The Retail Store Challenge (UPDATED)

Thank you for clearing up my questions @BreeMiles ! :) I think I have figured out a workaround that should still be within the rules of the challenge. I can use the 'sell to collector' interaction on the paintings Jaheem makes on the easel which transfers that money back to the household budget and use that to let him start the next one (with some extra leftover that will go towards paying the bills :) ). That way it works the same as harvesting fruit from apple trees on your lot (after all, the easel is on the lot, so the paintings are also made on the lot) and selling that, right? And there wouldn't be any need to transfer any money either.

Plus, using the photography studio will bring in a bit of extra cash too. Never used it before, but apparently it brings in money when you use it to make a portrait of other sims (read: the customers visiting your store) instead of costing you money when you take a photograph using one of the cameras in the game. Plus, the actual photograph goes to Jaheem's inventory, so he can then drag them to the wall and sell them back to the sim he took it from in the first place (it still brings in only 2 Simoleons profit after restocking, but still I love the idea of charging double ;) ). The paintings 'sold to collectors' should be enough to make it through the first week and in the mean time raise his painting skill so he'll start producing more valuable paintings when Friday rolls around and a ninth item can be sold it the store and the other 8 replaced by more profitable items. B)

Not sure the same would go for the baked goods @MyInnerSim . Do baked goods improve in value following your sim's increase in cooking/baking skill? If so, you can sell those in your sims inventory to make a bit extra money so your sim can keep on baking (and improving his skill) and you'll only have to make it till Friday when you can then place the higher valued baked goods your sim makes eg the day before up for sale for a higher profit the following week. And like you said, you can start gardening on the side in the garden you have behind your bakery. Using the harvested ingredients for cooking should also bring down the price it costs to cook the items in the first place. :) Oooh, good to see Part 2 is up! Off to check it out after I finish this post!

Thanks for the extra ideas @SoulGal7 ! :) I will definitely look into maybe adding extra items other than paintings and photographs to sell! The main problem for the first week though will be that Jaheem won't be able to afford those other items as he'll be pretty broke after buying an empty residence lot and his retail store. At the moment, I think he'll have around 100 Simoleons to spare to get his first 8 items ready for the opening on the first day. :D Might be a good idea to look into those once the second week rolls around and he can change the 8 items on sale! B)

@kethrydrake : then your sim rolled right, I think green is a perfect colour for a store selling bedroom furniture and nightwear! :) That's definitely a healthy profit! B) Good to hear your sim was able to buy a house closer to the store (love your commuting remark! :) even though it's not actually in the game where there's no travel time between lots, I keep things like that in mind too when I build and play. B) )

Great suggestions for extra items on sale as well @Karababy52 ! Not sure whether career reward items are allowed, or can even be put on sale? I know eg you cannot clone them in buy mode, so not sure they'll work with the restocking interaction. Should look into that! But again, that'll be for a later date, as they are on the expensive side to purchase in the first place, and my sim, well he's gonna start out on a veeeeery tiny budget his first week. ;)

Oh no, so sorry to hear you've been ill @AIRIS6962 ! Hope you'll feel better soon, sending you a bunch of happy healing thoughts. :)

Lolz, that is hilarious @BreeMiles ! Lovely that some of the customers are helping out keeping your shop in perfect shape! :)

Hehe, thanks for the reminder to lock the doors and place down gates for any areas that are not the actual store lolz @SoulGal7 and @MyInnerSim ! :) I would also suggest not placing anything interactable outside of the store! During one of my playtests, the first visitor to my store didn't come in, but went straight for the outdoor garbage can I have on my lot and made a complete mess. Next thing that happened is that every sim that came to the store all went for the trashcan and the garbage heap and started playing in that! :D Jaheem tried to chat up his items on sale, but suffice to say, he didn't made much of a profit that day. ;) Don't know why I didn't think myself to clean up the mess, but right when I wanted to close the shop, one of the visitors (must be one with the 'clean' trait) cleaned it up, and voila, the next minute they all hovered back into the store to actually check out what was on sale. Too bad Jaheem's needs were completely in the red at that point, so he just cut his losses and closed shop. :)

Also, I completely forgot about the lot traits! Will have to add some artistic ones to mine! :)

Just a few screenies to break up this wall of text lolz :)

Jaheem working on his art skill. One day, those paintings will be worth a fortune. ;)
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4492/37241112110_2730b288e7_h.jpg

And never realised it, but when your sim takes a photograph in game, there's also a screenshot of it added to your Screenshots folder! :) Check out who came to visit Jaheem one night. Vlad may have had another purpose for visiting, more of the neck biting variety, but Jaheem flattered him and was able to convince him to pose in his photo studio. A picture of a vampire must be worth a fortune right, right? :)
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4509/37241111940_a9d99b738d_h.jpg