shops in Midnight Hollow are never manned by an employee/never open?

I have barely touched Savvy Seller shops or even shopping, but I wonder if hiring someone to work a register is similar to how it works to hire a chef with the Business As Usual Bistro oven. In that case, if you don't own the bistro, you're not paying the chef - it's more like you're assigning one.

I don't know if there's any way for sims to buy a book off the bookshelves, as opposed to the entire bookcase. Personally, I'd just put in a books register (from WA), from which they can buy anything they would in a rabbithole bookstore.