Open For Business - Boom or Bust (1st Impressions)

After one or two false starts I also hit on Pescado's idea of using the salon chair at home and practising on friends and rellies. Jude just got his bronze badge less than 24 hours after growing up to be a teen. If were more organised I'd have been able to say how many makeovers he had to do to get the badge ... if I was really organised I would also be able to relate that number to his personality and skill points but I don't know them off-hand I'm also wondering if failed makeovers count toward the total needed for a badge. I'm also seeing a lot of hairstyles that don't seem to appear on the makeover menu ... eg a mussed-up bob ... Ruth Jones looks real cute with it so I left her like it. I'll take a snap next time I play the Rigsby household ...

 

In reply to PlayLives' story about the over-ambitious store ... yup I did that. what a disaster! For my next trick I got one of my other sims to buy Mercantile Mart in Bluewater Village. I added nothing to store except some stock. A few table lamps, a couple or three wall lamps and half a dozen ceiling lamps. (I was in a nostalgic kinda heaven cos as a child I always used to love the lighting section at the Woolworths store in the small town where I grew up. It seemed to me such an extravagance to have so many lamps burning in such a small area; I used to fantasize about needing sunglasses to work there ... and there was nothing cooler to my five-year old imagination than needing shades for work ) Anway the business is booming. Gaining one star per day. It now employs Ricky Cormier who gets called in around 3pm to do a couple of hours restocking or -- if he's really lucky -- he's allowed to do some selling. The owner Garth is otherwise a one-man band.

 

Actually, that was my story ... but I think we can all learn from your example, and what a cool story from your childhood about the lighting store. Funny what kids think is cool, and how nostalgic we get about it as adults.

Yep, Bev's starting over small.

I've got to get my kids out of college so they can start their lives as business owners! But first I've got to age the kids in town ... so many plans. I'm suddenly so busy I'm almost flummoxed as to where to begin.

And, oh yeah, I've got a RL too. Really. I do. Honest.

 

yeah that was SBW. I knew better.

 

After several days of playing now, including all day today , I'm sure that this exp pack is going to keep me busy for a long time.

I played pretty much all day with Malcolm Landgraab, mostly to see how his businesses worked. He put in a full day at the electronics store and then a full night at the club, only coming home to sleep in between. I played him maybe 5 or 6 sim days, and visited both businesses every day. The store is at a level 4 now, and the club is a level 3. Both places are making a profit, although small still.

It's going to take me a while to get them to top level at this rate. Months of fun to come, considering I play 20-something families. There's so much that I haven't even tried yet, like the robots, salons, and clothing stores.

I think it's fun to load up a family, and then check thier inventories to see what they've been buying while I wasn't looking.

 

Gosh the expansion sounds amazing! Is it better than nightlife? I mean I preferred nightlife to university

But I don't think OFB is out in Malaysia yet, I can't wait!

 

Ooh, them's fighting words.

Sims can buy things when you're not playing them? That's never been my experience.

Yes, OFB is a lot of fun. I still like NL the best because it added so much to their love lives, which is my favorite part of the game, plus I like downtown, but OFB gives them so many possibilities! I'm suddenly so interested in the game I'm giving up sleep.

Like Mango I have a LOT of families, and so many businesses ... a restaurant/pool hall, a coffee shop, two flower shops, two home bakeries, a clothing store/salon, a toy store, a robot selling home business ... not to mention my retired mad scientist who just tinkers with robots. Plus, I've got generation five underway, with two sets of twins (!)

I've actually got to plan how to play now. I like to keep everyone in synch, age-wise, which is getting to be quite the challenge.

So many plans, so little time ...

 

I was playing Rory DeFoy and his Wife Ivy, they have started a home flower shop and also sell the plants that are in the cataloge as well. They have had several of my playable sims, such as Ian DeFoy and Melanie Pederson stop by and purchase things from them. When I go and visit either Ian's or Melanie's lots, I check their inventory, and sure enough, they really have bought those items. Don't know what they are going to do with 3 different vases and 5 bouquets of daisys...I played Rory's house several days in a row, and they came each day and bought at least two things each time! I sold the stuff back anyway.

