Polish Shopper

Polish Shopper

Saturday, 20:52. The store closes at nine, tomorrow is a no-shopping Sunday, and your list is long. Push a trolley through a crowded Polish store, find everything on it, pay, and get out before closing time.

Coming to Google Play How a level goes
  • Android 7+
  • Phones, tablets, Android TV
  • 30 levels in 4 store chains
  • 15 mini-games
  • Plays without internet
  • No ads, no accounts
  • 16 languages

Eight minutes to closing time

Every level is one shopping trip against the store clock, which runs from 20:52 to 21:00. Still inside when it gets there, and the store is closed. In Poland most Sundays are no-shopping days, so there is no coming back tomorrow.

  1. Start outside. At the corner shop you walk in from the street and take a basket by the door. At the bigger stores you come by bike or by car, and the first stop is the trolley shelter.
  2. Work through the list. Every product on it floats over its own shelf in a yellow halo: stop beside it until the ring fills. Arrows at the edge of the screen point to the departments you still need, and some products ask for a short mini-game first.
  3. Pick a line. The shortest one is not always the fastest. A bar over each shopper shows how full their basket is, a coupon tag adds six seconds at the till and a pile of coins four. In the bigger stores a self-checkout is the other way out, if you scan well. Then tap your card while the terminal's marker is on green.
  4. Get out, then pack up. The clock stops at the door. Load the shopping into the boot or onto the bike, take the trolley back and walk to where you started. Up to three stars, for the time you had to spare.

Shopping list 1/6

  • ✓ Kefir → Dairy
  • • Bread rolls → Bakery · with tongs
  • • Frozen pierogi → Frozen food · freezer
  • • Apples → Fruit & veg (to weigh)
  • • Sausage → Meat & deli · ticket
  • • Water → Drinks · heavy!
A supermarket list, drawn the way the game draws it. The note after a product says what waits at its shelf: tongs at the bread bin, a dig in the freezer, the scale, a ticket for the deli counter, a pack of water to lift.

Four chains, thirty levels

The campaign moves through four store chains, and every level is another branch. Stars open the next chain, and within a chain each win opens the next level. Every attempt deals a fresh list, and the game remembers what it asked for lately, so a retry is not the same shop twice.

  1. Krysia's corner shops

    Levels 1 to 6 · lists of 3 to 5 · up to 6 shoppers

    One counter, baskets instead of trolleys, a handful of customers. The first level teaches the controls a line at a time, then come customers, pallets, puddles and the first mini-games.

  2. Penny Wise discount stores

    Levels 7 to 14 · lists of 5 to 8 · up to 26 shoppers

    You come by bike and take a trolley. Tight aisles full of pallets, abandoned trolleys, tills that open, close or stop for a new receipt roll, and the first self-checkouts.

  3. The Basket supermarkets

    Levels 15 to 22 · lists of 8 to 11 · up to 36 shoppers

    By car now. Three staffed tills and four self-checkouts, fruit and veg you weigh yourself, a deli counter that works on tickets, neighbours who stop to chat, pallet jacks, restocking and sales.

  4. Big Cart hypermarkets

    Levels 23 to 30 · lists of 12 to 15 · up to 40 shoppers

    All of it at once in the biggest stores, plus products running out and a lorry delivery that sends one pallet jack after another into the aisles. Level 30 has the longest list in the game.

The chains are made up, and so are their names in every language: Grosz do Grosza is Penny Wise in English and Pfennigfuchs in German. The loudspeakers keep talking between the hazards. Krystyna is wanted at checkout three, Zenek is sent to the drinks aisle with a mop, and half a minute before nine everyone is asked to head for the tills.

Screenshots

Click a screenshot to make it larger.

  • The car park of a hypermarket at the start of a level, the trolley shelter marked by a yellow ring
    Level 24 starts on the car park of a Big Cart hypermarket. Twelve things on the list, and before any of them, a trolley from the shelter.
  • A supermarket with the shopping list on screen, a product floating over its shelf and arrows to departments
    Level 19, a Basket supermarket, 45 seconds in. Four of eleven done. The sunflower oil is marked on its shelf, and the arrows along the bottom lead to the rest.
  • A worker pushing a pallet through the aisles of a busy supermarket
    Level 20. A pallet jack is working its way through the aisles and knocks aside any trolley in its path. The bottle on the list faces the aisle behind its shelf, so its marker says REAR AISLE.
  • Three open tills with lines of shoppers, and the player's shopping going through the scanner
    Level 10, a Penny Wise discount store. The list is done, the open tills' lanes pulse, and the ring over your trolley fills as each item goes through the scanner. A red cross marks a closed till.
  • The store chain menu with the stars earned in each chain
    Stars open the chains. This save has the corner shops done and the supermarkets just begun.
  • Main menu
    The main menu. How to Play is a guide of seven short pages, and Hazard Cards keeps every card you have met.

The chaos plays fair

Anything that happens during a level is announced at least a second ahead, with a bubble over the spot and a pulsing ring on the floor. Each hazard has an answer: go round it, push it aside or wait it out. None of them is allowed to cut you off from a product on your list or from the last open till. The first time one turns up, a card explains it in a sentence and adds a tip, and every card you have met stays in the menu.

