Supplies
You cannot open a round without supplies. They are bought in SEED, every day, from the game. This is not a chore we forgot to remove; it is the single most important mechanic in the whole economy.
Prices (SEED, at price index 1.0)
| Supply | Pack size | Price per pack | Storage units per pack |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon | 200 | 6 | 10 |
| Ice | 100 | 1 | 10 |
| Sugar | 400 | 5 | 4 |
| Disposable cup | 200 | 2 | 2 |
| Logo disposable cup | 100 | 4 | 2 |
| Water | 10 | 1 | 2 |
A cup made with a sensible formula costs about 0.12 SEED in supplies against a sale price of 0.24–0.42 SEED depending on city and zone (all at index 1.0). Ice does not keep overnight; everything else does.
Every supply price is multiplied by the price index: they rise in SEED exactly as cup prices do, and the ratios in this table never change. Storage keeps pre-buying honest — you can stock at most a few days ahead, so nobody can fill a warehouse at today's index.
Storage
Each stand type has a base storage capacity, extended by boxes and coolers (see Equipment). Storage caps how many supplies you can hold, so a big sales day needs both the capacity to serve and the storage to stock.
Why supplies matter to everyone, not just to you
When you spend SEED on supplies, that SEED is gone: it is never redeemed into LEMON. Across the whole game, supplies and the opening tax return about 40% of everything stands produce straight back to the Bank, automatically, before anyone decides whether to cash out.
That is what lets the Bank make its promise. A stand's gross cap is 200% of its price; with 40% of gross returning as supplies, the most a stand can ever take out net is 120% of what it paid, and in practice players spend part of that on optional items too. The Bank's ledger closes whether or not any particular player keeps playing.
The chart shows the Bank's margin per 100 LEMON received as a function of how much players redeem, for different gross caps. Lemonade Quest launches at a 200% cap. As long as players redeem less than about 83% of their net (i.e. spend at least ~17% on optional items), the Bank never needs new players to pay old ones.