Food Empire Terms of Sale

These terms apply when you buy something inside Food Empire: Shop Tycoon, the Android game. They explain what you are buying, how it reaches you, and what happens if something goes wrong. Buying is optional: the whole game can be played without paying.

Every purchase is paid for through Google Play, so the Google Play Terms of Service apply as well. What a purchase records, and where, is explained in our privacy policy.

Who we are

Food Empire is made and published by Abdul Rehman Butt, trading as StackRyx, the developer named on the game's Google Play page.

Our postal address is CB2965, Street #5, Friends Colony, Misrial Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. You can reach us at info@stackryx.co.uk.

What you can buy

Cash Crates. In-game cash for your empire, in eight sizes. The amount in a crate is based on how far your empire has come, so it grows as your empire grows. The Shop shows the exact amount before you pay, and you receive at least that amount. All eight crates are sold from your first minute of play, at any stage. A crate can be bought more than once.
Starter Pack. In-game cash (the Shop shows the amount before you pay) and the Gold awning look for your lemonade stand. It can be bought once.
Remove Ads. Switches off the banner on the menu screens and the full-screen break ad for good. Rewarded videos stay, and stay optional.
Season Pass. A pass for one season, bought once for that season. See Season Pass.
VIP Club. A weekly membership that renews by itself until you cancel it. See VIP Club.

And ten items you buy once and keep (see Items you keep):

VIP Guests. Every 8th customer is a VIP Guest who pays three times the menu price: +25% income on average, at every stage, while you play and while you are away.
Golden Kitchen. +20% on every sale at every stage, while you play and while you are away, and a gold look for your machines.
Double Income. +100% on every sale and on all away earnings, for as long as Food Empire is offered, on this Google account.
Promoter. A costumed mascot who draws a crowd at your businesses: +25% income at every business, while you play and while you are away. It adds to your other boosts. See Promoter.
Night Manager. Your away earnings keep growing for 8 hours instead of 4 before they stop.
VIP Card. Collects what your other businesses earn while you play elsewhere, as described in The VIP Card. It also gives gold awnings and the VIP title. It does not raise your income and does not remove ads.
Ad-Free Plus. No banner or break ads, and the reward of every optional video without watching it, within the limits in Ad-Free Plus and the Skip Pass.
Skip Pass. The reward of every optional video without watching it, within the same limits. It is sold to players who already have no ads.
Supporter Pack. No banner or break ads, one day of progress in in-game cash (the Shop shows the amount before you pay; paid once) and a gold name tag.
Supporter Extras. One day of progress in in-game cash (the Shop shows the amount before you pay; paid once) and a gold name tag. It is sold to players who already have no ads.

And looks for your own character, also bought once and kept (see Kit Maker):

Striker Kit. A football kit for your character, with your own name and number on the back, three cuts and two clubs' colours. Looks only.
Kit Colours. One more club's colours for your Striker Kit. There are six, each sold on its own to players who own the Striker Kit. Looks only.

Boosts add together. VIP Guests, Golden Kitchen, Double Income and the Promoter each add their bonus to the others; they never multiply one another. For example, Golden Kitchen and Double Income together give +120%, not +140%, and adding the Promoter makes it +145%.

Some items are offered only where they make sense: the Skip Pass and Supporter Extras only to players who already have no ads, the Supporter Pack only to players who do not, and Kit Colours only to players who own the Striker Kit. Every other item is sold from your first minute of play. Nothing you already own is offered again. We may also stop selling an item, for everyone or for a time; that never takes it away from anyone who bought it.

Nothing you buy is random. A Cash Crate is not a loot box: you see what is in it before you pay.

Items you keep

Remove Ads, the Starter Pack's Gold awning, the ten items above, the Striker Kit and each club's Kit Colours are bought once and kept. The Season Pass and the VIP Club are not on this list: see Season Pass and VIP Club. Each one lasts for as long as Food Empire is offered, on the Google Play account you bought it with.

They belong to that Google Play account, not to one empire or one phone.
They stay through RESET PROGRESS, starting a new empire and franchising: your new empire has them from the start.
They come back after a reinstall or on a new phone, through Restoring purchases.
We never make what an item does weaker after you have bought it. The figures in the Shop (for example +20%, +25%, +100%, 8 hours, 12 rewards a day) are what you get.

The in-game cash in the Supporter Pack and Supporter Extras is different: it is cash, and it belongs to the empire it is paid into (see Bought cash belongs to your empire).

The VIP Card

While you play, the VIP Card collects what your other stages, your street businesses and your farms have earned while you were away from them, and pays it into your wallet. It has most to collect once you have opened your first Stage 3 business.

