A thing this game really needs

@simsplayer818  @kaze_____90  I haven't played it in a while but I created a restaurant in Magnolia Promenade with an apartment on the second floor.  It also has a small yoga studio with a massage chair for a Wellness practice.  I locked the doors to the apartment for the household when it was open so customers couldn't go up there.  Then unlocked them when the store was closed so my sims could invite friends and family to come over.  No NPCs spawned on the lot when the restaurant was closed.  I did have to lock the doors to the restaurant and studio to keep visitors from wandering around in there.

I would have one sim working in the restaurant while the other would invite sims over and then offer yoga classes for them.  You just have to teach a class and then ask the invited sims to join.  After the class, I would have my sim tend the chair and at least one of the invited sims would ask for a treatment.

It works fairly well but there are issues to deal with when having sims live on a business lot.  The household has to own a separate home lot and if you have any sims going to work or school, they will spawn to the home lot.  They can easily be brought to the business lot but it's still kind of annoying.  Paying bills can be done by the phone or computer, so no big deal there.  For restaurants, sams can't sit at a table to have meals.  So, I added bar-top seating in the apartment for meals.

If anyone is interested in testing out a live-in business, I just updated my Magnolia Place lot to add a second bedroom.  I also added some tips for playing it in the comments.  In-game, you can search EA Account ID JonaO703 then look for Magnolia Place.  This is the link to the web version.
https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/D653B1F25C584F119B3B4D263D44D9F9

If you'd rather just have a retail business, it should not be difficult to remove all the Dine Out stuff and add shelves / tables with items for sale.

For everyone read and like this idea, leave a message, we need to made this post stay ever in first page, until can't be ignored, until devs, really need to find a way, to implement this (and if a modder in some way can, they can do it better), raise up, for a better experience for everyone.

I'm always trying to push the boundaries of what my lots can do but I'm on console so I've had to be creative. I really like this idea to add it to the game properly.

So I do have lots that are retail/second homes. I have one Sim that has 3 places. She has her main home in Brindleton Bay plus 2 flower shops with apartments above them. One is in Magnolia Promenade and one is in Mt Komerebi. I have another Sim in Windenburg who has a big weekend place near the beach in Sulani on the Tangled Flat lot which has a gift shop attached (in the gallery, I named it Sulani Cavern). Another has a crafted furniture department store in Newcrest with a small flat. I like them to have a second home but I also want to give them a big crafting space to make their products. I add dumpsters for the crafters to keep finding dyes and scrap to use.

They all work well. I just don't open the stores while they are staying there and lock the private areas to household only. Luckily I haven't had any intruders. The only problem I have occasionally is that paparazzi spawn on the doorstep of some of the stores for some reason. Technically you can just buy a retail lot but not add a store at all, just lock the internal and external doors and computers for any residence.

But I'd like to have retail lots that have something else, like a bowling alley with gift shop or a store with food and those are the things that don't work so well. The most successful one I have is a chain of small gift shops with a roller rink and food court. The rink works, but the food stalls have to be hired or nobody staffs them. So I'd have liked a retail/restaurant for that lot.

@kaze_____90    Yes!  I would love to have multi-purpose lots please. Thanks for sharing!