CzarFox [2008731] —
Original article
What black magic makes these companies so popular? Are you as addicted to sugar as you are with Xanax? Does a daily dose of caffeinated liquid poison keep you from ending it all?
Welcome to the latest edition of Company Insights. After a prolonged absence, we're bringing back this popular series of articles which investigates the optimal way to run some of Torn's most popular companies. This week, we're taking a look at Sweet Shops, which presently employ over 1,300 people, making them our fifth-largest employer.
Specials
The specials of Sweet Shops are, as the name implies, focused on happiness. This theme makes the company very alluring for new players who are looking to bulk up in their local gym. The last two are especially powerful, as they help you to obtain the elusive Ecstatic merit (for 99,999 happiness) without affecting your cooldown booster, while also providing employees with a generous source of income that is particularly useful to new players.
These specials, coupled with the tiny start-up cost of $1,000,000 and an initial capacity of 4 employees, makes it the most popular company type in Torn, with over 889 Sweet Shops in existence as of March 26th 2020 - in second are Adult Novelties with 686. However, if you look into these figures with a little more depth, you will see a very different story indeed.
At present, there are 48 ten-star Sweet Shops in Torn, with 51 nine-stars, 38 eight-stars, 25 seven-stars, 19 six-stars, and 12 five-stars. Below that, we have 17 four-stars, 14 three-stars, 17 two-stars, and 47 one-star companies, with the rest being inactive. This gives us a total of 288 starred companies out of a total of 889, out of which just 277 are registered as active - Adult Novelties are the most active companies with 425 in operation at present.
These stats indicate that the cheap start-up cost of the Sweet Shop leads many inexperienced directors to try their hand at running one, only to give in when the going gets tough. Nonetheless, 288 Sweet Shops represents a lot of competition, regardless of how savvy you are, and the candy business remains difficult to break into without proper preparation.
One thing you're going to struggle with initially is attracting employees, as due to the manner in which this firm's specials increase in usefulness massively through the ranks, low-star firms often find it hard to attract talent.
"Honestly I don't spend a lot of time looking at other people's sweet shops to recognize their mistakes. I'm too busy running mine! I struggle with employee retention, between activity issues and people leaving to join adult novelty stores. Most players with working stats at the sweet shop level are doing happy jumps using erotic dvds and come to me while looking for somewhere to get their edvds with job points." - Sass [2299647]
Employees
A fully upgraded sweet shop will cost you $4,725,000, will hold 10 employees, and have a warehouse capacity of 100,000 stock items (trust me, you'll need it). However, you'll need to build a solid workforce to get to this point, and as we suggested in the previous section, this is easier said than done due to the nature of the Sweet Shop specials.
Specials one and three become virtually obsolete when any Sweet Shop ranks up to seven-stars, so while a firm above this rank is attractive to employees, those below it simply cannot compete with those on the other side of the divide. Fortunately, the last two specials are some of the best in the game, so if you can grind your way to seven-stars you should be able to stabilize your company.
The stat requirements across the seven positions within sweet shops are unusually low, and since relatively few hold the maximum of 10 employees, most of these positions are rarely used. The vast majority of 10* companies rely on a set up of 2-3 confectionists, 6-7 clerks, and 1 packager. This is because lost cleanliness doesn’t affect your income as much as an extra clerk does, so there is no need for a manager or a cleaner when the company size is limited as it is.
The pay for these employees may vary, but they generally hover around $100k-$150k for employees with 100 to 150% efficiency (double recommended work stats for a position). This does mean that new companies will be running in the red for quite a long time if they wish to rank up quickly. However, the saving grace is that once your company unlocks the seven-star special, you can utilize it to supplement your income as a director, as well as use it as a substitute for a salary for your employees (so they'll work for essentially free).
This one step can turn your income from negative into several millions of dollars every week. Such a feat should be the goal for the majority of directors, but it is easier said than done.
