How do I get people to fill market stalls?

[Khars]

I've got granarys all filled to the brim with families to run stalls but still food won't get to 100 percent. All my markets are right next to fully supplied and manned granarys and I can't get them to work. Is this a glitch or bad management?

[esp.tit4n]

I think Managment. Short Ways and a Central Market should do the trick.

[baldrick]

Sometimes I think the game just gets stuck. I've resolved similar issues by saving and reloading.

[Sneakychopsticks]

I had this problem in late game when I was trying to T3 all of my plots. In early and mid-game one centralized market with a granary and storage was fine. Limiting the market to 12-18 ish stalls and ensuring only the granary and storage plus a couple others managing the markets helped a lot. In the late game my town was so spread a part it was hard to get 4 types of foods to the edges of the town. I ended up making multiple smaller markets more evenly spread out through the town and that seemed to work after i deleted the original central market.

[Sneakychopsticks]

I think on my next play through i will limit the market to 10-12 stalls and plan to have market "hubs" to support the growing town.

[CatPerson]

The markets and stall concept is wonky. There's giant threads about it.

Smaller markets seem better. Don't make multiples everywhere, stalls are only setup in the first until it's full, then proceed to a next one in order, they do not just go to a closest space so it's useless. Some people go so far as to only make 1-stall markets to try to control them.

Too many houses/industries/warehouses all wanting to set up stalls can = a lot of empty stalls because it all gets divided up too much, and the houses think there isn't enough (per stall) even if you have loads overall. >.>

Edit: you can click on specific stalls and demolish them and hope a better person puts a stall there - but it's random who gets there first.

[Scaristotle]

I had a point where my Woodcutters stopped carrying firewood to the stalls. So Even though I had hundreds of firewood, all my villagers were cold during the winter. I had to relocate the Woodcutter's Lodge AND delete the firewood stalls to get them to populate properly. Do NOT do this with food stalls or Stalls that have any product in them at all. They simply won't prioritize the stuff on the ground, so it'll be in your way as well as lost to the weather.

Also keep in mind that stalls teleport goods to houses in order from closest to farthest (as I've read), meaning that some houses just won't make the list if the stall runs out of stock.

Another thing to note is a sort of feedback loop, where it seems like nothing is getting stocked, but the stock is just going out the door so fast that the game doesn't even register it at the stall. This was the issue for me, after I got firewood back online, as it was winter at the time.

[Khars]

Originally posted by esp.tit4n:

I think Managment. Short Ways and a Central Market should do the trick.

I’ve only as much as I need, but a lot of people are saying to make smaller ones. So do I ignore some of the families wants for more market space?

[CatPerson]

There is no need for 10 houses and 5 industries to set up a firewood shop. Or whatever. >.>

For me at least, it often seems to be working, until the population gets higher/more and houses and more and more stall and it starts to spiral. I haven't figured it out yet re: larger towns (more than 100-200 citizens). Sometimes I've deleted the entire market and made another, they'd build all the stalls again, and for a while all their needs would be at 100% again - then it would start dropping again. Dunno.

[Sneakychopsticks]

Having multiple storage/ granaries stocked with families may help. When I was getting into the 300+ population it was getting harder to stock everything because so much stuff needed to be transported to the market. every couple of years I would check stall if i need to delete any. A lot of people say only 1 market, but I really think in the late game you may need more. I just think the storage/ granary families should be running stalls.

[CatPerson]

I think one of the keys is to try to prevent a lot of buildings wanting to build a stall in the first place. Like only have one warehouse for firewood and coal, or only boots and leather, vs. 10 warehouses that all can accept those things.

[Sneakychopsticks]

Originally posted by CatPerson:

I think one of the keys is to try to prevent a lot of buildings wanting to build a stall in the first place. Like only have one warehouse for firewood and coal, or only boots and leather, vs. 10 warehouses that all can accept those things.

I agree, my "best" town so far ended up being happy with 3 market 'hubs' (Central original, 2 on the far end expansions) each with a granary and storage. I only had 1 other storage for dedicated firewood/ charcoal. I forced the granary and storage's to man the stalls and everything seems to run fine. I don't feel like I have to check it all the time when I working in the other regions.

[CatPerson]

Originally posted by Sneakychopsticks:

Originally posted by CatPerson:

I think one of the keys is to try to prevent a lot of buildings wanting to build a stall in the first place. Like only have one warehouse for firewood and coal, or only boots and leather, vs. 10 warehouses that all can accept those things.

I agree, my "best" town so far ended up being happy with 3 market 'hubs' (Central original, 2 on the far end expansions) each with a granary and storage. I only had 1 other storage for dedicated firewood/ charcoal. I forced the granary and storage's to man the stalls and everything seems to run fine. I don't feel like I have to check it all the time when I working in the other regions.

The problem is exponetial because the tanner wants to make a clothing stall, and his stall will also stock boots and linen. The weaver wants to make a stall, and they will also accept boots and leather. etc.

Then a warehouse that also stocks those goods and gets a supply of them, may want to make their own clothing stall. Thus none of them get fully stocked of anything. So when houses do their check for "teleport me goods", it's short or out. Edit: maybe houses only check one stall of each "type" each try, vs. multiples until they get everything.

[Sneakychopsticks]

Thats why only the storage house and the granary families should be the only ones manning stalls. if you limit the market to only 10 stalls, bam you are good. If they make stalls that are not needed, delete them until they make the correct stall. When you town starts getting so large that its hard to get 4 different types of food to the outer edges, its time to start thinking about expanding your market network. by that time, you probably already started expanding because you have 1k boots, 3k carrots and 2k apples you cant sell.

[CatPerson]

^^ I agree, but that is way too much micro management of stall installation. Constantly deleting, watching/checking to see who set up the stall, delete again if not what you want etc. And every time I think it's working, at some point you expand and it starts to fall apart again because maybe I did one tiny thing I "shouldn't" have.

I don't care who creates the stalls, whether storage or industry buildings, just don't have everyone under the sun do it, lol.