Stardew Valley - Shops
Where the valley buys and sells, each with its own stock, hours and closing days.
Overview
The valley has no central market. Every counter in it sells a narrow range, keeps its own hours, shuts on its own day of the week and answers to a different neighbour, so shopping here is a matter of routing rather than of browsing. A farm that learns which door is open on which afternoon saves itself more time than almost any tool upgrade provides.
Three things separate these counters from a shop in most games. Half of them also buy, paying the same as the shipping bin and handing the gold over at once. Several take no gold at all and trade only in goods, which turns a fishing trip or a dungeon run into purchasing power. And a shop is usually somebody's living room, so the building stays open long after the till has closed, and a farmer can wander in to find nobody willing to serve.
Groups
Six kinds of counter sit inside the branch. The general stores are the two that compete: one on the town square selling seeds, saplings, fertiliser and kitchen staples, and one across the river selling much the same list at a higher price with longer hours. They are the only pair in the valley with a direct rivalry, and choosing between them decides how the Community Center ends.
The trade counters are the specialists. The blacksmith upgrades tools, cracks geodes and deals in ore and coal. The carpenter sells timber, stone and furniture and builds everything on the farm. The Fish Shop sells rods, bait, tackle, crab pots and tanks. The ranch sells animals, hay and the equipment that milks and shears them. The guild east of the mine sells weapons, boots and rings, and buys Monster Loot, while the clinic sells two tonics.
The barter counters take no money. The trader in the desert corner swaps goods on a rotating weekly list, the bluebird on the island's north shore trades saplings, seeds and recipes for fish, fragments and shards, and the dwarf at the bottom of the volcano deals in the shards found around him.
The travelling sellers keep no address. The waggon in the forest stands there twice a week with ten random items, and the bookseller appears twice a season on a date marked by a balloon on the calendar.
The novelty counters are the small ones: a mouse selling a hat for every award earned, a stand by the bridge selling Ice Cream on Summer afternoons, and the saloon with its cooked food and its arcade machines.
The last group is the end-game counters. The wizard's tower sells the obelisks and the clock once his Magic Ink has been found, the casino behind the Oasis runs on its own coins, and the walnut room on the island sells from a vending machine that takes gems rather than gold.
Order
A first week has two counters and no more. The general store on the square covers seeds and the kitchen, and the carpenter in the mountains covers timber, stone and the first farm buildings.
The blacksmith opens properly once the mine does, and from that point it is the most visited door in town, because every tool upgrade passes through it and it is the only place geodes can be cracked until a crusher is built at home.
The guild east of the mine needs the initiation errand finished, which puts weapons, boots and rings on a counter for the first time. The ranch in the forest matters as soon as a coop exists.
The desert opens the next tier, and with it the Oasis, the corner trader and eventually the casino behind the back door. Ginger Island opens the last.
Two counters arrive by other routes. The hat shop opens the day after a farm earns its first award, and the forest stump becomes a shop only after a storm fells the tree, a hundred hardwood repairs it, and the raccoon that moves in has been kept happy for weeks.
Locations
Pelican Town holds the densest cluster: the general store and the clinic side by side on the square, the blacksmith across the eastern bridge, the saloon in the middle, Joja's warehouse north of the river and the Ice Cream Stand beside the bridge in Summer.
The mountain road holds the carpenter's house and, past the mine entrance, the guild, and the beach holds the Fish Shop on the dock. Cindersap Forest holds the ranch at its north-east corner, the wizard's tower at its western edge, the ruined house in the south, the Giant Stump in the north-west and the patch of ground south of the farm where the waggon stands. Further out, the desert holds the Oasis, the corner trader and the casino, and the island holds the bluebird, the dwarf and the walnut room.
Prices
The two general stores are the only direct price comparison in the valley, and the town counter wins on nearly every line. The exception is one flower seed, which is cheaper across the river. Buying a Joja membership flattens the gap, which is the commercial argument for that route and the reason it is a genuine decision rather than a trap.