"A key mistake of noob sweet shop directors is the desire to maximize profit instead of reaching 10* status. Some reduce the [advertising budget] to increase profit but this leads to a drop in *, which makes retaining staff more difficult. Investing in a sweet shop is a long-term business [...] It's not for the faint-hearted" - Miggi [2173489]
Pictured: A better time
Advertising
Advertising is one of the most important variables determining your income, and it's one that you can directly influence. The success of your advertising depends on your budget against the budget of other rival companies. It might be tempting to spend millions on advertising in order to speed up the process of ranking up in star ratings, but the rewards have diminishing returns, meaning that eventually, the money spent will have little to no effect on the success of your company. Personally, I'd keep the advertising budget at 600-800k per day.
iHalp, the director of ten-star Sweet Shop Big Sugar, had this to say on the issue: “Don't spend millions on advertising, you'll get to 10* soon enough. It took me roughly 7-8 months from when I bought my [new] sweetshop.”
Cashflow and Sales
On average, the top ten Sweet Shops make $6-8 million per week without including costs and specials (or $2-4m in weekly profit). Don't expect to be earning the big bucks even if you top out at ten-stars. However, the money to be made from cans far outweighs any traditional profits, so Sweet Shops are by no means a small-time venture either.
Here's a quick look at the stock you'll be selling. As you can see, not all stock items are created equal, and the differences become apparent very quickly:
Costs of stock aside, these products sell at wildly different rates, with Chocolate being the most profitable by an absurdly large margin. The second and third most popular items are licorice and fudge respectively, with the rest being sold in similar quantities. But chocolate sells like hotcakes laced with cocaine, with 10* Sweet Shops burning through as many as 5,000 units a day.
If owners don't keep good track of their stock levels their sales can drop drastically by as much as 20%, which will take several days to recover from. In addition, shipments of all stocks take 24 hours to be delivered, and those deliveries can only bring what you can already store, so be careful not to store too little of the products you need or too much of the products you don't need! The results of doing so are crippling, and your employees might just leave if you aren't careful, further exacerbating your problems.
The item pricings should be left at or slightly below the recommended retail price for maximum profit while below rank 9, as this will help you rank up faster and maintain your popularity - as we've already suggested, most of your income will come in the form of cans anyway. As long as you maintain a ranking above 7*, you should never run at a loss.
The TCP and TGP stock bonuses will obviously help with your profits, but they are a huge financial investment, with both costing around $476m at the time of writing. It's not a wise decision to buy these stocks for the sole purpose of boosting your Sweet Shop profits. However, if you intend to work as a director for the long term, or you are planning to move to another industry in future, you should be building up your TCP and TGP stocks as early as possible.
"By and large, the mistakes I see [often] are employees not allocated well, ad budgets that are too high, and item pricing that doesn't take advantage of the relevant education." - Muckamuck [1884573]
Pictured: The average consumer
Keffi's 5 Common Mistakes:
#1 Never forget to monitor your employees
"If they have the stats for 150% and are on each day, but lose lightning [bolts], they need to rehab"
#2 Compare with higher up companies
"[Especially with] what roles they applied to their employees. They most likely have it worked out. That's why they are higher up."
#3 Finish your business bachelor
"If you are trying to run a 10* sweetshop without losing money, you should have the TCP and TGP BB and most of the Business management courses."
#4 Once you are 10*
"Try to balance out the advertising budget so that you don't pay more per day than you earn."
#5 if you're on the edge between 10* and 9*
"You need to be on your toes all the time. In case one of the employees is going for an unannounced vacation, be sentimental and keep him till(if) he returns, [and you'll] lose that star."
Summary:
SHARE YOUR COMPANY INSIGHTS
If you have knowledge of how to set up and run a successful company and you'd like to write a Company Insights article, please make yourself known to Sugarvalves by dropping him a message today.
