What's with the customer complaint algorithm?

[The Minted Lady]

Has anyone figured it out yet? I downloaded a mod that keeps track of items a customer finds too expensive each day. The items always seem random. The only item that seems regularly on the list is the mozzarella cheese, and I've already set it so low I'm starting to wonder if they're just programmed to complain about it.

[Raziel]

Every product has a current market value you can spot by checking out the prices on the shelves. If your selling price is higher than the market value, people start to complain.

I usually price just below it and only get complaints when the price drops and I forget to adjust it.

[The Minted Lady]

I know about the market value. I price above it at 7% and for most of the items I get no complaints. I used to price one penny below market and had no complaints whatsoever, but then I wasn't making very much money. Turns out you can price higher than market and people will tolerate it as long as it's not too high.

Still, the fact that their complaints seem random is a bit frustrating. If multiple people complained about the same item I could adjust it, but every day there appears to be something different. I'm also not sure who walks out because they found one expensive item. I thought the end of day summary was telling me, but then I noticed it still counted a person as unsatisfied even though they bought a lot of stuff from my store, just because they were unhappy with one product. So right now it's pretty hard to tell what to adjust for satisfactory business that makes the most revenue.

[CrazyIvan512]

Originally posted by The Minted Lady:

I know about the market value. I price above it at 7% and for most of the items I get no complaints. I used to price one penny below market and had no complaints whatsoever, but then I wasn't making very much money. Turns out you can price higher than market and people will tolerate it as long as it's not too high.

Still, the fact that their complaints seem random is a bit frustrating. If multiple people complained about the same item I could adjust it, but every day there appears to be something different. I'm also not sure who walks out because they found one expensive item. I thought the end of day summary was telling me, but then I noticed it still counted a person as unsatisfied even though they bought a lot of stuff from my store, just because they were unhappy with one product. So right now it's pretty hard to tell what to adjust for satisfactory business that makes the most revenue.

It is randomly generated to which Item any customer will find too expensive If the item is a certain amount over what the market price is, I have found that the easiest thing is to set all the prices at 14 cents above Market Price.. I have done that and get no complaints ever and average between 90 and 110 customers per day and have around 125 different items in the store

Now.. Yes, You can take the time to monitor their complaints per item and adjust each price to make them all happy and there are items You can price quite a bit higher than others
But for my own sanity it is way easier for me to have one amount above Market for all of it
Yes, You will lose a little.. very little .. profit that way compared to pricing each item at different percents.. But.. the game is set up so that each customer is preset on how much they are going to spend as soon as You start a new day, So.. You will only ever make a certain amount of Gross Sales each day no matter how high You set prices, You can double all the Market Prices.. and You will still only get maybe a couple hundred dollars more Gross Sales that day,.. but, You will get a lot of complaints ( only hurts growth a very little)
The Dev/s have it set up for you to only be able to earn so much money per day, otherwise You could triple or quadruple your pricing and make tons of cash and get leveled up way too fast and have to wait for more content,
stockers and cashiers are designed to go at a certain pace to also slow progression but not be too painfully slow (they are a bit too slow, and could be sped up a little)

If You want to experiment and do not mind having complaints ..as I said, the complaints only take off 1 Store Point each, You get 5 points per customer sale, so You would still get 4 per sale if everyone complains, You also get some points for purchasing stock,
the Store Points do not slow Your progress as much as the money does, I have plenty of points for leveling, its saving up 40- 50- 100k in money for a store expansion that slows You down, Go ahead and set prices as high as You like ..double them, triple them, and watch over 5 or 6 store days how much You earn on average and You will notice there is very little difference in Your Gross Sales versus when You had everything at Market Price (maybe a few hundred dollars more)