Retail Store Ideas

I made an ice cream shop & an occult shop (selling magic items, vampire items, herbalism recipes, refined crystals & jungle adventure relics, etc). I have also created "retail" cafes selling various foods, as I got tired of dealing with actual restaurants.

I have the Olesons Mercantile store, which sells food and clothing mostly.

Also a bakery, an outdoor store (with jungle and camping stuff) and a knitting store (with the different coloured llama wools).

I used to have a flower shop too, but my sims never went there.

I basically only bother with shops that mainly sell things you cannot get in bb mode, with a few standard bb items to fill it out if necessary.

Right now my game has the grocery store which I know you saw me mention in another thread, plus a small bakery. And I have 2 other retail lots that are in place, but no one has bought them yet to set up the actual store.

The grocery store is huge, on a 40x30 lot, with 2 stories for the store plus a bar on the 2nd floor where Sims can also order drinks and food when they are shopping and a 3rd story with living quarters for the owners.
It also has a playground in back so kids can stay occupied while their parents shop, and I have the grocery vendor stall from cottage living outside as well, because the store sells ALL food ingredients except red and white wrapped meat...the game won't let you sell those two things on a retail lot sadly.

I use mods by LittleMsSams so that the vendor stall and the bar both automatically get staff assigned to them, even though normally they wouldn't on a retail lot.

The bakery is just a tiny bakery like anyone would have in their game.

One of the 2 currently inactive retail lots is a potion/herbalism shop that I'm going to sell potions from RoM and Herbalism out of and also all of the ingredients for those 2 skills.
It is a small shop, with a large garden beside it for growing the ingredients and living quarters on the 2nd floor. I'll be buying and getting it set up for business with my Sim who is a teenage spellcaster right now, once she grows up and graduates from university.

The 2nd currently inactive retail lot I just finished building right now and it is where I will sell upgraded appliances like that other thread was talking about. I set up an area for kitchen appliances plus areas for vacuum cleaners, stereos, TV's, computers, sinks, toilets, baths and showers and put a 2nd floor living area on it.
I'll be buying that with the next Sim that rolls around who has traits appropriate for someone who is into handiness, whenever that happens. I randomize traits for Sims born in game so I have no idea how long it will be before it's open for business.

I'll also probably open a flower shop at some point down the road, where a Sim can do flower arranging and grow flowers beside the shop. It's not in place anywhere in the game yet. I'm hoping the new world coming with the Wedding pack is large enough that I can find a small lot there to put it.

Edit: Just remembered you asked for tips. I don't really have any other than "have fun". Retail locations can run themselves, so there's no real secrets that I can think of for having them. But they definitely are better if you have a Sim own them, because then the employees are there even when other Sims you play shop there. If the retail location is unowned there's never any employees at it...you can still shop there, but I just find it weird shopping somewhere that has no employees.

The Spark-n-Fizz, Bess Sterling's shop where she sells fizzy juices and upgraded appliances
(Just starting out, pretty bare-bones right now. I'm happy that I got a run-down look, not easy in sims!)
https://i.postimg.cc/KvkhdnB4/spark-customers.png

I'm pretty new to retail gameplay so I'm still learning as I go.

So far, the most significant tip for Bess has been that when she sells an item, she can just click on the item's marker to restock it, and the restocked item is the same in every way as the item that just sold. She doesn't have to go to the fizzy station and make more juice. She doesn't have to do the same upgrades on the next appliance. Once she's upgraded an appliance to start with, all replacement appliances have the same upgrades.
Restocking takes a little time but not as much as fizzing or upgrading from scratch.

I haven't yet been successful in having customers buy bottles of fizz from the fridge. They will buy six-packs of it off a table. I'm not sure if there is a glitch at work or if the other items are just more attractive.