In the aisles

  • Pallets of stockStacks of crates at the shelf ends and in front of the tills. There is no way through, and ramming one bounces you off.
  • Spilled waterHit a puddle at speed and you skid. At top speed you fall over. New ones appear while you shop.
  • CustomersThey stop at shelves and in the middle of aisles. Keep pushing and they hear "Excuse me!" and step aside, unless they are queuing.
  • Abandoned cartsLeft in the aisles, even while you shop. Lean on one for a second to shift it a tile.
  • Dropped jarA shopper wobbling at a shelf is about to drop something, and the puddle stays.
  • Running childFast and all over the place. Hit it at speed and the trolley stops dead; slow down and you get past.
  • NeighboursTwo of them meet right in your way and talk for a while. "Excuse me" does nothing, and the shrinking bubbles show how long they have left.
  • Pallet jackBeeping and orange arrows on the floor mark its route before it sets off. Sometimes it leaves the pallet behind.
  • DeliveryA lorry backs up to the warehouse, and one pallet jack after another comes out of the gate.

On the shelves

  • RestockingCrates cover the shelf with your product while a worker fills it. A countdown on the marker says how long.
  • SALE!Half price in one department, and every shopper nearby rushes there. Keep out of the orange zone until they leave.
  • Out of stockA red cross on a marker means grab it now. Miss it and the list gets a substitute, sometimes in another department.
  • Rearranged storeSome departments have moved since your last visit. The signs and arrows are always right; your memory is not.

In your trolley

  • A text from home"Oh, and butter!" One more thing on the list, and a few more seconds on the clock.
  • Glass in the trolleyKefir and juice come in glass, and a hard knock can break a bottle. Back to the shelf for another.
  • Spilled shoppingA fall can tip out one product, half of them or the lot. They wait on the floor nearby to be picked up again.

At the tills

  • Checkout chaosTills open and close, and a cashier changing the receipt roll serves nobody. At a newly opened till, whoever gets there first is first.
  • The cashier carries the basketsWhen the pile of baskets by a till gets big enough, the cashier walks it back to the entrance, and that line waits.
  • Self-checkoutScan each product as it crosses the red line, and deal with the unexpected item in the bagging area at once.
  • Weighing fruit and vegIn the bigger stores you weigh them yourself. Without a sticker from the scale, the cashier sends you back.

Fifteen mini-games

Some products need a moment of handwork before they go into the trolley, and a few surprises find you on the way or at the till. Each one shows its own controls for touch, a gamepad or a keyboard. The store clock keeps running, and a mistake costs only time.

The high shelf mini-game: a hand reaching for a product on the top shelf, with a balance needle and a strip for the finger
Level 4, the high shelf on a phone. Keep a finger on the strip and slide it against the sway to hold the needle in the green.
The catch the tins mini-game: two hands under falling tins
Level 9, a tin display brushed at speed. The hands follow a finger along the strip, and every tin they miss has to be picked up.

At the shelf

  • High shelfOn tiptoe for the top shelf. Hold to reach, counter the sway, catch whatever falls.
  • Produce bagThe bag off the roll will not open. Rub it at a steady pace, or it tears.
  • Reach for the fresh one!Steer your hand through six gaps between the goods to the fresh product.
  • FreezerThe pack you want is always at the bottom of the pile, and your hand gets colder the longer you dig.
  • Pack of waterSix bottles need a good swing to lift, and the trolley stays heavy for the rest of the level.
  • Bread with tongsPick the right roll out of the bin. Grab it off centre and it rolls away.
  • Deli counterTake a ticket, shop while you wait, and say "That's enough!" when the scale reaches the green.
  • Pallet mazeLeave the trolley and find a way between the pallets to the product and back.

On the way

  • Wonky wheelEvery trolley in Poland has one. Steer against the pull, or stop and kick it.
  • ShoelaceNo trouble until you go fast. Stop and tie it: the directions in order.
  • Catch the tins!Brush a tin display at speed and it all comes down.
  • Helping outAn elderly lady cannot reach the top shelf. Help her, and her coupon gets you served twice as fast.
  • TastingA sausage stand. One quick bite, and the trolley is faster for twenty seconds.

At the till

  • Packing at the tillHeavy first, delicate last. Anything crushed is swapped for a new one, on the clock.
  • Cash onlyOne till's card terminal is down. Pay the exact sum from your wallet.

What stars unlock

A level pays one to three stars for the time left when you get out, 90 in the whole campaign. Along the way they earn fourteen achievements, small advantages that stay on for good. Time limits are set without them, so an achievement makes a level easier, never shorter.

Stars also unlock looks, which are only for show: five more trolley colours, from gold to rust, and five more looks for your shopper. All of them keep the blue dungarees, so you can still pick yourself out of a crowd.

Details

Privacy
No ads or accounts, and it plays without internet. Privacy policy
Controls
Hold a finger anywhere on the store and slide it: a stick appears under it. The pause button, top left, stops the clock and everything in the store and shows your whole list. A gamepad or a keyboard works too, with buttons and keys you can reassign. On Android TV, play with a gamepad: the remote gets you through the menus, not through every mini-game.
Learning
The first level teaches the basics a line at a time, How to Play covers the rest, and a card explains every hazard and mini-game the first time it turns up. The tutorial, the guide and the cards switch off together.
Options
Master, music and effects volume, and mute; the full shopping list on screen or just its counter, the counter being the default on phones; department labels over the shelves; camera shake; and clearing your progress to start the campaign over.
Languages
Sixteen, matched to the device on first launch: English, Čeština, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, Español, Français, Magyar, Italiano, Nederlands, Polski, Português (pt-BR), Română, Русский, Svenska, Türkçe, Українська.
Devices
Android 7.0 or newer, in landscape: phones, tablets, and Android TV with a gamepad. Current version 1.0.0.

Get it

Polish Shopper is coming to Google Play for Android phones, tablets and Android TV. The store link goes here as soon as the listing is live.

Questions about the game or its privacy policy: google@tomaszd.eu