Sallae Mallae - Fake Shopping

For when you want everything, and want your balance to stay exactly where it is.

Sallae Mallae is a shopping app where nothing ever leaves your account. Browse, add to bag, hesitate, and go all the way through checkout. No card is charged. Nothing is ever delivered. The urge, though, is gone.

■ Twenty-eight houses, 768 pieces

Bags · Clothing · Shoes · Watches · Jewelry · Wallets and accessories · Gaming · Tech · Hobbies.

Twenty-eight brands, each with its own country, material, and price bracket. Leather from Paris, silk from Milan, watches from La Chaux-de-Fonds. Gaming gear from Austin, laptops from Cambridge, guitars from Cremona.

Narrow by type or by house until you find the one. The most common complaint about apps like this is "there's so little to choose from that it obviously isn't real." That was the first thing we set out to fix.

■ A daily allowance lands every day

There is money in this app. Just not real money.

· Once a day, after midnight, your balance is topped up · It carries over. Nothing is taken back at midnight · Want more? Watch an ad to top up — up to three times a day

So some things you can buy today, and some things take a few days to save for. Saving up for the expensive one is half of what this app is.

There is nothing you can buy with real money to get a bigger balance. We didn't want to build an app where only the paying players get rich.

■ A checkout that behaves like a real one

Pick a color and a size, add it to your bag, enter a shipping address, choose a payment method. There is even a card number field — the first eight digits.

Those digits are never stored, never validated, never sent anywhere. They disappear the moment you leave the screen. The field exists for the feeling.

A few seconds of "Processing your payment," and the order is placed. Amount actually charged: $0.

■ Then your parcel ships (it doesn't)

Other apps end at the order confirmation. This one starts there.

· After one hour — Your order has shipped · After six hours — Your parcel is on its way · Next day at 1 PM — Your parcel has arrived

The notifications really arrive. You can watch the tracking screen fill in, step by step. There will be nothing at your door, of course. That is the whole point.

■ What you bought stays on display

Your purchase history isn't a list of receipts — it's a cabinet. Everything you bought stands there in its own photo. Buy three, and you get three.

There is a shopping level, too. It rises on lifetime spend alone, and never falls. No rankings, no percentiles. It's a number you keep to yourself.

■ The money you didn't spend adds up

How much you put in the bag this month, and how much you actually spent. Right next to your lifetime total sits a permanent $0. You will also see which houses and which categories you are weakest for.

Resisting the urge is hard. Spending it is easy.

■ Made for

· Anyone who filled a cart and closed the app at checkout, more than once this month · Anyone counting the days to payday · Anyone on a no-spend streak who keeps opening shopping apps anyway · Anyone who wants to add it to the bag first — console, bicycle or handbag · Anyone who simply likes looking at beautiful things

■ How it works

· No account, no login, no servers · Nothing you order costs real money — not once, not ever · Free, with ads. No in-app purchases, no subscriptions · The shopping works offline; only the ads need a connection · Your wishlist, bag, order history and balance live on this phone only · Available in 10 languages

■ Please note

Sallae Mallae is a virtual shopping simulation. Every brand and product in the app is fictional — none are real trademarks or real products. The balance and the amounts inside the app are fictional too; they cannot be cashed out or refunded. No order is ever really paid for, and nothing is ever shipped. Tapping "Pay" does not move any money.