What is the purpose of cleaning?

[Ambenson]

Customers make mess when eating but does it affect anything other than slowing my walk speed? Will it affect my profit or have any other effect?

[JacobMIX]

Give you the Health Inspector? achievement.
Complete a day with a mess on at least 10 tiles
Else no... Doesn't do anything but make it harder to move.
You don't need to keep anything clean, plates or floor at the end of a shift.

[Willow]

the sloweing walk speed gets worse and worse the bigger the pile gets and when you start juggling a lot of customers that can kill a run so thats the importance xD matters less early run but once it gets busy and every second matters you'll want to keep that speed

[CondorDrake]

The slowdown can easily kill you in the endgame, after day 15, when customers are piling up. So using a mop / fast mop / robo mop becomes essential at some point.

[Emily Mewens]

Originally posted by Equinox:

The slowdown can easily kill you in the endgame, after day 15, when customers are piling up. So using a mop / fast mop / robo mop becomes essential at some point.

You could also go formal and max out the effect for no mess at all.
Or duplicate the crap out of floor protectors and set up paths.

[JacobMIX]

Originally posted by Emily Mewens:

Originally posted by Equinox:

The slowdown can easily kill you in the endgame, after day 15, when customers are piling up. So using a mop / fast mop / robo mop becomes essential at some point.

You could also go formal and max out the effect for no mess at all.
Or duplicate the crap out of floor protectors and set up paths.

Or use the shoes that ignore messes. (They do make you a bit slower tho)