It’s not easy to make money in Retro Rewind, especially when you’re just starting with your rental store. At first, you’ll likely only make about $200 a day, and if you want to raise that number, you have to put in a bit of effort and be ready to grind.
While the best route to take early on is leveling so you unlock more genres and snack stations, there are ways to encourage customers to spend more money renting movies and buying snacks in the process.
Movie Rentals are your Foundation
No matter what strategy you try to use, movie rentals are going to make up the majority of your income. This means you want to keep as many movies on your shelves as you can at all times, which can be difficult when you have a limited supply of movies at the beginning and don’t want to waste your money on only movies and shelves.
In practice, this means that you want to use the Return Station and get movies back on the shelves as often as you can. I like to swap over to it when the customers in the store are currently browsing, letting me put a few movies back on the shelf before they come to the cash register. Once you have an employee hired at Level 6, you can have them work the register or returns.
Additionally, you want to buy new movies at release and get five of them for the free decoration, which increases your rentals. You can track new movies using the calendar in your office, which also lets you know when events are happening that boost the rentals for specific genres. Use these to plan which movies you purchase and when.
Movies can be returned late or broken, both of which automatically add a fee to that customer’s account. The fee is charged the next time they rent a movie. Some customers have an issue with the fee and ask to avoid paying it. You can waive it, but the broken tape fee is $20, which lets you replace the broken movie. The biggest risk is that the customer will refuse to pay and storm out of the shop.
Snacks Have a High Profit Margin
Snacks, such as chips and candy that go on shelves and the concessions behind the register, have huge profit margins. As an example, some chocolate bars cost you $0.50 to stock, but you then sell them for $2.00 each. Then, concessions don’t cost you each time you use them, and you instead pay a one-time fee to repair that station, which usually costs $50.
While you want to keep your snacks stocked up, you simply won’t sell as many of them as you will rentals. So, it’s a nice bonus to have, but you need to focus on movies for your main money source.
Decorations Encourage Sales
Handing out flyers can apparently bring customers in, too, but I don’t seem to have luck with that. Alternatively, I’ve seen my rental sales increase when I started placing decorations in my store, which is the purpose of decorations in Retro Rewind. You don’t need to spend a lot on decorations.
First, start with small decorations like the welcome mat and some posters. Then, you can add to your collection over time, especially if you buy new movies in groups of five, because you get a free cardboard stand poster for the movie to place in your store.
In the end, the best way to make money in Retro Rewind is focusing on movie rentals, which are going to be your biggest seller. Then, you supplement the rentals by placing decorations to increase sales, selling snacks, and selling copies of movies that aren’t being rented as much anymore on the side.
