Discounty

I’ve spent most of my adult years working in retail. Not because I can’t find any better job – I did get a degree in communications later in life – but because I actively enjoy doing this kind of work. I’ve run my own video rental store, and I’ve worked in a massive sports goods shop, but my favourite of all these jobs has to be working in a supermarket. It’s a job that gets massively looked down upon, but there’s so much joy to be found in helping out people who are shopping, managing to get your store looking perfect, being active for an entire day, … It’s the reason why I just gave up my most recent desk job and am going back to work in another supermarket.

So when I first heard about Discounty, you can imagine my enthusiasm. I enjoy games like farming sims a lot, so combining that type of gameplay with actually running my own store? Sign. Me. Up. The trailers looked promising before release, with the messy reality of running a shop being very apparent: unsatisfied customers, running out of products – it’s all there. But surely, with my own experiences in the field, I could make this work to the best of my ability?

The game starts with you moving to Blomkest, where your aunt runs the local supermarket. She’s just upgraded to become a part of the Discounty brand and needs you to make the shop work. You start out small, with only a handful of products and not too many customers, but it’s the perfect setup to get you comfortable with how the game functions. You order products from Guy’s Deliveries, put them in your stock room, and then make sure you have enough of them on your shelves during the day. When customers come to the register, you figure out how much each item is and ring them up.

So far, so good. But despite Blomkest being a quaint little town, there’s loads of drama to deal with. You first encounter trouble when you’re going out to meet townsfolk to make trade deals with them. Not everyone is excited about your arrival and your plans – well, your aunt’s plans – to make the shop as successful as it can be. Eventually, you do manage to strike some deals, and you get extra items to stock in return, whether that’s fish from the local fisherman or oats from the local farmer.

While you’re working hard to get expansions for your shop going, you’ll get to know these townsfolk a bit better, as you find that the town of Blomkest is a pretty broken community. History has not been kind to this place, and the people that still live here are struggling to make ends meet, all in their own ways. But as always, life finds a way, and they all do their best to make things work.

Getting to know your neighbours’ stories happens gradually, and all the while, you are trying to turn Discounty into the best shop it can be. Through a rewards system, where you’ll have to meet certain conditions to unlock points, you’ll be able to expand the number of items you can put up for sale. The local craftsman also doesn’t just make shelves and coolers for your shop but will sell items that boost sales from time to time as well. It’s up to you to find a way to fit everything into your store and make sure that you always have enough stock to let people be happy when they’ve bought their groceries.

If you thought this would just be a simple cosy shop sim, then you’re in for a surprise. Your aunt wants to make Discounty into her own business empire, caring very little for the effects this might have on the other people in town. One day, she’ll just fire your only co-worker; the next, she’ll be pushing to buy the empty tea shop next door to expand the shop’s grounds. But with you as the public face of the store, you’ll be the one facing all of the opposition.

In the meantime, strange occurrences keep happening across town as well. The harbour’s water turns a colour it’s not supposed to be, rats keep appearing all across town, and there’s a pretty dense fog spreading across the woods that may or may not be caused by the local plastics factory. Oh, and there might be a supernatural being haunting the local farm. Unlike most sims like these, life can change quite drastically on a daily basis in Blomkest, which makes the town feel very alive.

The other side of that coin is that the game’s playability only lasts as long as the story does. There’s a clear goal that needs to be reached, and then the game is over. Yes, you can keep on playing after the credits roll, especially if you really want to 100% the game and complete everyone’s story arcs, but once that’s done, there’s no reason to keep playing like you would in something like Stardew Valley. Your shop won’t get any bigger, there won’t be any new stories to trigger, and everything will just become a loop.

But don’t let that stop you from playing this game, though! Discounty is an absolute blast, and you’ll have plenty of fun during your 15-ish hours with it. The writing is superb, with all of the game’s cast being incredibly messy human beings, yourself included. While your time outside of your shop will be limited, the game never gets too much, and you’ll always find the time to do everything you want, whether it’s getting those trade deals done or just talking to your neighbours.

And the real star of the game, the actual running of your shop, is absolutely brilliant. Time runs just a little faster than usual while you’re working, and you’ll find that your workdays are non-stop, from adding products to shelves to helping your customers at the till. Just wait until you have the scanner upgrade, helping you to ring up customers even faster! It’s such a joy, and it beautifully portrays why I love working in retail so much.