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FIVE FINGER
DISCOUNT

A verification game set behind the register of a 1978 American supermarket.

Verification Strategy Retro 1978

Setting

1978, Price Rite: a supermarket in the small town of Point Falls, Wisconsin. There are no barcodes and no digital payments. Everything is processed by hand: cash, personal cheques, credit cards through an imprint machine, and manufacturer coupons.

You work the register. Every day the manager’s memo adds a new rule: check identification for alcohol, verify bills over $20, call the bank for cards over $50. The rules accumulate while the queue keeps moving.

Every error is recorded in the shift review and comes out of your wages.

Features

  • ◆ Rules that accumulate — a new rule each day; by day 10 more than 20 are in force at once
  • ◆ 4 payment methods — cash, personal cheques, credit card imprint machine, manufacturer coupons
  • ◆ The imprint machine — imprint the card, compare the signature, call the bank when the amount requires it
  • ◆ 15+ types of fraud — counterfeit bills, bounced cheques, stolen cards, switched labels, organised shoplifting
  • ◆ 40+ distinct customers with names, faces and recurring storylines
  • ◆ Gray cases — situations where applying the rule and doing the reasonable thing diverge
  • ◆ Life outside the shift — rent, food, transport and family expenses, all paid from your wages
  • ◆ Power outages and rush days — events that change conditions mid-shift
  • ◆ 8 endings determined by your record and your finances

How a shift works

1

Read the memo

The manager’s daily memo sets out the rules in force for the shift.

2

Work the register

Process each purchase: switched labels, age-restricted products, quantity limits.

3

Verify the payment

Cash, cheque or card. Each method has its own verification procedure.

4

Shift review

The manager reviews the shift. Every error is recorded as an incident.

5

Settle your expenses

Rent, food and transport come out of your wages, along with any unforeseen expense.

Verification at the register

In 1978 there are no barcodes, no self-checkout and no chip readers: every verification is manual.

Cash is checked by touch, against the light, and under UV, which reveals the security thread. A well-made counterfeit passes two of the three checks, so all three are needed.

Credit cards go through an imprint machine: compare the name, check the expiry date, and call the bank above the authorisation limit. The bank occasionally instructs you to retain the card, which then has to be communicated to the customer.

Conditions vary through the shift: power outages disable the verification tools, rush days double the volume of customers, organised shoplifting works by distraction, and switched labels alter prices at the till.

The Gray Cases

Part of the game concerns situations where the rule and the reasonable response do not coincide:

  • ◆ Mabel, a retiree on a minimum pension, takes a tin of tuna.
  • ◆ A single mother hides nappies in her bag.
  • ◆ An elderly veteran pays with a counterfeit bill, with no way to tell whether he knows.
  • ◆ A pregnant teenager cannot cover the cost of prenatal vitamins.
  • ◆ The bank instructs you to retain a card while the customer waits with a crying baby.

Every decision affects the ending. The game does not resolve them for you.

Coming soon to Android

Google Play — Coming Soon