Animal Crossing’s turnip stalk market is having its first panic

Fun fact: Nook’s Cranny, Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ general store, upgrades and expands 30 days after construction. For most folks who started the game around the launch window, those 30 days will be up right around this week. That’s terrible news for folks playing the Stalk Market.

You see, when Nook’s Cranny gets an upgrade, it shuts down for a day — you can’t buy or sell anything. Folks who have recently bought turnips and are hoping for a mid-week spike in purchasing prices may find that their plans to become a bellionaire are being foiled by bad timing; the store is closing right when prices are supposed to be high.

As of this writing, about half my Twitter timeline is getting wrecked by this particular nuisance, as are many of my real-life friends and acquaintances. There’s a lot more of this chatter on social media as well.

Usually, if you don’t want to deal with this sort of headache, you could always just time travel your way forward. Except messing with your clock while holding onto turnips will run the risk of spoiling them, thereby losing your entire investment.

So, what can you do if you’re in this precise pickle? Beyond turning to friends, there’s always turnip.exchange, a website where people list their island turnip prices along with a price of entry.

You should be prepared to pay with anything from bells to Nook Miles Tickets, if not furniture or DIY recipes. And expect long queue lines, especially given that a lot of people are facing the same dilemma this week. You may even encounter a turnip bouncer or two, as these folks help control the flow of visitors.

Some folks will inevitably lose bells this week, but such are the vicissitudes of a living, breathing economy.

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