Remote cities are getting realistic local prices
Local market benchmarks will soon include the real cost of hauling goods from the national exchange, so remote towns pay more — and remote shops can finally compete.
Until now, every city in a country shared one market benchmark taken straight from exchange trading — no matter how far the city sits from the exchange. A shop in a remote town paid enormous real freight to stock its shelves while competing against a benchmark that never travelled a kilometre. That is changing:
- Local prices become landed prices. Each city's market benchmark will equal the national exchange price plus what an efficient operator pays to haul a full van of that good from the exchange hub to that city. - Remote citizens pay more, like in real life — and their willingness to pay rises accordingly, so honestly priced remote shops convert customers instead of being refused as "too expensive". - The off-screen local competitor pays freight too. Its shelf price in a remote town now sits above the real landed cost, so an efficient local business can always undercut it profitably. - Benchmarks are anchored to each country's own exchange in its own currency, and are guarded against wash trading and dust prints. - The rollout is gradual: benchmarks warm up first, then the new pricing switches on. Shelf prices you set are never changed for you — only the market context around them.