Have you ever wanted to own your own supermarket or storefront? What about simply working in one? Well, now you can live the dream without having to fork over your entire life savings or really any risk at all, thanks to the Supermarket Simulator, which is currently available on the Steam platform.

If you aren't familiar, Steam is a gaming platform for the PC that allows you to buy and download games to play. As for the Supermarket Simulator, it's an early access game, which means the developer is constantly improving and updating it as you play along.

The downside is that if there's bugs or glitches, you have to wait for them to be patched, and being an early access game, it's bound to have some issues periodically as you play along; in fact, there's been many, but thankfully the developer is usually right on it.

The concept of the game is pretty straightforward: you have to buy products from the distributor, place them however you like inside your store, and decide what the markup should be. As you progress, you will be able to buy expansions to the store and upgrades. Most importantly, the money you earn can be used to purchase product licenses so you can obtain and sell better-quality stuff that your customers actually want.

As you can see, my store level is currently 75, almost 76, so I have definitely put a fair amount of time into this game. I currently have three checkers and two stockers, but I often find myself playing the role of stocker as well. When you first start playing the game, I recommend you take full advantage of the bank loans. If you can, do all three at the same time. This will allow you to rapidly build up the store and earn maximum income on your return investment.

The most recent update provided stockers to restock the shelves for you. It actually saves you a lot of time, as you can only grab one box at a time and must frequently travel back and forth between the shelves and the storage area. Of course, the storage is an additional upgrade, for which you currently have to stock yourself so that your stockers can restock the shelves.

Again, it's an early access game, so it's kind of rough around the edges, but for the most part, being what it is, it's a fun game to play, but it can become rather repetitive, much like managing a real-life store, I would imagine. The more upgrades you obtain, the higher each additional upgrade costs. Although product license costs are based on store level at the moment, it's definitely very different from driving a virtual truck around.

The virtual characters who come and patronize your store don't talk or anything; they simply enter, grab what they need, pay, and leave as quickly as they appeared. Most of the characters are duplicates, and it's common to have multiples of the same type in the store at the same time.

Overall, it's a decent game; it satisfies my OCD urges and allows me to use my math skills when budgeting. It's by no means a perfect product, but it's still being built, so who knows what it will look like in a year? My only real gripe is that it's not quite as immersive as I would like, although, to be fair, its premise delivers exactly what it's built to, and one can fulfill their dream of operating a storefront virtually.