Grocery meat supply?

[Silent_Shadow]

I have found that food and meat are among the most common needs citizens have, so I decided I would try placing grocery stores within walking distances to free up public transit. Theoretically people would only use public transit for other needs that the under-utilized services/culture buildings provide for.

The challenge is that groceries only have the one vehicle bay, so there can't be a refrigeration truck waiting there to supplement the pitiful 1 ton meat storage. I was thinking of having a single refrigeration truck on its own line; load up at custom house or meat warehouse, go to and then top off grocery 1, then 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? and then go load more meat. Duplicate per ~7 groceries. Has anyone tried this? I would rather avoid having to build an attached meat storage (I am aware of the mods) or truck loading bay to each grocery if I can avoid it. I would use Dist. Office, but I suspect it would waste the truck's capacity.

[Storpappa]

Meat is a long game. And as your republic grows, you need farms. Lots of them

Proper planning for trains to make runs down main lines to what I called FDC - Food Distribution Centers. Once an area is finally built, the trains supplying the CY;s end up topping off, then just looking cool for traffic. You can't stop them in case of repairs to any one area but you can slow them down making more space for the FDC trains to push supply. YGYW YMMV

[Stele]

Such line could work, just check it from time to time if it doesn't require to pick more cargo in the middle. But won't running half empty truck from DO be more efficient then running in circles constantly toping storages?

[moa]

Food gets consumed faster then of meet. I use one food truck and one meet truck for a single grocery. The food truck is waiting till unloaded and a meet truck without wait is usually right behind and does not waste fuel. I am not sure what the exact ratio is, it might be something like 4:1. This way there is always full supply and there is no fuel wasted.

Only downside I see is the clutter of lines, but if you avoid renaming them you can filter the important lines by 'custom lines'.

[mattii70]

I would recommend trying using the distribution office to stock the stores. I set up a small DO at the edge of town next to a warehouse and meat store. I use smaller coveted hulls and refrigerator trucks and set them to deliver when the stores reach 30% stock level.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Stele:

But won't running half empty truck from DO be more efficient then running in circles constantly toping storages?

I don't think so, as the refrigeration truck can hold 6.5 tons of meat, while a grocery can only hold 1 ton. Since you don't want the store to ever run out, a DO truck would only be delivering maybe a seventh or an eighth of its capacity before heading back to the DO. Seems like a waste to me, especially with the fuel costs. I don't think there is an optimal solution to be honest though (which is fine).

Originally posted by moa:

The food truck is waiting till unloaded and a meet truck without wait is usually right behind and does not waste fuel. [...] This way there is always full supply and there is no fuel wasted.

Only downside I see is the clutter of lines, but if you avoid renaming them you can filter the important lines by 'custom lines'.

Seems doable, but purchasing fewer vehicles seems a better approach.

Originally posted by mattii70:

I would recommend trying using the distribution office to stock the stores. I set up a small DO at the edge of town next to a warehouse and meat store. I use smaller coveted hulls and refrigerator trucks and set them to deliver when the stores reach 30% stock level.

How small are we talking? The 3.5 ton (for food) Skd 706 RT?

[Stele]

Why use 6.5T truck for meat DO? I'm using vanilla IFA 2T trucks now I think. Runs half empty most of the time anyway, but is much smaller and uses less fuel. Only covered hulls for food has to be as large as possible.

[Silent_Shadow]

I don't see an IFA (50W?) 2T truck that can carry meat. Are you perhaps referring to the GZ-53?

I suppose using the smaller trucks that become available later would work out for a DO, but you have to wait a year for the GZ-53.

[joeball123]

Originally posted by Stele:

Why use 6.5T truck for meat DO?

Probably because it's the only one available in 1960, at least without mods. The next-earliest refrigerator trucks only become available in 1961 (GZ-53) and 1962 (Zil-130), so if you're using vehicles rather than autobuy you either have to use the Skoda 706 RTTN refrigerator truck at the start of the game or do without meat for a year or two to get a more appropriately sized delivery truck for the average store.


I personally don't like using DOs to supply stores; the lead time between a truck being dispatched and a delivery arriving is often problematic if you're just using the store's built-in storage, especially in high-population areas, a lot of the base-game stores don't have enough factory connections for a direct connection to multiple storage facilities, and as far as space costs go a road cargo station isn't really any worse than an attached storage facility anyways.

[Silent_Shadow]

I guess it will depend on the routes and engine sizes for the most fuel efficient routes for meat. If the distance between the meat source (warehouse, customs house) is significantly larger than the distances between the grocery stores, you'll probably be better off with a large truck serving a line of stores. If not, a smaller truck could supply meat to very dispersed groceries. It seems the GZ-53 has about a 25% smaller engine as, yet carries 4/13 the amount of meat as, a SKD-706 RTTN, but the GZ-53 has a 23km/hr higher top speed.

[Stele]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

I don't see an IFA (50W?) 2T truck that can carry meat. Are you perhaps referring to the GZ-53?

Oh, so it must be modded. Maybe I even added it to W50 family myself, to keep license costs low. Basicly idea was to get largest prison bus and use discount for this frame to produce other kinds of vehicles myself, as W50 has many variants not covered by OP T138. Anyway, clue is to use small refrigerators for DOs. Speed doesn't matter much, as it can't accelerate much inside city traffic.

[Pr0wn]

It’s a bit overkill but the large grocery shop has a factory connection, if you really want to avoid shortage you can always connect a meat storage to it.

Edit: Or alternatively connect a truck cargo station so you can always have a meat truck parked with the “wait until unloaded” ticked.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Pr0wn:

It’s a bit overkill but the large grocery shop has a factory connection, if you really want to avoid shortage you can always connect a meat storage to it.

Edit: Or alternatively connect a truck cargo station so you can always have a meat truck parked with the “wait until unloaded” ticked.

I would, but I really want to avoid the footprint since I usually build on steep hills. Level space is precious in those mountain towns and I don't want to build up a hill side for each small grocery and its storage solution.

[Pr0wn]

In that case modded shops with 2 truck unloading slots would make your life much easier

[forzion]

What I do is that I use usually a truck circling between multiple stores and a distribution office on top of that. The closer the storage and DO is to shops the better.

Another thing is that you may have problems with meat mainly in small shopping center which has 2 loading bays so you can let the refrigerator truck wait until unloaded there.

If you use small shops the distribution offices should not have issues supplying that. You can use smallest refrigerators possible there.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Pr0wn:

In that case modded shops with 2 truck unloading slots would make your life much easier

I thought about it, but I would rather avoid modding everything just to make it easier.

Originally posted by forzion:

What I do is that I use usually a truck circling between multiple stores and a distribution office on top of that. The closer the storage and DO is to shops the better.

Would you say the trucks are well utilized, or is this more to ensure there's always food in the shops?

Originally posted by forzion:

Another thing is that you may have problems with meat mainly in small shopping center which has 2 loading bays so you can let the refrigerator truck wait until unloaded there.

I don't understand what you're saying here. Small shopping center is nice for parking a large refrigeration truck in, but I was talking about dispersed groceries here.

Originally posted by forzion:

If you use small shops the distribution offices should not have issues supplying that. You can use smallest refrigerators possible there.

I guess that will be an option after some time has passed, but I would think not replacing your starting meat truck after a year would be better.