Putting away those KEMs

marco_rosa833 wrote:
I'm quite surprised at the many people on here saying that they could go without Kwik-E-Marts and have 5 stars. You definitely can't get there with just cash or even if you pay donuts. You need to play through events and snap up event exclusives.

Same. I have the Try N Save from the 2012 holiday event, and others from last year's events that I guess must count towards consumerism, but nothing that I've spent donuts on, and have had 5 stars for a while now with only two KEMs.
You don't HAVE to load up your town with KEMs just to get that 5 star rating.

terrapinblue wrote:
Well I was hopeful. But I still can't hit 5 on consumerism. I'm only missing very few buildings (mapple, both Halloween stores, sprawl mart) and am at 5 KEMs. I'm building a sixth since try and save didn't get me there :cry:

As of Lvl 38, you need 262 points of consumerism to 5* it. All items below add 10pts to it:

Normal: Kwik-E-Mart*, Android's Dungeon, King Toot, Hermans, Putt-A-Lot, Noiseland Arcade, Batchelor Arms, Grocery Store (80pts)
Squidport: I&S Store, Malaria, Rainsticks, Turban, Tattoo, Crypto Barn (60pts)
Donuts: Sprawlmart, Try N Save, Ferris Wheel* (30pts)
Timed: House of Evil (Hal12); Mapple (Xmas12); Howard's Flowers (Val12); Fortune Teller (Hal13); Pow-Wow Casino (Thksgiv13); Presents Depot, Mall, Costingtons, ClausCo, Santa's Workshop (all Xmas13); Mr Sparkle Billboard* (Ep tie-in) (110pts)

* = can have multiples

If you're a new freemium player, you need 13 extra consumer stores (i.e. KEMs). Take one off from that for each premium/event building you have extra. (If you have all Halloween & Xmas 2013 items, that should mean 8 KEMs in total).

There was a big bump in consumerism needed for 5* just before Squidport, but since then there's only been minor increases to it with level updates. Xmas really gained ground towards 5*, and hopefully Valentines 2014 does the same.

(It's also the only category where there's no in-game cash decoration to help boost it. :( )

Thank you so much, Linkwick. Off to do my sums to see how many more KEMs I have to build. Hopefully the Valentines Day event will see the release of Howard's Flowers so that at least one KEM can be demolished.

* Sums done. I have 200 points, so seven extra KEMs required. :(