My Shops Aren't Making Money??????

[cam.lmfao]

So i have a fair amount of shops and restaurants at my park but they are all almost $-200 a month or more! I keep adjusting prices and everything but i cant figure it out.

[Jupiter3927]

You need a lot of guests using a shop for it to turn a profit.
Try adding fun stuff to your shops that make guests hungry or thirsty, like salt on fries.

[HeatherG]

You may have to many, It depends on how many guests you have and how big your park is. I usually waited until I had at least 1,500 guests, then I'd put out a couple to start. But I never had a large park. So I would just add them gradually as you get more people in.

[unca.alby]

Wait until your guests complain that they're hungry or thirsty before adding a shop. That way you know there is a need for one.

Your solution now is probably to close a lot of shops until your guests start complaining, then slowly re-open them.

Of course the other strategy is to just go ahead and let them lose money. In the Real World, this would be called a "Loss Leader", such as your guests know there is always a shop close by and there is rarely a line, so even though they're losing money, they're making guests happier so they come back more often.

I doubt that's programmed into the game, though.

[dynatierchen]

place them near ride exists and put a sign on them and choose the shop as advertisement target

[A Fat, Angry Serval]

Honestly, from my experience shops aren't your big moneymakers anyway. They primarily exist to take care of guest needs. It's not like in Roller Coaster Tycoon where you can just set your shops to make exactly $1 in profit and not have to worry about any overhead.

If it's early game, try making a very small but relatively high-stats coaster to help cover expenses. A small out-and back woodie with lots of little ejector hills will bring in thousands a month on its own.

[unca.alby]

^^^
Truth!

[Abbittibbi]

With a ton of experience in various parks(custom, scenario, career, sandbox) of all sizes, shops(except for balloons and hats) are mostly not making profits, including hotels. Money makers are for me: entrance tickets, priority passes and coasters, most of the flat rides are losing cash. Track rides(like monorails, go-karts or darkride types) are 50/50, some will turn a profits, so will not.

I find that ''scenary'' rides are mostly not associated with scenary, it does not really matter what and how the scenary is setup.

When you have a small park, in early years, it's best to use vending machines, no employees to manage.

[VTitanV]

Placement and desire is key. I place one area of food, drink, merch and toilets and first aid in key areas.

Normally have one of those at the launch of a work. Once they get overfilled (normally drinks I have noticed) I wait until at least food gets full and I create a copy of my setup using the select tool then duplicating it and creating a new one further away but I do think of this next area while placing rides.