lemonade-stand game sourced
Lemonade Stand
A 1973 educational business sim in which the player runs a lemonade stand for 12 days, setting glasses made, advertising signs, and price against a daily weather report.
core loop
read the weather report -> choose glasses to make, signs to buy, and price per glass -> demand resolves into sales -> profit or a storm loss -> reinvest the next day
design notes
Lemonade Stand reduces a business to three daily inputs (glasses made, advertising signs, price per glass) and one exogenous variable, the weather (sunny, cloudy, or hot and dry), which shifts demand. Shocks are random: thunderstorms on cloudy days wipe out the day's investment, and street closures or wind that blows signs away also occur. Up to 30 players can each run an independent stand under the same weather. Signs are an early case of advertising spend used as a demand lever; the taxonomy has no mechanic for marketing spend, so the run proposes advertising-awareness.
relations
7 stored edgesCustomer value choice
Aggregate customers buy more at lower prices and with more advertising signs; sales are capped by the glasses made that day.
Turn structure
Twelve rounds of one day each: the player makes decisions, the day resolves, and an earnings report follows.
Weather
Each day is sunny, cloudy, or hot and dry, and the weather sets the demand level the price and sign choices act on.
Advertising and awareness
Advertising signs bought each day raise that day's demand alongside price and weather, with no carryover between days.
Treasury and budget
Cash on hand limits how many glasses and signs can be bought each day.
Random disasters
Thunderstorms void a day's profits; street closures and blown-away signs also occur.