It collects from each one up to that stage's usual away limit per visit: the most it would have held if you had walked back to it yourself (4 hours of earnings, or 8 with Night Manager). It pays what walking back would have paid, only sooner; it never adds income of its own.
It is sold from your first minute of play; with only the village and the city open there is little for it to collect yet, and it starts paying in full once you open more stages.
The cash it collects is ordinary earned cash in your empire.

Ad-Free Plus and the Skip Pass

With either pass, the game's optional video rewards (bonus cash, Happy Hour, the VIP Bus, doubling what you earned while away, and the others) are paid when you tap CLAIM, with no video.

The limits. Up to 12 rewards a day and 3 every 15 minutes, with the same short waits between rewards as when you watch videos. The game keeps this count on your phone, with the record of the items you own, so restarting the game or RESET PROGRESS does not refill it.
What a reward is worth does not change: a claimed reward is the same as the one the video would have given.
A reward switched off for everyone is off for pass owners too. If we stop offering a particular reward to all players, for example while we fix a problem with it, it is not offered to pass owners either until it returns. We never switch off rewards for pass owners only, and we never lower the pass's limits.
Ad-Free Plus also removes the banner and break ads. The Skip Pass does not remove ads: it is sold to players who already have no ads.

Promoter

The Promoter is bought once and kept, like the other items you keep. It adds +25% to your income at every business, while you play and while you are away. It is added to VIP Guests, Golden Kitchen and Double Income, never multiplied with them. The mascot you see at the entrance is for show: it does not earn, is not a worker and takes no place in your team. The +25% is the whole of what it does.

Kit Maker

The Kit Maker is the screen where you dress a football kit for your own character. Anyone can open it and try every club and cut, and type a name and a number, before buying. Nothing you try is saved until the kit is yours.

The Striker Kit includes:

your own name and number on the back: up to 10 letters and a number from 0 to 99. You can leave either empty;
three cuts: Classic, Stripes and Hoops;
two clubs' colours: Village Lemons and Hot Dog Plaza Snappers.

Kit Colours add one more club's colours to your Striker Kit. There are six more clubs. Each is sold on its own, one at a time, and only to players who own the Striker Kit, because a club's colours do nothing without the kit. The Shop and the Kit Maker show each club's name, its colours and its price before you pay.

Bought once. The Striker Kit and each club's colours are bought once and kept, like the other items you keep. Nothing here renews.
Looks only. A kit changes how your character and your staff look, and nothing else. It gives no advantage in the game: nothing earns more, costs less or moves faster because of it. You can switch it on and off at any time with KIT ON and KIT OFF.
On a new phone. The kit and the clubs you bought come back through Restoring purchases, on the Google Play account you bought them with.
Your name and number stay on your device. The game keeps them on your phone, with the record of the items you own. It does not send them to us or to anyone else, does not put them in your cloud save and does not show them to other players. Because of that, we cannot put them back for you: on a new phone, type them again, unless your phone's own Android backup has brought them across (see our privacy policy).
The clubs are invented. Every club, name, crest and set of colours in the Kit Maker was made up for Food Empire and is named after a place in the game. None of them is, or is meant to look like, a real club, team, league or competition, and Food Empire is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any real club, team, league, player or kit maker.
Use your own name. The name on your kit is for your own name or nickname. Do not use another person's name, or a name, word or number combination that is someone else's trademark, in a way that suggests you are that person or are connected with them. The game never suggests a name or a number, and what you type is your own choice and your own responsibility. If you show your kit outside the game, for example in a screenshot, that is your own publication, not ours.

Season Pass

A season is a limited stretch of weeks with its own set of rewards. The Shop and the season page show the season's name and its dates, and the price in your currency, before you pay. Everyone can play the season and claim its free rewards; the Season Pass adds the premium ones.

One season, one purchase. A pass is for one season only, and each season has its own pass, bought on its own. Buying one season's pass gives you nothing in another season.
What it includes. The premium track of that season: crates of in-game cash, days of Night Manager, looks for your stand and a profile frame. The Shop lists the full contents before you buy. If you already own the permanent Night Manager, the premium tier that gives days of Night Manager gives you cash in its place, and the Shop says so before you pay.
No random rewards. Every reward on both tracks is shown in advance. Nothing in a season is a chance.
You earn the tiers by playing. The season has 25 tiers. You earn season XP from daily challenges you claim and from goals you complete, and each tier opens when you reach its XP. Buying the pass does not buy tiers: it unlocks the premium reward of each tier you have reached or will reach. If you buy late, the tiers you have already reached open at once.
Claim after the season. You can claim what you have earned until 7 days after the season ends. After that, rewards you did not claim cannot be claimed, and the pass is not refunded for them.
What stays. A look, a profile frame or a title you have claimed is yours to keep after the season, and stays through RESET PROGRESS, a new empire and franchising. Days of Night Manager run for their length from the claim. Cash you claim is bought cash: see Bought cash belongs to your empire.
Restoring. The pass belongs to the Google Play account that bought it, and Restore purchase brings it back on a new phone, so you can still claim what you earned while the claim period is open.