 

Yep, lots of my sims now have nice plants and flower arrangements or Christmas decorations in thier inventories, since those are my main 2 shops so far.

And since yesterday, I expect to see a lot of TVs and stereos showing up in the inventories since I played the electronics shop a lot yesterday!

 

One aspect I rather odd is that advancing sales skills confer the ability to sell short. That's a lousy sales practise. If I employed a salesman who only made sales by selling cheap I'd fire his candy bottom A "good" salesman in my estimation is the guy who gets the ticket price and quickly and often

 

Huh. Maybe that explains why I get the "great! someone has bought new clothes!" message when I open a lot? Maybe I should check their wardrobe, but knowing them, they bought something hideous.

 

Yeah, that's a pretty ****ty sales reward upgrade. You'd think the ability to offer something for less would be the BASIC option, and not an upgrade!

 

I agree! It's like, hey, I'm a really bad salesperson, please buy this, pretty please? I'll give it to you cheap ...

But, finally, a real use for charisma points! I've got a teenager who's nearly maxxed on charisma and she's already pretty good at the sales thing and is learning the register.

Start 'em as early as you can!

 

You, don't have to keep what your sims buy when you are not controlling them. You can delete it right from their inventory. It is not actually bought until you take it out and place it on your lot. I'm not sure if it works the same with clothes though.

 

Well I was just wondering, because I've seen people post about being able to own a bakery, so does that mean your simmies actually do bake them and sell them? And does that also mean that there are new cakes? Just a curiosity though

 

You can sell anything you want in your bakery, even grilled cheese sandwiches. You can't sell leftover pancakes, though. I tried. You can only sell items you make specifically for the bakery, not stuff your family has sampled.

New baked goods include berry pie and cheese cake. And if you buy a refrigerated bakery case they never go bad. If you leave them on a table they do, LOL. I'm experimenting with a home bakery right now.

You need to put extras in the inventory of the sim who owns the business, but anyone can restock items. And you don't even need walls. My bakery is on the lawn, next to a lemonade stand, and the open/closed sign hangs next to the garage. One cash register, two bakery cases, that's it.

Oh, I also have a ticketron because they have a fairly fun house. I let people wander through and use the exercise machine, swimming pool, bubble blower, etc., during business hours. I may put a lock on the kitchen door, though ... also the bedrooms. Those sims are sure nosy.

 

You can even sell some of the stranger things. I should post screenshots of pee for sale.

 

OK, first, eeew, and I have to ask. HOW?

Do you sell the puddles they make?

How very very strange. And gross.

 

Yeah ... some of my third generation are starting businesses as teens and won't be going to uni. This mirrors my own RL experience where many of my own generation wondered what was the point of university when we checked out on our contempories who just "went to work" when school finished. Of course I am being rhetorical. Education is never wasted. TS2 provides ample lessons here. Go to uni and get a fabulous job; stick that out to the bitter end and get a fab pension. However it's also true that if one instead works one's socks off building a business into millionaire territory then that is as good as a copper-bottomed pension fund .... actually better in the current mercurial economic climate <ahem>

 

I still intend to send most of them to university because I prefer at least five want slots ... even my dropouts are required to be sophomores first.

And, if you stick out uni you do have an option to go for the high-paying, albeit weirder, jobs.

Xena just made icon. She goes to work in a helicopter. Lola always drove her sportscar so I hadn't seen that yet. What's really funny is the heli lands next to the school bus since Xena goes to work just as Selena's coming home. Kind of a tight squeeze on a city street!

But I digress ..

Having at least a bronze register badge will definitely give my college grads an edge once they start their own businesses ... waiting for them to figure it out can be excruciating.