Store & Store Types

What your store represents, and how store types set the baseline constraints and costs that drive your results.

What is a Store?

A Store is your pizza business configuration for a specific class.
It's the baseline reality the simulation uses when turning your decisions into outcomes.
You set up your store once at the start; week-to-week decisions happen later through submissions.

A Store Type is a preset that defines how your store "works" behind the scenes (space, costs, efficiency).
Two students can make the same decisions but get different outcomes if their store types are different.
A store type is not about being "better" or "worse" — it changes the tradeoffs you face.

SCALE tracks inventory in three buckets, measured in units (see "What is a Unit?").
Refrigerated: cold ingredients (cheese, meat, produce).
Ambient: shelf-stable ingredients (flour, sauce base, spices).
Operating supply: boxes, napkins, gloves (sometimes shown as "not for resale").

Capacity units: how many units you can store (hard limit).
Starting units: how many units you begin with (your starting inventory).
Goods per unit: how many products 1 unit can support (your yield/efficiency).
Avg unit cost: what you pay to buy 1 unit (your purchasing cost).
Holding cost per unit: cost of keeping 1 unit on hand (inventory carrying/spoilage pressure).

Capacity changes your ceiling: low capacity means you can't stockpile; high capacity means you can buffer uncertainty.
Starting units change your first week: more starting inventory means you can sell immediately without ordering as much.
Goods per unit changes how fast you burn inventory: higher goods per unit means each unit lasts longer.
Avg unit cost changes your margins: higher costs reduce profit unless you also have higher pricing or better efficiency.
Holding cost changes the penalty for over-ordering: high holding costs make extra inventory expensive.

Many store types share the same base selling price, but some adjust it (e.g., fine dining charges more; street carts charge less).
Your actual outcomes can also depend on scenario + your decisions, but store type sets the default starting point.

Street cart: tiny refrigerated capacity (20) and low starting refrigerated units (12), but higher refrigerated goods per unit (3.2). This makes cold space the bottleneck and rewards tight inventory discipline.
Fine dining: very expensive refrigerated units (avg cost 18) and high holding costs (1.5), plus lower refrigerated goods per unit (1.8). This makes premium ingredients costly and efficiency harder, but pricing is higher.
Franchise location: high capacities (refrigerated 80 / ambient 110) with lower unit costs (refrigerated 8.5 / ambient 3.8). This makes scaling easier and margins steadier.
Campus kiosk: higher ambient capacity (100) and strong operating supply starting stock (55). This tends to support steady volume with fewer "ran out of boxes" surprises.
Festival vendor: very high ambient (120) and operating supply (110) capacity. This supports bursts of demand, but you still need to manage cold-chain constraints.

If refrigerated goods per unit = 2.5, then each pizza uses 1 / 2.5 = 0.4 refrigerated units.
If you sell 80 products, refrigerated used is 80 / 2.5 = 32 units (and you also consume ambient + operating supply units).
So a store type with higher goods per unit can stretch the same inventory further, even with the same demand.

Your store type sets your baseline constraints and costs (capacity, starting inventory, yield, and carrying costs), and your weekly decisions operate inside those constraints.