Running a Shop

Overview

Romans did not cook much because they had wooden buildings, and they often bought hot food from take away stalls (called thermopolium).

Demo

There is no demo for the Shop activity

User Guide (full version)

Running a shop is a role-playing simulation in which children run a take away stall, selling different types of pizza, to make as much money as possible. The simulation runs for one week, and on each day of the week children need to select the amount of stock to buy, and at citizen and senator level, the selling price of each item.

 

 

 

The takeaway stall sells 2, 3 or 4 different types of pizza at slave, citizen and senator level respectively.

 

Using the activity

For each day, there are the following parts:

• Buying stock and setting prices
• The Simulation
• Showing Results

Buying stock

At the slave level you only need to set the quantity of each pizza to buy. At the other levels, the selling price needs to be set as well.

 

To set a quantity or selling price, click on the number you wish to change (or press return a number of times to tab through the fields) and the number will be highlighted. The new value can then be typed in. At the bottom of the screen, the amount of money you had to start with, and the cost so far, are displayed.

 

A done icon will appear when you have selected to buy at least one pizza. Clicking this will cause a summary to be shown, and you will be asked to confirm the choices you have made. If you did not have enough money, a warning will be displayed and you will be returned to the buying stock screen.

 

 

 

Simulation

If you can afford the choices you have made, the simulation will run, showing people who have purchased food from your thermopolium, before the results of the day’s sales are shown.

 

 

 

Results

The program will show a screen displaying the number of each type of pizza sold in the form of a block graph.

 

 

 

Clicking the mouse will continue onto a profit/loss statement in the form:

 

 

 

 

When the results are shown, clicking on the help icon will give an analysis of the figures.

 

The simulation will run for seven days. The reward will depend on the amount of money you make, and to receive the biggest reward, you do need to take some tough decisions! If you do not receive a historical item, you can always try again!

Hints!

 

Well done if you have made a profit today! If you have not, try again tomorrow.

 

For the first few days (at least) you will not have sufficient stock to meet demand, so buy as many as you can, and at Citizen or Senator levels, increase the prices!

 

If you bought more of something than you sold today - try reducing the price.

 

If you have sold out of anything, buy more tomorrow, and increase the price slightly!

 

If you have less money at the end of the day than when you started, (and the value of the stock has increased (on the day): try reducing your prices tomorrow, or buy less stock.