Shops Comparison

Food
Food objects are provided by buildings such as the Farm, Bakery, Field, Convenience Store, Protein Factory, and Organic Grocer. They are the earliest items which can be made, and possess the highest amount of demand.

For a high daily income the player can build bakeries first as those give a high gold profit and don't drain the food demand much. The bakeries can be replaced by convenience stores later at a higher level to maximize profit. As an added bonus both of those building types profit a lot from decorations.

If the player wants a lot of and  at low level and is able to play continuously for a length of time harvesting cabbage every 5 minutes in a few farms helps to level up quickly.

Tools
Tools are made at the Tool Shop, Machine Shop and the Research Lab. The Machine Shop is a good XP/Wkr/Hr upgrade from the Tool Shop however if the player sells his tool shops he may have to rebuild them now and then (taking 10 minutes) to complete missions.

The Machine Shop is surpassed at level 61 by the non demand shop Solar Power Plant in XP/Wkr/Hr for most durations, even if the Machine Shop has a blue arrow. Only the 2 and 4 hour jobs with blue arrows give a bit higher XP/Wkr/Hr, but only for a short duration.

Spice
Spices are provided only by the Greenhouse. Demand should be managed closely when using more than one at lower levels.

Meat
Meat is provided through the Raptor Ranch, Boar Pen, Sandworm Ranch, Frontier Butcher and the Cannery and the nanopods costing Mammoth Pen and Ramsey's BBQ.

The Boar Pen is a good upgrade in XP/Wkr/hr compared to the Raptor Ranch and gives about the same as the later nanopods costing Mammoth Pen. The Sandworm Ranch gives even more more XP/Wkr/hr then the previous mentioned for all jobs below 24 hours. And the Frontier Butcher is the best non nanopod XP/Wkr/hr meat demand shop there is. The best including nanopod shops is the Ramsey's BBQ by far.

When going for income, the Sandworm Ranch is excellent, but the Cannery is a good second as not only does it give excellent rewards on it's own, it also profits from better decorations to boost the income. Finally the cannery doesn't require the heavy 20 building cost.

Drink
Drinks are produced in the Hall of Remembrance, Distillery and Water Filtering Plant, the nanos costing building Brewery, Cocktail Lounge and also in the time limited Ice Factory and meet their own special Demand category. Breweries and Cocktail Lounges have a fairly significant edge on the non nanopod buildings from an XP perspective, however the player will need the Distillery and Water Filtering Plant to complete a lot of missions.

Goods
Goods are provided by the Sweatshop, Uniform Factory and Orphanage and the costing buildings Plantation and Recycling Plant.

The Sweatshop gives around half the XP/Wkr/Hr the Uniform Factory gives. The Plantation beats both but costs 70 to build and differs from the two shops previously mentioned in that it receives it's bonuses from agricultural boosts like the farm and the field and can be build earlier then both at level 18. The Orphanage, unlocked at level 49, has even better rewards XP/Wkr/Hr goods demand shop for most job durations, the highest from all non nanopods good shops, but the jobs cost gold to complete. Only the Recycling Plant, costing 120, gives even better rewards, namely over +50% more XP and rewarding gold for each task.

When going for a high gold income, the sweatshops give the best MGP/Wkr/Hr from all the non shops. However the costing buildings are far superior, certainly the Recycling Plant is the best here as well.

Security
There are 3 non time limited shops for Security, Ramsey's Workout Emporium, the Home Security Store and the  costing Home Defense Expo. There is also time limited reward shop Fireworks Stand but that one is not available to all players any more.

The Home Defense Expo is a good buy in the game in terms of XP value compared to cost. The 24-hour job is always a blue arrow item (not reflected in the calculations as the amount of bonus varies) in addition to usually 1 other item, which makes it unique compared to other shops. The player can buy 6 Expos for the same price as a single Organic Grocer. If the player is planning to buy more than one or two it really helps if the player understands how demand works and knows how to manage it. If the player does, this shop will generate an enormous amount of XP.

Non-Demand Shops
The shops in this category don't use up any demand but also can't have a demand (blue arrow) bonus.

