Shops are empty, can't purchase essential items

[Wahlie]

Bought the steam locomotive and have traveled to each shop in the game fir the shovel and guide and they're all empty. They have a scanner and one item on a table near the entrance that when scanned makes the scanner disappear. What should I do to resolve this issue?

[CMDRZOD]

You use the scanner to scan the items on the wall behind the cash register. Sometimes I've seen the scanner disappear. Usually restarting the game fixes this.