Big Ambitions Import Price Index Explained

The in-game help says only that inventory import prices are based on the Import Price Index, found in the MarketInsider app on your BizPhone. A Steam forum thread titled “Import Price Index… you say WHAAAAT???” is where most players end up looking for the rest. This page pulls together what the game, the patch notes and that thread’s accepted answer actually establish.

How to Read the Number

The index is a multiplier on the product’s base import price. The accepted forum explanation, which no developer reply has contradicted:

So the number is not a price. It is how far today’s import cost sits from normal. Below 1.0 is a good week to import; above it is a good week to run down stock you already hold.

MarketInsider shows the index per product alongside demand, the lowest street price and how many businesses already sell the item. Since the 1.0 patch 3672 the app opens to the neighborhood you are standing in, which saves a click. How the app fits into the wider supply picture is in suppliers and importers.

The Index Is the Same Everywhere

An early Steam thread asked why burger costs had risen from $90 to $115 in a month with no local event showing. The answer given was the Import Price Index — it fluctuates, and the value looks the same in every district. Unlike traffic index, which is per building, there is one import index per product for the whole city.

Contracts Lock the Index

This is the mechanic that matters most and is documented least. From the same accepted answer: when you sign an import contract, the index price is fixed for that contract and that purchasing agent until the contract is cancelled — even if the index moves afterwards. The only exception is a product shortage, which changes the price regardless.

Read that against the weekly cycle: importer limits reset Mondays at 08:00, and repeating orders run every week on the locked price. Signing a repeating contract during a low-index week is the closest thing this game has to a long-term discount. Signing during a spike is a mistake you keep paying for until you cancel and re-sign.

What Else Moves the Price You Pay

Two things change the import cost independently of the index:

• Purchasing agent skill. The forum answer notes that a higher-skilled purchasing agent lowers the import price. A 100% agent is worth training for the same reason a low index is worth waiting for.
• Shortages and backorders. The wiki documents these explicitly: a shortage lasts two weeks, is triggered by excessive ordering from one source or a recent large purchase, and raises the price while still letting you buy. A backorder — a shortage on top of a shortage — lasts one week and blocks purchase entirely. Both are tracked per importer location, so the fix is to buy the same item from a different importer.

1.0: Your Own Exports Now Move the Index

The pre-release notes for 1.0 changed the rules for factory owners: exporting goods now impacts the import index. Export too much and the import/export price of that item drops for the rest of that week. Dumping surplus factory output used to be free money. Now it depresses the price of the very product you are dumping, and the effect lasts until the week resets.

Practical consequence: if you run a factory feeding your own stores, size production to your stores’ consumption. If you intend to export, spread it across the week rather than shipping a month’s surplus in one go. See the factory guide.

When to Stock Up

Putting the pieces together:

1. Watch the index for the products you import most. Below 1.0 is the buying window.
2. Sign or re-sign repeating contracts during that window — the locked price is the real prize.
3. Keep a second importer for anything critical, so a shortage at one source does not force you to buy into a spike at the other.
4. Hold stock through a shortage rather than restocking into it: the wiki notes shortages and backorders temporarily raise customer demand, which is the moment to have shelves full.

The warehouse side — pallet shelves, drivers and why deliveries fail — is in warehouse and deliveries.