The Durian Orchard has a good XP output compared to many other buildings at that level, but costs 5 of the rare which the player might want to save for a Hacienda later on. The Dragonfruit, Breadfruit and Rambutan Orchards are probably not worth it to buy for the XP rewards only. The Banana Stand gives decent XP/Wkr/Hr at the level it becomes available, and it can be a good investment for XP if the player is out of demand a lot. While it is rather expensive to build, it has the bonus that the player can sell it off later and get most of the gold invested in it back. The Solar Power Plant gives the most XP/Wkr/Hr of all the regular non-demand shops, can be build more than once, and gives more XP/Wkr/Hr compared to a lot of Demand buildings. The Fireworks Pile, when fully upgraded gives by far the most XP/Wkr/Hr but was a time limited building and takes a lot of gold to fully upgrade.

Shops Compared By XP Output
Notes:
 * Clicking the arrows in the column headings allows you to sort the table by that category.
 * The last two columns present averages (XP per hour, and XP per worker per hour). Results may vary depending on the player's attentiveness to the shop.

XP Strategy
This strategy section is aimed for players trying to maximize their XP output. To do this requires multiple check-ins per day as it is important to max out your production jobs within each demand category.

Choosing the Right Shops
The most important thing to do is to have the highest XP output shop in each category that the player is able to build or afford in the case of shops. To determine the best shop in each category, the player can refer to the efficiency tables at the top of this page. The important column for comparison is XP/Wkr/Hr. To maximize XP/Wkr/Hr income the player can turn off military buildings and/or resource nodes and put the population to work in the XP generating buildings.

This is the order of shops in each category from lowest to highest XP/Wkr/Hr.


 * Food - Bakery < Farm < Field < Convenience Store < Protein Factory < Organic Grocer
 * Tools - Tool Shop < Machine Shop < Zoey's Tool Shop < Research Lab
 * Meat - Raptor Ranch < Boar Pen/Mammoth Pen (both are roughly equal) < Sandworm Ranch < Frontier Butcher < Ramsey's BBQ < Legendary Mammoth Pen (unavailable after 2.8)
 * Spices - Greenhouse
 * Drink - Hall of Remembrance < Distillery/Ice Factory < Brewery < Water Filtering Plant < Cocktail Lounge
 * Goods - Sweatshop < Uniform Factory < Plantation < Orphanage < Recycling Plant
 * Security - Home Security Store < Ramsey's Workout Emporium < Home Defense Expo

If the player is not yet at the maximum level the player will likely want to keep around lower XP shops as those are needed for missions. Once the player completes all of the missions, you can demolish those to build better shops. The player can always rebuild demolished shops if those are needed again for a mission.

Gold Strategy
This strategy section is aimed for players trying to maximize their Gold output, players often will want this if they don't want to level up to quickly so the unit ranks can keep up or on alt accounts so those can have a lot of gold without having to do a lot of fights. Upgrading the shops to level 4/5 quickly helps a lot in the gold income as does logging in a few times a day to collect the rewards and set up new jobs.

Choosing the Right Shops
The most important thing to do is to have the highest output shop in each category that the player is able to build or afford in the case of  shops. To determine the best shop in each category, the player can refer to the efficiency tables at the top of this page. The important column for comparison is MGP/Wkr/Hr. To maximize MGP/Wkr/Hr income the player can turn off military buildings and/or resource nodes and put the population to work in the Gold generating buildings.

For a good gold income non nano players can start at low level (<25) with a lot of Bakeries (up to 12) combined with 2 Tool Shops, 2 Raptor Ranches and a Distillery and Sweatshop (doesn't need to be precise this amount it's a general indication). As soon as more concrete is available (generally at higher levels) the player can build Sandworm Ranches, replace the bakeries with Convenience Stores and get more of the higher level gold income buildings listed below. Another important thing to note for gold income is to start replacing your houses with Modern Duplex as soon as enough Concrete and Steel is available and replace those with Suburban House when there is enough prestige. Those houses in larger amounts give a substantial boost to the shop income. For everything it almost goes without saying that players get the most out of it, if they build decorations that boost the gold income of the buildings as the example shown on the right.

This is the recommended order of shops in each category from lowest to highest MGP/Wkr/Hr.


 * Food - Bakery < Convenience Store
 * Tools - Tool Shop < Machine Shop < Research Lab
 * Meat - Raptor Ranch < Cannery < Sandworm Ranch
 * Spices - Greenhouse
 * Drink - Hall of Remembrance < Distillery/Ice Factory < Water Filtering Plant
 * Goods - Orphanage < Uniform Factory < Sweatshop < Plantation < Recycling Plant
 * Security - Ramsey's Workout Emporium < Home Security Store < Home Defense Expo