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Creative ways to use the Retail feature?
Simmerville
Posts: 11,658 Member
I've not played a retail store owner in a long time, and as I play on rotation I hardly do this anymore. There's not much of a point in playing a store actively for only 1 simday, then again for one more day 56 simdays later...
But I love the retail concept as a customer too, and not the least s a community lot. Shops can be great arenas for dates, meetings and story telling in general - all depending on the kind of store.
I now would love to read about how you use this retail feature - aside of the obvious of running a standard store. And I also need some feedback on if my plan is actually going to work technically.
I plan to build several stores, some as "stores in a line" on the same lot. The lot will be categorized as retail, because I want employees to do their stuff in the background. At the moment the plan is a bookstore, a pottery store, a Florist and probably a Real Estate which will be more like an office.
I will have a sim owning the lot just to get the goods set for sale, adjust uniforms etc. Then the lot will simply be a community retail store with no particular owner. I assume that the employees will still be there, and it will work like when a restaurant is sold back to the "community".
But what about the goods for sale? If my sim goes there as a customer, and buys an item, will that item be reset the next time someone visits that store? Or must the employees physically restock it? Or must an owner go there again to restock?
No problem if lots of the items are sold out, but if it gets to the point you can no longer tell whether the store sells books or flowers, this idea is not worth the time arranging it all.
Will such stores be open 24/7 ?
Will my sim be able to buy stuff from a community owned store? Or will the item not go into inventory to be used at home?
Anything else that might work a bit wonky when the store is owned by community and not a specific sim?
But I love the retail concept as a customer too, and not the least s a community lot. Shops can be great arenas for dates, meetings and story telling in general - all depending on the kind of store.
I now would love to read about how you use this retail feature - aside of the obvious of running a standard store. And I also need some feedback on if my plan is actually going to work technically.
I plan to build several stores, some as "stores in a line" on the same lot. The lot will be categorized as retail, because I want employees to do their stuff in the background. At the moment the plan is a bookstore, a pottery store, a Florist and probably a Real Estate which will be more like an office.
I will have a sim owning the lot just to get the goods set for sale, adjust uniforms etc. Then the lot will simply be a community retail store with no particular owner. I assume that the employees will still be there, and it will work like when a restaurant is sold back to the "community".
But what about the goods for sale? If my sim goes there as a customer, and buys an item, will that item be reset the next time someone visits that store? Or must the employees physically restock it? Or must an owner go there again to restock?
No problem if lots of the items are sold out, but if it gets to the point you can no longer tell whether the store sells books or flowers, this idea is not worth the time arranging it all.
Will such stores be open 24/7 ?
Will my sim be able to buy stuff from a community owned store? Or will the item not go into inventory to be used at home?
Anything else that might work a bit wonky when the store is owned by community and not a specific sim?
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Comments
They are open whenever you visit and things you buy work as intended.
I have regular community owned stores like garden center, toy&collectible, never spoiling wedding cakes, but what I like the most is setting up retails as "active" work places, as I find it's the most adaptable lot type, combined with semi active careers.
I have a Sulani research station, nothing set to sell so no visitors, but my conservationist sims go there to work "from home". Their colleagues don't visit the lot proper but they're in the area.
My photo studio is still a work in progress, as I don't have a freelance photographer sim atm, but the idea was setting photos for sale, and pretending browsing customers were really here to have their picture taken.
Unfortunately they wouldn't pay nor leave with it but eh, free models.
Might also make a coworking space for various other freelancers, but this one will be tricky to make as a retail store. Or maybe paired with a club.
Btw: I just recalled that in San Myshuno a sim bought the Old Salt House to run it as a shopping mall. I figured it was more fun categorizing it as a Café, because it was the only way to keep the barista attending the lot. But - the lot was Retail while I set it all up, so items that was set for sale is still possible to buy, even if the lot is not a Retail lot and there's no functional cash registry. So, combining categories is possible.
This sounds so cool - did you share some pictures somewhere? Would love seeing it! I don't have IL, but I did build a Landgraab Science Facility in Oasis Springs, and will build another in Strangerville as soon as I get that pack.
Thank you for confirming this. I hardly used stores until now but I guess I will add some stores with an owner now, just as I do for restaurants.
Thanks! I had totally forgotten about my Archaeologist wanting to open a relic store! He has not collected many items yet, so one of those small lined up shops will suit him fine
Good idea selling gourmet pet treats! I hardly ever made them, so I don't know about the freshness. I would think they are forever fresh if they can be sold in a "passive store" - where you don't play the owner, only the customer. If you play the owner I guess those display desks will keep food fresh for a good while?
Sounds great! I have a few malls too, and I think it's fun how they end up so different from each other. I have no conference room though, but do add a couple offices for services. And I often add a basement for a community function that I pretend takes place somewhere else, like a court house, but they are not based on retail at all.
The lined up small shops I mentioned is a mall, but I will try to make most of the stores also have a unique store front facing the street. But there will be a indoor passage between the stores, and they might have a shared cash register to save space.
This is the local bank. My sims make deposits into the vault, and some of my dishonest sims try to break in...
The mall.
I like having a place to buy electronics.
One of my sims authored a bunch of skill books which are on display in a corner:
Blood Bank. Owned by Vlad. Self-explanatory, lol.
Maxis made this one, but I've added the new tripod so my sims can get pictures taken.
Laundromat. Using LittleMsSam's Put Laundry in Inventory & Laundry on Community lots Costs Money, I can send my sims here to wash clothes.
Movie theater. This was retail, but I recently changed it to café so the snack bar would be staffed automatically.
*Disclaimer: I didn't make these lots myself, though I have changed them quite a bit. I found them on the gallery and edited them to fit my needs. All credit goes to the original creators.
Your sim's money doesn't increase bills. Bills are based on the value of the lot and objects on the lot/in inventory. The thermostat also increases bills a little bit.
One disadvantage to using the vault, however, is that the money doesn't count for the Shrewd trait (which earns your sim money based on household funds.)
I meant that I thought that if you have a vault on a residential lot, the amount of money in the vault will impact the bills a Sim will have. That's not the case?
Hmmm... I think you're right. Once you put money into the vault, it's considered a valuable object rather than household funds.