Specials
The specials of Sweet Shops are, as the name implies, focused on happiness. This theme makes the company very alluring for new players who are looking to bulk up in their local gym. The last two are especially powerful, as they help you to obtain the elusive Ecstatic merit (for 99,999 happiness) without affecting your cooldown booster, while also providing employees with a generous source of income that is particularly useful to new players.
| Effects | Cost | Star Rating |
| 50 happiness (50 per jp) | 1 job point | 1* |
| Candy | 2 job points | 3* |
| 1000 happiness (100 per jp) | 10 job points | 5* |
| Can of energy drink ($$$) | 15 job points | 7* |
| 4500 happiness (150 per jp) | 30 job points | 10* |
These specials, coupled with the tiny start-up cost of $1,000,000 and an initial capacity of 4 employees, makes it the most popular company type in Torn, with over 889 Sweet Shops in existence as of March 26th 2020 - in second are Adult Novelties with 686. However, if you look into these figures with a little more depth, you will see a very different story indeed.
At present, there are 48 ten-star Sweet Shops in Torn, with 51 nine-stars, 38 eight-stars, 25 seven-stars, 19 six-stars, and 12 five-stars. Below that, we have 17 four-stars, 14 three-stars, 17 two-stars, and 47 one-star companies, with the rest being inactive. This gives us a total of 288 starred companies out of a total of 889, out of which just 277 are registered as active - Adult Novelties are the most active companies with 425 in operation at present.
These stats indicate that the cheap start-up cost of the Sweet Shop leads many inexperienced directors to try their hand at running one, only to give in when the going gets tough. Nonetheless, 288 Sweet Shops represents a lot of competition, regardless of how savvy you are, and the candy business remains difficult to break into without proper preparation.
One thing you're going to struggle with initially is attracting employees, as due to the manner in which this firm's specials increase in usefulness massively through the ranks, low-star firms often find it hard to attract talent.
"Honestly I don't spend a lot of time looking at other people's sweet shops to recognize their mistakes. I'm too busy running mine! I struggle with employee retention, between activity issues and people leaving to join adult novelty stores. Most players with working stats at the sweet shop level are doing happy jumps using erotic dvds and come to me while looking for somewhere to get their edvds with job points." - Sass [2299647]
Employees
A fully upgraded sweet shop will cost you $4,725,000, will hold 10 employees, and have a warehouse capacity of 100,000 stock items (trust me, you'll need it). However, you'll need to build a solid workforce to get to this point, and as we suggested in the previous section, this is easier said than done due to the nature of the Sweet Shop specials.
Specials one and three become virtually obsolete when any Sweet Shop ranks up to seven-stars, so while a firm above this rank is attractive to employees, those below it simply cannot compete with those on the other side of the divide. Fortunately, the last two specials are some of the best in the game, so if you can grind your way to seven-stars you should be able to stabilize your company.
The stat requirements across the seven positions within sweet shops are unusually low, and since relatively few hold the maximum of 10 employees, most of these positions are rarely used. The vast majority of 10* companies rely on a set up of 2-3 confectionists, 6-7 clerks, and 1 packager. This is because lost cleanliness doesn’t affect your income as much as an extra clerk does, so there is no need for a manager or a cleaner when the company size is limited as it is.
The pay for these employees may vary, but they generally hover around $100k-$150k for employees with 100 to 150% efficiency (double recommended work stats for a position). This does mean that new companies will be running in the red for quite a long time if they wish to rank up quickly. However, the saving grace is that once your company unlocks the seven-star special, you can utilize it to supplement your income as a director, as well as use it as a substitute for a salary for your employees (so they'll work for essentially free).
This one step can turn your income from negative into several millions of dollars every week. Such a feat should be the goal for the majority of directors, but it is easier said than done.
"A key mistake of noob sweet shop directors is the desire to maximize profit instead of reaching 10* status. Some reduce the [advertising budget] to increase profit but this leads to a drop in *, which makes retaining staff more difficult. Investing in a sweet shop is a long-term business [...] It's not for the faint-hearted" - Miggi [2173489]
Pictured: A better time
Advertising
Advertising is one of the most important variables determining your income, and it's one that you can directly influence. The success of your advertising depends on your budget against the budget of other rival companies. It might be tempting to spend millions on advertising in order to speed up the process of ranking up in star ratings, but the rewards have diminishing returns, meaning that eventually, the money spent will have little to no effect on the success of your company. Personally, I'd keep the advertising budget at 600-800k per day.
iHalp, the director of ten-star Sweet Shop Big Sugar, had this to say on the issue: “Don't spend millions on advertising, you'll get to 10* soon enough. It took me roughly 7-8 months from when I bought my [new] sweetshop.”
