How to fix 'not enough goods to sell' in Cities: Skylines

The Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem is an age-old issue that every player has, and will continue to run into as they expand their city. Cities are complicated things, and unfortunately in Cities Skylines things are bound to go wrong, but knowing how to fix them can be the key to a successful project. So, if you’re looking for the solution to the problem, make sure to keep on reading down below.

How To Solve The Cities Skylines 'Not Enough Goods To Sell' Problem

There are realistically four main ways that you can solve the Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem, and they are as follows:

• Improve your traffic flow
• Focus on home industries
• Zone for local and organic produce
• Balance your supply and demand

For your commercial businesses to be selling products, you need to make it easier for the products to get to them. That usually comes down to creating more optimised routes to stop hold-ups of imported goods, or creating your own generic industries to supply your products locally. 

Improving Your Traffic Flow

Mentioning traffic to any Cities Skylines player is one way to give them an immediate headache, but the unfortunate reality is that it sits at the heart of many of the problems the game throws at you. After all, your businesses are never going to receive their goods if they’re stuck in traffic 5 miles down the road.

The painful part about realising that traffic is causing you issues is that it is far from a simple fix. More often than not you need bigger roads, more routes, or auxiliary solutions like roundabouts, and they all require you to redesign (and often demolish) your pre-existing city.

However, it is often a price worth paying for efficiency, and a change that you really won’t regret once you’ve made it. It is often better to overcompensate if you’re completely restructuring too, as it will likely save you having to do the exact same thing again in the future.

Another thing to consider with traffic is the type of vehicles that are dominating the traffic flow, and where they are coming from. If the supply vehicles are getting caught in between pedestrian cars, then thinking about ways to direct your citizens elsewhere with things like public transport can be at least a temporary fix.

Furthermore, creating optimised routes for your commercial supply traffic through tunnels or overpasses can also be great ways to allow your traffic to get to where it needs to be without disruption.

Focus On Home Industries

One mistake that many players can run into is relying too much on imported products and industry. One significant downside of having your own industrial zones is that they are environmentally detrimental to your city, which can have a strong negative impact on the land value and population happiness. Therefore, many players look to focus on importing industry goods via train and cargo ship, completely foregoing the creation of any industry in their actual city. 

This can obviously cause supply issues though, and be the root of the Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem, as there is not enough products being imported in to meet the demand of your commercial businesses. In addition, traffic can further contribute to this problem, as the goods still need to get from your import centres to the recipients.

The solution to this is to cave and build your own industry. It can be far away and hidden from your population if you are worried about it affecting their morale (or your pretty views), but unfortunately the closer it is to your commercial buildings, the more efficiently it is going to solve the problem.

If you really are set on green living however, try this as your last option, as you might be able to solve it through other means, without having to sacrifice the idyllic image you have carefully built for your city.

Zone For Local And Organic Produce

While this solution is strictly limited to players who have purchased the Cities Skylines: Green Cities DLC, it is a really good way of circumventing the not enough goods to sell problem all together. With the DLC, you can set a commercial specialisation for a zone you have made to be local and organic produce only. 

With this specialisation, the buildings in the zone will produce 50% of their goods sold locally, which reduces truck traffic required by 50%. They also produce 20% less garbage, but do require 20% more electricity. 

This is a really great way of easing up traffic flow in your city, whilst also avoiding the goods supply problem, as it dramatically limits the amount of trucks that need to be on the road, bringing goods to your shops. These zones are restricted to just low density single level buildings however, so if you’re planning on building a megacity then they might not be for you. 

Balance Your Supply And Demand

Understanding your supply and demand for goods is the final key component to overcoming the Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem. The main cause of this problem is that your goods supply cannot match the demand of your commercial zones, so you need to either increase your supply, or lower your demand. Understanding how you want to evolve your city in the future can go a long way in avoiding this issue, as you need to properly consider the infrastructure needed to facilitate this. 

Furthermore, one trap you can easily fall into is to overcompensate on the supply end of things. While it is great to have the goods available for your commercial zones to sell, having a surplus of goods can flip the problem to the industry side of things, where they have too many products and no one to buy them.

Ultimately, Cities Skylines is a constant balancing act, and the not enough goods to sell problem is just one part of that which is inevitably going to happen. The key part instead is knowing how to appropriately deal with it, and plan to best avoid it in the future.

What Is The Cities Skylines 'Not Enough Goods To Sell' Problem?

One of the more frustrating things when playing is that problems are presented to you without any context or possible solution. As the name suggests, the Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem is triggered when your commercial buildings are not receiving the products they need to do their business, so they aren’t able to effectively run.

This issue will present itself as a pop up above the specific businesses that are complaining, helping you to understand exactly where you need to focus your attention.

So, that wraps up this guide on how to fix the Cities Skylines not enough goods to sell problem, giving you several tips on dealing with the problem when it arrives, and also avoiding it in the future. If you want to follow your industry supply trucks as they bring the goods in however, why not check out the Cities Skylines first person mod.