Developed and published by Spellgarden Games, Thrifty Business is a charming little shop sim with a cozy ’90s theme. We had a huge influx of these shop simulator releases all at once, so I almost didn’t make the purchase. However, I am really glad I did. Thrifty Business manages to have and hold its own identity among the lot. Between the art, the themes, and just the overall vibes I think you’ll agree if you give it a chance too. I found myself enjoying the characters, doing everything I could to max out my categories, and legitimately looking forward to figuring out how to make each day’s boxes of stock work.
One of my favorite parts of Thrifty Business is how it handles its customers. Every so often, someone will stop to chat about what’s happening in their life, turning the shop into more than just a place to buy and sell old stuff. You get limited options to respond, but that’s okay, it never really takes away from the experience. I just genuinely enjoyed their company. The characters are sweet, relatable, and easy to grow attached to. As your customer relationships deepen, you’ll eventually unlock special events you can host with them in the store. These not only provide sales boosts for certain categories of items but also help your patrons work through whatever challenges they’re dealing with in their personal lives. On top of adding more heart to the game, these events also became one of the biggest game changers for my shop financially.
A normal day might bring in two or three hundred gold, but event days boosted profits enough that I was sometimes doubling my proceeds. This also meant that I had to start paying closer attention to tags and frequently reorganize my shop. Every item has multiple tags tied to it, so something as simple as a camera could count as silver, media, electronics, and more. This brings us to category bonuses. Grouping items with others that share the same tags activate category bonuses, and these bonuses make a massive difference in how quickly things sell. At first, I thought simply throwing all my electronics into one section would be enough, but it really wasn’t helping much. Even with a ton of stock out on the floor, some of my categories were only hitting level two or three. So, I started rearranging. What I thought would be a quick little adjustment somehow turned into a multiple-hour process of moving shelves around, boxing up stock, and even changing decorations to optimize my layout. By the end of it, I actually had significantly less inventory on display but was somehow selling items nearly twice as fast. I even managed to snag that ever elusive ‘cheevo for maxing out three categories in a single day.
The faster I started selling items, the more often I found myself needing to buy new stock. You do this through an app on your in-game phone tucked away in the bottom-left corner of the screen. There, you’ll scroll through mystery boxes being sold by strangers, or sometimes even by regular customers tied to little story moments. Each box gives you a tiny sneak peek at what might be inside, usually showing off one or two tags related to the contents. However, there’s no way to know everything you’re getting or how much space the contents will take up. Thankfully, there’s typically at least one free box available each day, so you never have to worry too much about completely running out of funds. With that being said, inventory space is limited, both on your character and in the number of unopened boxes you can store at once. Because of that, you really have to be smart about what boxes you buy and when you decide to open them. There were definitely a few moments where I had to throw items away simply because my inventory was full and I had nowhere left to place them.
Thrifty Business ended up being one of those games that completely surprised me, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I went in expecting a simple cozy shop sim and came away genuinely impressed by how much depth and care had been poured into every part of it. I also didn’t run into any bugs or major issues during my time with it, which honestly feels rare these days. The gameplay loop is both relaxing and incredibly satisfying, almost like a mix between Tetris and Tiny Bookshop. There aren’t many games that make me want to chase every single achievement, but this one absolutely did. At this point, I only have one elusive ‘cheevo left before I’ve completed them all. Even after wrapping up the character stories and knocking out nearly every achievement, I still find myself coming back to reorganize my shop and play “just one more day.” I was also really happy to discover that the developers plan to continue supporting the game with future updates.
Thrifty Business is out right now on Steam. If you pick it up before June 1st, you can still grab it at its introductory sale price. Even better, if you already own Spellgarden Games’ previous title, Sticky Business, you can get it for an even bigger discount. Honestly, if cozy shop sims are your thing, this one is absolutely worth checking out.
Purchase Thrifty Business on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3693650/Thrifty_Business
