Pixel Grocer Guide: Grow Your Farm Shop Fast
Published · Last updated
Pixel Grocer is a free idle shop game in your browser. You run a little farm shop: pick produce on the farm out back, stock the shelves, take the money at the register and spend it on whatever the shop needs next. The shop is saved as you play, so it opens again exactly where you left it, also offline. Want a fresh start? NEW GAME on the title menu asks first, then opens a brand-new shop on day 1, and your records stay. This guide covers the basics, a plan for the first week, the helpers and machines, star ratings and fresh goods, the weather and the daily goals.
The basics
Everything in Pixel Grocer happens by walking. There is no button to pick or to sell:
- Pick by walking up to anything ripe. Tomatoes, apples, eggs, corn, milk, strawberries and honey pile up in your arms until the basket is full and a red MAX appears.
- Stock a shelf by walking past it. Only the matching produce goes on, and the tag over the shelf shows how many items it holds. Spoiled goods on it come off first.
- Sell by standing behind the counter. The customers in the queue pay one by one and the coins fly up into your total.
- Buy by standing on a coin pad. It takes your coins a little at a time, so you can pay a pad off over several visits, and the progress ring shows how far you are.
The arrow keys or WASD walk on a keyboard, a stick walks on a phone, and the left stick walks on a gamepad. The INFO button (or I) opens the shop ledger with today’s goals, all prices and your totals.
Your first week
Day 1 starts with one tomato bed, one shelf with a few tomatoes on it and an empty register. A good order for the first purchases:
- The second tomato bed (15 coins): twice the tomatoes for every trip to the farm.
- The apple tree and the apple shelf (30 + 20): apples sell for more than tomatoes, and customers who want two things buy more.
- The cashier (50): the most important early buy. Until you have her you have to be at the register and on the farm at the same time. Collect her coins by walking behind the counter.
- The big basket (40): six items per trip instead of four.
- The chicken coop and the egg shelf: eggs sell for 6 coins.
From there, hire a farmhand as soon as you can afford one. He picks and stocks the emptiest shelf on his own, which frees you to fetch the pricier produce and to buy the next pad.
Helpers and machines
| Helper or machine | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cashier | Serves the queue; her coins wait in the register |
| Farmhand (up to three) | Picks, stocks the emptiest shelf, feeds the juice press, carries wilted crops to the compost |
| Guard | Chases thieves down on his own |
| Juice press | One apple in, one bottle of apple juice out, worth 14 coins |
| Tall racks | Every shelf holds 12 instead of 8 |
| Potted plants | Customers wait longer before walking out |
| Jukebox | Every customer tips a coin |
| Flower beds | The bees make honey faster |
The meadow behind the farm is the big mid-game purchase. It opens a second area with strawberry patches and beehives, and the honey from the hives is the most valuable produce in the game.
Customers
Most shoppers want one or two things, and some push a cart and fill it. A thought bubble shows what they want, and a red bubble means they are waiting at an empty shelf. If a shelf stays empty they will settle for something else that is in stock, or walk out.
- Kids run in for something sweet: strawberries, honey, juice or apples. They are quick and impatient.
- Grannies walk slowly with a stick, wait patiently and leave a tip.
- Bulk buyers in sunglasses arrive with a big cart, buy five to eight of one or two things and pay 30% extra. Keep a shelf full for them.
Stars and reviews
Every customer who leaves writes a short review, and it pops up on screen:
- 5 stars for quick service.
- 4 stars after a bit of a wait at an empty shelf or in a line nobody serves, 3 after a long wait or when something on their list was sold out.
- One star less if they saw spoiled goods on a shelf.
- 2 stars for walking out with nothing to buy, 1 for giving up in line or walking out past spoiled goods.
The reviews move the shop’s star rating at the top of the screen, and the rating sets how many customers come: a four- or five-star shop stays busy, a poor one gets quiet (but never empty). Bulk buyers’ reviews count extra. Fall under three stars and a BAD REVIEWS! banner warns you; serve well and the stars climb back until a COMEBACK! banner says the customers are returning. The ledger shows the latest reviews. In the first two days bad reviews count only half, in HARDCORE they count extra.
Fresh goods and the compost
Everything ages. Customers take the oldest goods first, so a shelf that sells keeps itself fresh, but overstock that sits too long spoils: it turns brown, draws flies, keeps its slot and costs you stars. Ripe produce left on a tomato bed, a tree, the coop, the corn or the strawberries wilts the same way and blocks the plant until someone clears it.
- Walk past a spoiled shelf or a wilted plant to take the bad items off. They go in your arms (and take basket room).
- Throw them on the compost heap by the back door: just walk past it.
- With your arms full, carrying the right produce past a spoiled shelf swaps a fresh item in for every spoiled one you take off.
- Farmhands clear wilted crops on their own when the shelves are in good shape, but spoiled shelves are your job.
- Goods spoil faster on a hot day and in HARDCORE and slower while it rains, and shelf goods age a little overnight. Honey never spoils, and milk and juice never wilt on the farm.
Weather
Every day has its own weather, and the card at closing time shows tomorrow’s forecast:
- Sunny: a normal day.
- Cloudy: the plants grow a little faster.
- Rain: the plants grow much faster, but fewer shoppers come out, and goods keep longer while it rains. A good day to fill the shelves.
- Storm: even faster growth and even fewer shoppers, with thunder and lightning.
- Hot day: a busy crowd that runs out of patience quickly, the plants grow slower and everything spoils sooner. Fill the shelves before the doors open, but not so far that the stock goes bad.
Bees ignore the rain: honey only gets faster with the flower beds.
Daily goals
Every day brings two small goals, such as serving 20 customers, selling 10 eggs, stocking 30 items, taking a certain number of coins, serving a bulk buyer, catching the thief or closing with a certain star rating. Each one pays a bonus the moment you reach it; a star-rating goal is judged at closing time. The goals sit in a small panel at the top left of the screen, and the ledger shows how far you are.
Thieves
From day 3 a thief in a striped jumper may walk in, grab up to three items off the most valuable shelf and run for the door. Run into him before he gets out and you get the goods back plus a reward. A guard catches thieves for you, and HARDCORE in Options sends them from day 2 and more often.
Leaderboards
Each day in the shop counts as one run: the coins you take that day are your score on the Best Day leaderboard, with a separate board for HARDCORE. Goal bonuses and the coins your cashier takes while you are away do not count, so the board is about how well you run the shop.
More games
Pixel Grocer is one of the free games on NoInternet Arcade. For something faster, try Pixel Pitch or Web Crawler, and see games to play when the internet is down for the rest.