We may stop selling a season's pass, for everyone or for a time. That never takes away a pass you have bought, or rewards you have earned.

VIP Club

The VIP Club is a subscription. It is billed every week and renews automatically every week until you cancel it. The price is shown in your local currency in the game and on Google Play's payment screen before you confirm (the base price is US$2.99 a week; it differs from country to country, as described in Prices, taxes and payment). Payment is charged to your Google Play account when you confirm and again each week. Google Play tells you if the price changes, as its own rules require.

What a member gets while the club is held:

a daily claim worth 3 hours of your income, once a day;
your empire keeps earning while you are away for up to 12 hours;
your other stages are collected for you while you play, as the VIP Card does (see The VIP Card), from Stage 3;
no banner or break ads;
every optional reward without watching a video, within the limits in Ad-Free Plus and the Skip Pass;
a gold name and a VIP CLUB plate;
one new look a month.

Where you already have something from an item you bought once, the club does not add it again, and you keep the item whatever happens to the club.

Cancelling. Cancel any time in Google Play: open Google Play, then Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions, or use Manage subscription on the game's VIP Club page. The game cannot cancel it for you, and uninstalling the game or deleting your data does not cancel it. If you cancel, the club stays until the week you have paid for is up, and then it does not renew. We do not refund the part of a week that has been paid for, beyond what Google Play's refund policies and the law give you.

What ends and what stays. When the club ends, the daily claim, the 12 hours away, the club's collecting and ad-free play, the gold name and the VIP CLUB plate end. Looks you earned from the club stay yours, and so do cash you collected, hours you banked, rewards you claimed and every item you bought once.

How the game knows you are a member. Google Play says which subscriptions you hold, and the game asks it each time it starts and when you come back to it. If the game cannot reach Google Play, your membership carries on for up to 72 hours after the last time Google Play confirmed it; after that the benefits wait until the game can check again. When Google Play stops listing your subscription (it has run out, it is on hold after a failed payment, or it has been refunded), the benefits end at the next check.

Payment problems. If a renewal payment fails, Google Play may keep trying for a short grace period, during which your membership carries on, and then puts the subscription on hold, when the benefits end. You can fix your payment method in Google Play.

The club belongs to the Google Play account you joined with, and Restore purchase brings it back on a new phone while it is active. We do not offer a free trial or an introductory price on it at present.

What in-game items are

Everything sold in Food Empire is a virtual item that exists only in the game: in-game cash, a boost, a pass, a membership, a look for your stand, a kit for your character, or ads switched off. When you buy one, you get the right to use it in Food Empire. In particular:

virtual items have no value in real money;
they cannot be exchanged for real money, goods or services, by us or by anyone else;
they cannot be sold, traded, given or transferred to another player, another account or another game;
in-game cash can only be spent in Food Empire.

Prices, taxes and payment

We choose a price for each item in US dollars. Google Play turns it into a price in your local currency, and in some countries we set a lower price, so prices differ from country to country.

Google Play takes the payment, in your local currency, and charges any tax that applies where you live, such as VAT or sales tax. Google Play's payment screen shows the price you will pay before you confirm. We never see your card or payment details.

Prices can change. A change never affects a purchase you have already made.

Delivery

What you buy is delivered as soon as Google Play confirms the payment, usually within a few seconds:

cash goes straight into your empire's wallet;
the Gold awning is yours to put on your lemonade stand;
Remove Ads, the boosts, Night Manager, the VIP Card and the passes take effect at once;
the Striker Kit and a club's Kit Colours are yours to wear at once;
the Supporter Pack's and Supporter Extras' cash goes into your wallet once, on that first delivery, with the gold name tag.

If the game closes, or your phone loses its connection, between the payment and the delivery, nothing is lost. Google Play holds on to the purchase until the game has saved it, and the game delivers it the next time it starts with a connection. Each payment is delivered once. If the game cannot confirm the delivery to Google Play within three days, Google Play refunds the payment by itself.

