouTubers, and jokes about working a retail job at home or chasing shoplifters with a bat run through the conversation. The criticism sits in the long reviews, which are more evenly split.

The DLC launch brought the sharpest drop in the weekly numbers. Only 40% of the 347 reviews written in the week starting 2 March 2026 recommend the game, against 90% across the year before. Positive share stayed around two thirds for the next five weeks, when the DLC anger overlapped with a run of stock-loss and shelf-duplication bugs, then recovered to 86% from mid-April 2026 onward as fixes and the grid, bulk-pricing and employee updates landed. 5% of the longer reviews are marked as edited or updated, with long-time players flipping their recommendation down after the DLC or back up after a fix.

Who raises what follows how far people got. Reviewers who left within a couple of hours talk about crashes, co-op that would not connect, AI art and boredom. Players with 50+ hours raise the DLC more often than anyone and account for the late-game complaints: profit plateaus, expansion costs, restockers who can't keep up, lost saves and broken mods.

4. What the developers could do

1. Make saves and stock reliable before adding content. A fifth of the longer reviews mention bugs, and the worst cases describe stock vanishing, shelves duplicating and saves wiped after patches. Autosave, save backups and a public beta branch for testing would address the problem players say does the most damage.
2. Rethink how the DLC is packaged. 10% of the longer reviews complain about the product packs, often saying they should have been free updates or a single bundle, and a few owners want the DLC products sold at wholesale stores so their margins work.
3. Rebalance the late-game economy and staff capacity. Players past level 40 to 50 describe flat profits against rising expansion costs, and ask for more than six restockers, faster or upgradeable staff, and a way to carry more than one box.
4. Fix co-op sync for joining players. Couples and friends praise co-op, yet guests report empty or invisible boxes, desynced shelves, kicks and scrambled saves, and some ask for crossplay with consoles.
5. Let players automate or switch off the chores. Reviewers ask for a delivery-order toggle or a hireable driver, staff who can work the produce scale, a trolley or bigger truck for wholesale runs, and automatic reordering.
6. Improve performance and launch stability in large stores. Players report lag that grows with customer counts and crashes or freezes on New Game and Continue, a complaint that comes up more among those who quit within two hours.
7. Replace the AI-generated art. 3% of the longer reviews object to AI images on the store page and labels, and several say they will change their review once the art is replaced.
8. Add rebindable keys and accessibility options. Controls can't be remapped, which one reviewer flags for left-handed players and people with disabilities, and others ask for clearer text, a sprint toggle, sales statistics and separate ambient sound volume.