Cashflow and Sales
On average, the top ten Sweet Shops make $6-8 million per week without including costs and specials (or $2-4m in weekly profit). Don't expect to be earning the big bucks even if you top out at ten-stars. However, the money to be made from cans far outweighs any traditional profits, so Sweet Shops are by no means a small-time venture either.
Here's a quick look at the stock you'll be selling. As you can see, not all stock items are created equal, and the differences become apparent very quickly:
| Stock | Cost | RRP |
|---|---|---|
| Marshmallow Selection | $3 | $50 |
| Boiled Sweet Selection | $4 | $60 |
| Jelly Selection | $5 | $50 |
| Caramel Selection | $5 | $60 |
| Chocolate Selection | $8 | $90 |
| Licorice Selection | $11 | $90 |
| Fudge Selection | $14 | $120 |
Costs of stock aside, these products sell at wildly different rates, with Chocolate being the most profitable by an absurdly large margin. The second and third most popular items are licorice and fudge respectively, with the rest being sold in similar quantities. But chocolate sells like hotcakes laced with cocaine, with 10* Sweet Shops burning through as many as 5,000 units a day.
If owners don't keep good track of their stock levels their sales can drop drastically by as much as 20%, which will take several days to recover from. In addition, shipments of all stocks take 24 hours to be delivered, and those deliveries can only bring what you can already store, so be careful not to store too little of the products you need or too much of the products you don't need! The results of doing so are crippling, and your employees might just leave if you aren't careful, further exacerbating your problems.
The item pricings should be left at or slightly below the recommended retail price for maximum profit while below rank 9, as this will help you rank up faster and maintain your popularity - as we've already suggested, most of your income will come in the form of cans anyway. As long as you maintain a ranking above 7*, you should never run at a loss.
The TCP and TGP stock bonuses will obviously help with your profits, but they are a huge financial investment, with both costing around $476m at the time of writing. It's not a wise decision to buy these stocks for the sole purpose of boosting your Sweet Shop profits. However, if you intend to work as a director for the long term, or you are planning to move to another industry in future, you should be building up your TCP and TGP stocks as early as possible.
"By and large, the mistakes I see [often] are employees not allocated well, ad budgets that are too high, and item pricing that doesn't take advantage of the relevant education." - Muckamuck [1884573]
Pictured: The average consumer
Keffi's 5 Common Mistakes:
#1 Never forget to monitor your employees
"If they have the stats for 150% and are on each day, but lose lightning [bolts], they need to rehab"
#2 Compare with higher up companies
"[Especially with] what roles they applied to their employees. They most likely have it worked out. That's why they are higher up."
#3 Finish your business bachelor
"If you are trying to run a 10* sweetshop without losing money, you should have the TCP and TGP BB and most of the Business management courses."
#4 Once you are 10*
"Try to balance out the advertising budget so that you don't pay more per day than you earn."
#5 if you're on the edge between 10* and 9*
"You need to be on your toes all the time. In case one of the employees is going for an unannounced vacation, be sentimental and keep him till(if) he returns, [and you'll] lose that star."
Summary:
- Fully upgraded sweet shops cost $4,725,000 to start up, while high end 10* sweet shops run for 360-400m
- Competition in this industry is high, and for good reason!
- Keep your prices at RRP and pay attention to your item stock (particularly chocolate).
- As long as you maintain a ranking above 7*, you'll never run at a loss.
- Get your Edu + Stock BBs if possible, they'll make your life easier.
SHARE YOUR COMPANY INSIGHTS
If you have knowledge of how to set up and run a successful company and you'd like to write a Company Insights article, please make yourself known to Sugarvalves by dropping him a message today.
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