Supermarket Mania is one of the better iPhone time management games for the iPhone platform.  I tried it out last year when it was first released, and have to say that the re-visit has been an enjoyable experience.  The latest version of Supermarket Mania, version 1.5, adds not only language support, but also support for the iPhone 4 retina display.  And I have to say that the graphics are sharp.

This game is not some easy-to-beat game that you will quickly tire of.  The complexity of the game is not only reflected in it’s $2.99 price tag, but also in its 50MB download size.  The game not only incorporates an endless mode with leaderboards, but also a 50-level story mode across five different stores.  Multiple types of customers and goods exist, as well as a variety of upgrades as you progress in the game.

I do have two suggestions for the game.  First, as a guy that used to stock grocery store shelves as a teen, I wish the game had an option for stock-boys.  Being able to choose your gender as well as your name would, I believe, increase the size of the target demographic of the game.  Second, I’d love to see the game (or maybe a new one) morph into something that better incorporates growth in the character.  Taking a page from empire building games, perhaps, over time, one goes from stock clerk managing individual inventory items to store manager over different departments and ultimately to a franchise owner over different stores.  I just think that having different graphics for managing different stores might keep people involved a bit longer than upgrading the kind of meat they are stocking.

If you are into the time management genre of games, you really can’t go wrong with Supermarket Mania.  And if you are the try-before-you-buy type, a free lite version is available.