Build and Conquer Supermarket vs Mall: Same-Recording Comparison

Which values can be compared fairly?

Both panels below come from IIlias_speeddyyy’s September 30 recording, a few frames apart. They supply a consistent recording context, not a guarantee of current balance.

Attribute	Strip Mall	Large Supermarket
Quoted price	$3,424	$4,128
Construction time	24 seconds	24 seconds
Income per pay cycle	$200	$260
Upkeep per pay cycle	$8	$12
Listed income minus upkeep	$192	$248
Citizens served	75	100
Happiness label	+25	+32
Energy	20	20
Water / road distance	Required / 4 studs	Required / 4 studs
Printed city gate	Level 2, 500 population	Level 3, 5,000 population
Workers	3 tooltip / 8 sidebar	5

IIlias_speeddyyy, September 30, 2026, 0:09; checked October 15. Game imagery © The Slop Company.

IIlias_speeddyyy, September 30, 2026, 0:10; checked October 15. Game imagery © The Slop Company.

Which choice fits your current city?

At the recorded level-2 gate, Strip Mall is the eligible option of these two. A better income label cannot bypass Supermarket’s level-3 condition. Read the full current city requirements before planning either purchase.

When both are eligible and supplied, Supermarket costs $704 more and has $56 more listed margin per pay cycle. It serves 25 more citizens and uses the same displayed energy. This supports a conditional preference for higher listed margin per building or per unit of energy. It does not prove a smaller physical footprint or identical customer demand.

Dividing the historical quote by the listed margin gives approximately 17.83 pay cycles for Mall and 16.65 for Supermarket. These are simple quote-to-margin ratios, not measured payback times. They exclude utility infrastructure, staffing, construction delay and any difference between printed and actual income. No real-time duration is assumed for a pay cycle.

Why is there no worker-efficiency winner?

The mall tooltip prints three workers while its sidebar prints eight. Selecting either number would change an income-per-worker ranking, so the comparison leaves that result unknown. The same-record Supermarket panel consistently shows five workers. The separate September 29 Supermarket frame has different quote, staffing and upkeep; its $2,640 quote, eight workers and $10 upkeep must not be substituted into this table.

The building comparison tool uses separate recording datasets and leaves missing inputs uncalculated. It can compare this retail pair’s supported price and operating fields; it cannot resolve a disagreement in the game’s recorded interface.

Where should you go next?

• mall
• supermarket
• building comparison