Pending payments

Some payments take time to clear: for example cash paid at a shop, or a purchase waiting for a parent's approval. Google Play shows these as pending, and nothing is delivered while a payment is pending. When Google Play tells the game the payment has cleared, the game delivers what you bought: straight away if it is open, or the next time you open it. If the payment never clears, Google Play cancels it and you are not charged.

Bought cash belongs to your empire

Cash you buy goes into your current empire's wallet and works like any other cash. The crates of cash you claim from a Season Pass are bought cash too. It belongs to that empire:

Franchising sells your empire for Stars and starts a new one. Cash left in the old empire, bought or earned, does not come across.
RESET PROGRESS in Settings deletes your empire, with any cash in it, bought or earned.

Both ask you to confirm first, and neither can be undone. Neither gives back money you paid.

The Supporter cash is bought cash too. It is paid once, into the empire you are playing when it is first delivered, and it belongs to that empire. It is not paid again after RESET PROGRESS, a franchise, a restore or on a new phone; the gold name tag and the Supporter Pack's no-ads stay, as items you keep.

Bought cash is never counted as takings. The cash itself earns no Stars and no leaderboard place.

Restoring purchases

Every one-time item comes back. Remove Ads, the Starter Pack's Gold awning, VIP Guests, Golden Kitchen, Double Income, the Promoter, Night Manager, the VIP Card, Ad-Free Plus, the Skip Pass, the Striker Kit and every club's Kit Colours, and the Supporter Pack's and Supporter Extras' no-ads and gold name tag belong to the Google Play account you bought them with. After a reinstall, or on a new phone, use that Google Play account and tap Restore purchase in the game's Settings. The game also asks Google Play about them each time it starts.

A Season Pass and the VIP Club come back the same way while they are still valid: see Season Pass and VIP Club.

The name and number typed on a kit are not a purchase and are not held by Google Play: see Kit Maker.

Cash cannot be restored from Google Play. Once cash is delivered, it exists only in your saved game; Google Play keeps no copy of it. This includes the cash in the Starter Pack, the Supporter Pack and Supporter Extras.

To keep bought cash safe, sign in with Google in Profile → Cloud save. A copy of your empire, with its cash, is then kept in your account and comes back on a new phone or after a reinstall. The game suggests this after your first Cash Crate. If you have not signed in, your empire and the cash in it are only on your phone: uninstalling the game, or losing or replacing the phone, can lose them for good, and we have no way to put them back.

Refunds

Refunds are handled by Google Play, under Google Play's refund policies and the law where you live. Shortly after a purchase you can usually ask Google Play for a refund yourself; Google's help page explains how and when.

You can also write to us at info@stackryx.co.uk. Please include your Google Play order number: it starts with GPA. and is in the receipt Google emails you. We read every request.

If a purchase is refunded or charged back, we may remove from the game what that purchase gave you.

Subscriptions. Cancelling the VIP Club stops the next renewal. It does not refund a week already paid, beyond what Google Play's refund policies and the law give you; you can ask Google Play, or write to us with your order number as above.

Nothing in these terms takes away your legal rights.

Your right to cancel (EU and UK)

If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, the law usually gives you 14 days to cancel an online purchase without giving a reason. For digital content that is delivered straight away, that right ends once delivery begins, as long as you agreed to that before buying.

Everything sold in Food Empire is delivered the moment your payment is confirmed. A VIP Club membership starts the moment you pay, too. So when you buy, you:

ask for it to be delivered immediately, inside the 14 days; and
accept that you lose your right to cancel once delivery has begun.

In plain words: once the cash is in your wallet, the Gold awning is yours, the ads have gone, or a boost or pass is on, you cannot cancel the purchase because you changed your mind. For the VIP Club, this applies to the week you have paid for; you can stop later renewals at any time, as described in VIP Club. If the law gives you a cooling-off period on a subscription, we follow it.

This does not affect your rights if something you bought was not delivered or does not work as described. If that happens, write to us and we will deliver it or refund you through Google Play.

Children and parents

Food Empire is not directed at children under 13. If you are under 18, or not yet an adult where you live, ask a parent or guardian before you buy anything. Parents can set Google Play to ask for a password, or for their approval, before every purchase: in the Play Store, open Settings, then Authentication, or Family (Google Family Link). The game's Settings point to it too, under Purchase approval.

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example when the game starts selling something new. The date at the top shows when they last changed. A change applies to purchases made after it, never to one you have already made.

The law that applies

These terms are governed by the law of Pakistan.

If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the laws of the country where you live.

Contact

For a question about a purchase, or a purchase that did not arrive, email info@stackryx.co.uk or use Settings → Help → Contact support in the game. Please include your Google Play order number, which starts with GPA.