BLACKWOOD Run the DVD Store

The DVD shop in BLACKWOOD is not a loading-screen hobby. Official copy calls it the place you live, decorate, and perform a normal life in 2012 Brooklyn. It is also the Clean Cash engine that pays rent, outfits, civilian guns, and store upgrades. If you only remember the night missions, the shop will still be there in the morning — understocked, underpriced, and too weak to cover hush money. This page is the daytime half of the double life. Pair it with dual economy for the wallets and with Amelie for the person holding the counter.

What “managing the store” means

Steam’s feature list is specific: restock shelves, organise inventory, set prices, and jump in at the checkout. You choose how hands-on to be. Let it run on autopilot and you get by. Manage it with intent and it becomes a real income stream. The studio’s systems explainer puts numbers on that gap. If you skip inventory work and leave the place messy, daily take is described as about $60–$80. If you restock properly and tune pricing, you can earn $500 or more in a day.

That spread matters because a month is four weeks of seven days. A lazy shop is a few thousand Clean Cash across a month. An attended shop can put the monthly 11–13k bill in reach even when a contract night goes badly. The bill planner turns those two rates into a calendar. This page explains why the high rate is not free: it costs time in the same day you also want to take a mission.

BLACKWOOD An Ordinary Day teaser

Time is the real stock

A BLACKWOOD day is a queue, not an open world you wander forever. Wake, get ready, run the shop, take a mission, return, close, upgrade, sleep. Every minute you spend facing DVDs is a minute you are not in a contract. Every night you leave the shop on autopilot is a day the Clean Cash side of Anton Blackwood looks poorer than the Dirty Cash side.

A practical habit for Act 1, based on what is published: do a short shop pass at open (restock, straighten, check prices), leave Amelie on the counter if you take a contract, then do a close-up pass when you return. The studio says you can handle checkout yourself. Doing that on busy stretches is how you capture the high daily number instead of the autopilot floor.

Do not assume you can “fix money later” after a streak of missions. The month still ends. Missing a payment once starts a warning with police or loan sharks. Missing it twice is a game over. The shop exists to make that clock survivable.

Inventory, pricing, and civilian goods

Official materials mention buying and selling DVDs, changing outfits, and purchasing civilian weapons with Clean Cash. Think of the shop as both a business and a front. Stock and pricing affect the legal income. Outfits and civilian guns are how Anton walks through 2012 New York without looking like a walking armoury. Black-market toys stay on the Dirty Cash side — see weapon customization. Mixing those wallets is the whole point of the dual economy page.

We do not have a published SKU list of every DVD title or a confirmed optimal price table. Anyone posting a “best DVD to stock” sheet before launch is guessing. What we do have is the loop: restock, organise, price, work the till. After Act 1 is out, this section will add observed restock timings and whether leaving the shop closed for a mission day is ever worth the lost Clean Cash.

Amelie is labour, not scenery

Amelie is named as the assistant who takes care of customers while you focus on other tasks. You can still step in. Spending time with her and building the relationship opens opportunities later in the game. That is a systems sentence, not a romance FAQ. If you treat her as a silent clerk, you are leaving both shop uptime and story flags on the table. Details and what not to invent are on the Amelie page.

The “An Ordinary Day” teaser is the right video for this guide: counter talk, stepping out, and the snap from retail to violence. Watch it for tone. Use the numbers above for planning.

Apartment, outfits, and the performance of normal

The store is also home. You decorate, change clothes, and play the citizen. That is not separate from combat. Civilian weapons and outfits are Clean Cash sinks. A player who dumps every dollar into Dirty Cash guns can still fail a month because rent is a Clean Cash problem. Keep a reserve. The builds page talks about legal versus illegal loadouts; this page is why the legal side has a budget at all.

RPG-style interactions in the apartment and shop are part of the pitch: ads, posters, and small objects are supposed to carry 2012 texture. You do not need to inspect every prop on day one, but you should not skip the shop UI either. The income difference between $80 and $500 a day is larger than most attachment upgrades.

A shop checklist for launch week

1. After waking, restock before you accept a contract.
2. Set prices once you understand demand; do not leave default tags for a full month.
3. Put Amelie on the counter when you leave, then take over checkout when you are in the building.
4. Close properly so the next morning does not start from a mess.
5. Convert some Clean Cash into shop upgrades instead of spending it all on outfits.
6. Pay hush money and rent in slices if a lump sum at month-end makes you nervous — the studio says gradual payment is allowed.

If combat is your main interest, still read combat after this page, not instead of it. Stylish takedowns do not restock a shelf. For the calendar and the two currencies, continue to dual economy. For the first-day sequence, return to Getting Started.