Business mission

Taco Truck Week

Your mission: run a taco truck for three days and turn a profit (the money you keep after paying all your costs) every single day.

Each morning you set the price per meal (and, starting on Day 2, how many meals to prep), predict your profit, and then launch the day. Once the truck opens, the plan is locked: watch who buys, then read the debrief.

🅰 Partner ASets the controls: price and meals.

🅱 Partner BChecks the math and types the prediction. Switch jobs after every launch!

Stars: ★★★ for passing a day on your first launch, ★★ on your second, ★ after that, plus a bonus 🏆 star for finding the best possible profit. Calculating beats guessing!

📖 How it works

Key words

Demand: How many customers will buy at a given price.
Revenue: All the money customers pay you: meals sold × price.
Variable cost: A cost that grows with every meal you make. Here: $3.00 of ingredients per meal prepped.
Fixed cost: A cost that stays the same no matter how much you sell. Here: $150.00 a day.
Profit: What you keep: revenue − all costs. A negative profit is a loss.
Inventory: The meals you prep in the morning, before anyone buys.

The rules the simulation uses

Demand: on a normal day, the number of customers who will buy at price P is 260 − 20 × P (never below 0). Rain cuts demand in half. Arrival times are random, but the day's total follows the formula exactly.

Variable cost: $3.00 in ingredients per meal prepped, sold or not.

Fixed cost: $150.00 a day (truck payment, permit, gas), paid even if nothing sells.

Sales = the smaller of demand and meals prepped.
Revenue = sales × price.
Profit = revenue − $3 × meals prepped − $150.

Unsold meals are thrown away at the end of the day.

Day 1 only: meals are made to order, so meals prepped = customers.

Where the demand formula comes from

Each person walking by has a top price, the most they would pay for a meal. On a normal day 260 people pass the truck, and their top prices are spread evenly from $0 to $13: for every $1.00 you add to your price, 20 more people say "too expensive" and keep walking. That is why demand = 260 − 20 × P. In the rain only half as many people are out, so demand is cut in half at every price.

Worked example (not a day in the game)

Sunny day, price $10.00, 80 meals prepped:

Customers = 260 − 20 × $10.00 = 60
Meals sold = smaller of 60 and 80 = 60 (20 meals go in the dumpster)
Revenue = 60 × $10.00 = $600.00
Ingredient cost = 80 × $3.00 = $240.00
Fixed cost = $150.00
Profit = $600.00 − $240.00 − $150.00 = $210.00

Stars

Pass a day's goal on your first launch: ★★★. Second launch: ★★. After that: ★. Plus a bonus 🏆 star when you find the best possible profit for that day (you can still earn it after passing).

Partner jobs

🅰 One partner sets the controls. 🅱 The other checks the math and types the prediction. Switch after every launch. Talk before you tap!