can you live on your "retail" lot if you open up shop?

what do you mean you can't lock the doors? i build apartments on every retail lot and am able to lock the door to everyone but household/sim owner. i only have businesses in willow creek though. is this something that happens in particular neighborhoods?

"shezoe;c-16201226" wrote:
what do you mean you can't lock the doors? i build apartments on every retail lot and am able to lock the door to everyone but household/sim owner. i only have businesses in willow creek though. is this something that happens in particular neighborhoods?

Some comments, and this thread in general, were created before door locking was added to the game. All doors can be locked now in any world.

I had several sims live on their retail lot, either in a dedicated apartment, top floor or basement, or a separate building. It works fine, but it's easy to forget living a regular life, lol. And, I did this only with single sims, a young couple or a mature couple. I think it might be too much plunder even with kids (and pets?) running about. Depending on what business you run of course.

"Simmerville;c-16201287" wrote:
I had several sims live on their retail lot, either in a dedicated apartment, top floor or basement, or a separate building. It works fine, but it's easy to forget living a regular life, lol. And, I did this only with single sims, a young couple or a mature couple. I think it might be too much plunder even with kids (and pets?) running about. Depending on what business you run of course.

It can be a bit of a hassle.
I've only tried it with two YA siblings and two cats living on a vet clinic lot. When they go to school/work and are done they automatically go to your actual home lot, so you have to remember to click the "Bring Sim here" option everytime. And if all your Sims are at work/school and the first one comes back home then you'll be redirected to your home lot.
Another thing I find annoying is the handling of the finances. Like I need some money in my vet clinic account to buy/build stuff on the vet lot, but I also need some money on my household account to start paintings, cook food etc. It's confusing and annoying.

So all in all I do like the concept of living on your lot, but once again another Sims game handled it better (I'm talking about TS2 here where you could just create a business on your home lot).

I really don't understand why EA never considered making this an actual feature in the first place. There are soooo many people who live above or next to their business. It's really annoying to not be able to do this in the game. And it's not even that big of a hassle to make.

LittleMsSam has a mod that allows your Sims to live on the same lot as your business. I am going to try it next week. Feedback on it is favorable.

LittleMsSam's mod doesn't include Retail business, sadly.

Her mod includes businesses such as a cafe, a nightclub, a daycare, a gym, and a pet care center. I apologize for not stating which businesses are included in this mod.

Can you buy a retail lot and live on it.. use it effectively as a second home without ever opening up the store?
I understand you probably can't go to work or school from it or have a baby there but wondering. I usually play young adult sims and hoping I can own two lots this way. I never owned one for long only set up restaurants and stores to work on their own.
Oh also for the simmers in the know out there can we have club gatherings on a "closed" retail lot?

I read this and immediately tried it. My family brought a restaurant and they "lived" over the restaurant.
Their cousin was living at home and working at her job. I stopped playing her and was only playing the restaurant lot.
It was going well, until the waiter and waitress stopped working. The waitress was fired for sleeping on a bench while all the customers were waiting to be served.