Back in February, Supermarket Simulator came out in early access and laid down the format for this year's crop of budget indie streamer games. Turns out, if you take all the effort out of actually doing a mundane job it becomes a relaxing thing to watch someone else do, or to do yourself while listening to a podcast. The shop sims of 2024 make restocking shelves a cinch—you hold down a button and items fly out of boxes in perfect arcs—then transform working the till into a quick clickfrenzy of counting change and entering amounts for people who pay by card. They're simple brain-off fun.
But I used to work at a supermarket, so deleting the economic precarity from my years on Struggle Street rubs me the wrong way. I never worked at a game shop though, which is why I'm fine with turning that into a silly game. Watch your head, I need room to wave my double standard around in here.
