Animal Crossing: New Horizons' turnip stalk exchange is getting ruined by the Nook's Cranny upgrade

If you've been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons since release day and haven't been doing any time traveling, then you probably noticed that your Nook's Cranny will be under construction this week. While the prospect of an upgraded store initially sounded like a wonderful idea, many players realized this morning that this construction will prevent them from being able to check turnip prices or sell anything at Nook's Cranny. This in turn, has caused problems for the stalk market in general.

Why is Nook's Cranny under construction?

Nook's Cranny is set to automatically get an upgrade once players meet certain conditions. These include exchanging 200,000 Bells at Nook's Cranny, having Mabel visit your island at least once, and having played the game for at least 30 days. Since New Horizons released on March 20, 2020, the 30-day mark has come upon those of us who have been playing since launch day.

While I'm generally all in favor of getting upgrades for my island, shutting down Nook's Cranny for a full day during the remodel makes it so I can't sell items or check turnips prices during that time. The latter of which is a bigger issue than you might think.

What is the stalk market and why is it crashing?

New Horizons features a stock stalk market that revolves around knowing when to purchase and sell turnips. Every Sunday morning, a small orange boar named Daisy Mae travels to your island with an enormous number of turnips for sale. The purchase price for her goods varies from one week to the next and even from player to player.

The idea is that you'll purchase turnips while they don't cost much and then sell them for a huge profit sometime during the week when the prices skyrocket. Oh, and by the way, the turnips prices fluctuate throughout the week. If you don't sell your turnips by next Saturday night, they all spoil and you're out thousands of Bells. So, there's pressure to sell while the market is good, otherwise, you have to eat your losses.

The good thing here is that if one of your friends has insanely high turnip prices, you can travel to their island and sell your turnips at their Nook's Cranny. Since this is the case, players have been able to walk away with millions of Bells by buying low on one island and selling high on another. There are even groups like Stalk Market Insiders that were specifically created to help players find the best turnip buying and selling prices. This then allows players to host other players on their island so that everyone can sell turnips at a high price.

A form of turnip ettiquette has even been established. Players are expected to line up outside of the Nook's Cranny in an orderly fashion and take turns selling their turmips. Then when the transaction is over, players are expected to tip the host by leaving a large bag of Bells or a rare item on the island before leaving.

So why is this mass construction of Nook's Cranny stores such a bad thing for the stalk market? The only way to sell turnips after acquiring them is by going to Nook's Cranny and selling your stalk to Timmy and Tommy. Unfortunately, in order to upgrade Nook's Cranny, the store has to be under construction for a full day, meaning that you cannot purchase or sell anything to Timmy and Tommy during that time. This means that all of those groups who regularly report in on their daily turnip prices are hitting a wall as a good chunk of players cannot check turnip prices or really sell anything until Nook's Cranny re-opens. This then makes it less likely for players to be able to find good selling prices.

The stalk market crash

While I wait for this horrible green tent to get lifted from my Nook's Cranny, the fish, bugs, and materials are piling up in front of the store. I can't wait for Timmy and Tommy's upgraded store to open so I can get back to checking turnip prices and sell all of the items I've been collecting. Knowing my luck, today would have been the ideal day to sell turnips on my island.

At the very least, today is a good day to get all your selling in. You never know what you'll miss out on tomorrow.