Happiness

What is the purpose of happiness rating (usually denoted by the heart or smiley face at the top of the screen) in Bakery, Restaurant, Fashion, and Club Story?

Happiness is determined if there is food, clothing, or drinks (what depends on the game) and tables and chairs (Bakery and Restaurant) or dressing room/mirror (Fashion). If any criteria is not met, customer receive broken hearts and your happiness rating decreases. If all the criteria are met, transaction is complete and customer leaves with a intact heart. This rate can only go up or down if you are in the game, looking at your shop. One instance where it does not change is when you are in the design mode.

Lower happiness means slower customer rate. However, once you serve food, clothing, and/or drinks, your happiness will start to increase. 100 is the max, 10 is the lowest.

Blocking the door stops customer flow (though it is not a formal feature of the game). However, it can (not guaranteed) result in a quick sale where everything you just served gets sold within a short amount of time, earning you the coins for the sale. Forum responses have suggested to watch the game for a few minutes after you unblock the door to prevent this from occurring.

Here's a funny story by aud1a about happiness rating in Club Story, editing for readability:

"I 'checked in' to my club tonight and my happiness was down to a dramatic 17. Here's what happened....

Sally entered the room, had a seat. Christie entered the room, walked straight to the dance floor to dance. Then Harry entered the room. He must have been thirsty, because he went straight to the bar. Unfortunately, all the drinks were still in the making. Enter Robert. Robert didn't feel like walking and went to the nearest counter: "I've had a rough day. Get me some booze." Nobody served him. Robert and Harry exchanged desperate looks. Or was it something else? They were last seen leaving together.

Meanwhile Christie, a novelist with a writer's block, had noticed that all the men had left the building. "I'll have a drink," she sighed. People entered and left the club now. Sally was probably too drunk to even notice that there were constantly four people in the bar. And they all seemed rather depressed, but not completely unhappy. On a scale of 100 they seemed to rate 10 constantly. Luckily, no one's happiness was lower than 10. And it stayed that way, even as more people left the club.

Finally the bartender entered: "Sorry guys, I ran out of Stratofortresses but I'm ready to serve y'all now!" He served over 6000 Stratofortresses in less than 10 seconds. What a hero! Word quickly spread about the miracle bartender and more people came in. All significantly happier! At the end of the night, Christie went back to her place without a man, but with a Nobel Prize winning novel in her head. Sally was put in a cab and survived the hangover the next day. Harry and Robert lived happily ever after on a ranch in Texas.

-THE END-"