Hi all,
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I have the same issue, I opened a small business on my residential lot and when I open my business, absolutely no customer shows up. I have no CC either, and the small business is a jewellery shop, I was wondering if it doesn’t work because I haven’t put on the lot the cash register from At Work ? There are no activities apart from browsing and buying items, but no one ever comes to my shop 😟
SkinnyBlessing Running a home business on your residential lot is the aspect I have been playing a lot. Please see my earlier comment about testing this aspect, if you want. I have GTW and I tried adding the cash register on the lot and in my experience it did not make any difference, and it didn't give me the option to put items in the 'for sale', so it doesn't seem to make any difference. I assume it only works if you have a lot designated a 'retail store'. I did some rearranging in my 'bakery' room on my residential lot. I added some of the sale podiums and experimented with both types of glass displays. I found that not every item will snap into place on a podium, add to a glass display, or add to a retail shelf from the pack. However, if I add an item to a regular shelf it does not go for sale. You can tell if the item is for sale when you place it if a red dollar sigh animation kicks in.
Customers did purchase from the glass displays and from the glass cases autonomously for me (no need to check them out like in GTW retail stores). I also found that some non-food items can be added to the podiums and glass display cases, but not all items. There is even one slot where you can add an item on top of the curvy display case that comes with early purchase.
I also add bathrooms for them, and I added a coffee pot and tea set and made 'drink coffee, drink tea, and be friendly' store tasks, add a chess board and one computer. I also made it comfortable for them to browse in. I find that when the customers hang out a bit it increases sales. I increased prices by 50%, and added one or two ambrosia in the glass cases with my other items, and I make around $24,000 on a typical 24 hour open time for this store... but of course that's because I typically sell one or two ambrosias, and my sims are very skilled cooks, so the food prices are higher.
Edit: I thought I should mention that I did not put any restrictions on my store. I wonder if you put restrictions on who the business attracts/allows it may cause you would have less customers? Also, if you chose a target clientele and there were not a lot of them in that game save, you would not have a lot of customers, I assume. For example, if I wanted to target teen spellcasters, it would seem a good idea to check how many are in Manage Households, and if there are not many, perhaps make some additional households that included them, if you want them to come to your business?
Tip: I did find that if I added the dishes clean-up station thing from 'Dine Out' in the room my life was much easier since I have them drinking coffee and tea, and since part of the time I added 'eat' to the store tasks... so lots of dishes. However, the employees, butler, and customers autonomously clean up with the clean-up station there in the room. Also, the customers autonomously make the tea and coffee, if it's on the list of store 'tasks'.
You should see a dollar sign animation.In this example, I got the dollar sign animation when adding items to the business shelf on the left, but not when adding them to the regular shelf on the right.Example of adding an item to the open slot on the top of the curvy shelf.Items that are food and some non-food items can be added to the glass displays or podiums. Also, I could put a painting for sale if I added the "Ingenius Ingvar Creators' Showcase".
