owning property on sims 4
how do my sims purchase bars, café, or other businesses? the game keeps saying sim cant own previously owned businesses
Forum Discussion
You cannot purchase a café (if you mean a coffee shop) or bar, (though you can get a bit creative in how you run your restaurant to make it somewhat similar - sort of), but you can build a café or bar in the game and people will use it. You can make and run a restaurant that is basically a café or bar in the sense that you gear your menu to a limited type of drink/food, but you have to designate it as a restaurant and run by restaurant rules to own/purchase/run it (have a host/waiter/waitress/cook to serve the food, etc.) - and as @jpkarlsen so succinctly explained, you will need to purchase 'Dine Out' to do that.
The 'retail' stores (you need 'Get to Work' to own or run those, as @jpkarlsen stated) have quite a bit of flexibility as to what you can sell and how. For instance, I have retail stores in which I sell dishes my Sims cook (and produce) through 'Lice Cold Freezers', plus you can add an espresso bar into that retail store and hire a barista - but I don't think you make the profits from the coffee sales? You can add a bar and hire a bartender in your restaurant, but I also don't think you make the profits from the drinks they make... I think it's more like with a party that you hired a bartender for).
I usually keep my 'cafe' type stores open 24-72 hours and make up to $40,000 doing so. I have pricy dishes and expensive produce, though, but I just have them cook and clean. (The people purchase directly from the freezers, so no need to ring them up.) I find the retail employees to be rather worthless. I have uploaded several versions of this type of retail store that I personally made/use into my Origin gallery (same username) if you want to try one (if you purchase/have 'Get to Work').
If you just like to build and don't want to run the businesses, as I mentioned you can build in lots the type of community building you want and your Sims and other community Sims will be able to use them. Or you can look through the gallery for buildings/lots that you want in your towns - including restaurants, bars, etc.