Two counters put their raw materials up at the start of a second year. Timber and building stone at the carpenter's, and fuel and the three ordinary ores at the blacksmith's, all cost considerably more from that morning onwards, while the sums both shops hand over for the same goods never move. A farm planning to buy in quantity should do it in its first year.
The barter counters are where the real bargains sit, because they price in goods a farm has in surplus. Five stone for a fibre, two bone fragments for a Taro Tuber and a single Magma Cap for a pineapple packet all cost a farm nothing it was using.
Selling over a counter is worth understanding. The gold matches the shipping bin and arrives at once, but nothing sold that way is logged as shipped, so an item a collection is still waiting on belongs in the bin at home.
Strategy
Learn the closed days before learning the stock. The town store shuts on Wednesdays until the Community Center is restored or the town key is earned. The carpenter shuts on Tuesdays unless it rains and closes early on Fridays. The ranch counter is unmanned on Mondays and Tuesdays. The fish shop's door unlocks on Saturdays but the till only opens if it is raining. Between them those four rules account for most wasted walks into town.
Catch a shopkeeper in transit when the counter is shut. The carpenter walks past her own till on her way out on a Tuesday morning and again on her way back that evening, and a farmer already inside can buy in the second she passes.
Chase the two powers that remove opening hours from the game. The town key extends almost every counter in town to the small hours, and the ranch catalogue lets a farm shop there with nobody behind the counter at all.
Treat the waggon in the forest as a weekly appointment rather than a shop. Its stock is gone the moment the day ends, and a farm chasing bundles should walk down there on both of its days without fail.
Notes
A shop's building and its till keep separate hours almost everywhere. The town store stays unlocked for four hours after Pierre leaves the counter and the ranch house for two hours after its counter closes, and that gap is useful for gifts and conversation rather than for shopping.
Festival days close nearly every door in the valley. A tool left with the blacksmith the day before one still comes back on time, because he works whether the shop is open or not, but a tool left two days before can be stranded for an extra day.
The casino's exchange machine runs one way only. Gold buys coins at a fixed rate beside the door, the coins buy furniture, a rare scarecrow, totems and a hat, and nothing converts back.
Two counters sell nothing a farm needs and are worth visiting anyway. The mouse adds a hat to its stock each time an award lands, which turns that wall into a record of what a save has managed so far, and the bookseller trades books back for hardwood and timber once their contents have already been read.
All Shops
Every entry in this group, with its key details.
| Name | Image | Open Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Abandoned House | 
|
All Day |
| Adventurer's Guild | 
|
2:00pm to 2:00am |
| Blacksmith | 
|
9:00am to 4:00pm |
| Bookseller | 
|
- |
| Carpenter's Shop | 
|
9:00am to 5:00pm |
| Casino | 
|
9:00am to 11:50pm |
| Desert Trader | 
|
Always |
| Fish Shop | 
|
9am to 5pm |
| Giant Stump | 
|
- |
| Harvey's Clinic | 
|
9:00am to 3:00pm |
| Ice Cream Stand | 
|
1pm to 5pm during Summer |
| Island Trader | 
|
Always |
| JojaMart | 
|
9:00am to 11:00pm |
| Marnie's Ranch | 
|
9:00am to 4:00pm; (Building open 9am to 6pm) |
| Oasis | 
|
9:00am to 11:50pm |
| Pierre's General Store | 
|
Shop: 9am to 5pm; Building: 9am to 9pm |
| Qi's Walnut Room | 
|
Always |
| The Stardrop Saloon | 
|
12:00pm to 12:00am |
| Traveling Cart | 
|
6:00am to 8:00pm Friday and Sunday; 5:00pm to 2:00am during Night Market; 12:00pm to 2:00am during Desert Festival |
| Volcano Dungeon | - | - |
| Wizard's Tower | 
|
6:00am to 11:00pm |
Pages in category "Stardew Valley - Shops"
The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total.