I have a couple of malls, they sell clothes (Moschino, everyday, swimwear), music instruments, bakery goods, pet treats, Christmas decorations, electronics, small gift type objects like vases and future cubes, baby furniture, make-up decor, toys, shoes. I also have some smaller shops that sell flowers, books, jewellery, icecream, wedding dresses, shoes and lingerie, seasonal clothing. I had a knitting supplies store with an area for knitting, but it got demolished. I also have some sims that sell stuff on the sales tables, so not really stores, but they could be. One sells honey, another one sells apples and apple juice, and another one sells relics and emotion berries. I have plans for a photography shop, but I haven't decided yet if it will be a proper shop or just use those picture displays. Anyway, I guess you could make a shop to sell just about anything, though some objects like the small aquariums cannot be set for sale, and sims can't reach objects placed in some glass displays. But if you want to make craftable objects available to other sims who don't craft, shops are a great way to do that. I also use the shops as places where sims can access the different craft machines, so they can either buy or craft items themselves.

@mightsprite, once she's been in business long enough to get more perks, there is a perk that makes restocking "instant". Well worth it once you can get it.

Love the look of your place, by the way. I struggle to get that grunge look when I try, you did an excellent job of it.

As for buying out of the fridge, I sell eggs, milk, cheese and fizzy drinks out of the refrigerator in the grocery store of my game and have never seen a Sim actually buy from it when playing the owning household. My other Sim households do buy from it all the time though. It's just convenient as heck.

You don't need to "restock" the items in the refrigerator, so honestly it's possible unplayed Sims have bought from it and I just didn't notice.

@EternalSunshine A Spellcaster shop sounds like so much fun! How do you find all the items to sell though? I've never seen the brooms and wands in Build / Buy.

@elanorbreton A camping store is on my list of shops I want to build. I'd like to have all the tents, camping coolers for sale etc. A knitting shop is a great idea. That would be so cute in Henford & Bagley.

@Stormkeep I really want to try a grocery store, but I'm just struggling to think of how I would lay out individual fruits and veggies. How do you display your groceries? Are they laid out on tables? Too bad we can't pile them in baskets ha. I think I will need to get that mod you mentioned too.

@mightysprite It's good that you don't have to make the item again from scratch. I don't remember if the Baked goods are like that too. I'd like to sell those fizzy drinks too though. That sounds perfect for a little convenience store.

@crocobaura oh wow, I think I need to work up a bit of skill before I try to build an entire mall. Actually, I've never even set foot inside the mall in the game. I wonder what's there. :joy: I should have a look around next time. I was thinking to start with a really small store first. I love your idea of a little gift shop with some small clutter objects. If you buy the mall in the game and make different types of stores, do you need a lot of employees at cash registers within each shop, or do you just set up one main area to pay for everything?

"Elliandre;c-18051666" wrote:

@Stormkeep I really want to try a grocery store, but I'm just struggling to think of how I would lay out individual fruits and veggies. How do you display your groceries? Are they laid out on tables? Too bad we can't pile them in baskets ha. I think I will need to get that mod you mentioned too.

I'll make some screenshots to post here when I visit it again later today. But a lot of what is sold I have on the floor, but with platforms built so that the "floor" is actually at waist height, making it look like a counter or table. using alt you can get a lot of produce really close together that way. You can also use bb.moveobjects on to stack it up like it would be in a real store.
And yep, Sims can still buy it and you can restock it when you do it that way, as long as they can reach it.

You didn't ask me this one, but for the potion store I'm setting up, I plan to buy brooms and wands from the vendor in the Magic Realm for her to sell. But you could also get them from Build/Buy. Don't forget with the cheat to show debug items, you can access alot of that stuff that you normally can't.

If you like building retails and are not too bothered by running them yourself it might be fun to build a mall so you can several stores in the same lot? I am not much for running the stores myself as I prefer to have my sims visit and then being able to buy what they need in game instead of using Build & Buy. These are a description of a few of the stores I have built:

Avarice Mall
This area is for my rich sims. So if something is expensive this is the place to go.
Inside are stores with expensive cakes, camping or ski related things, a jewel/gold store, store with flowers, another with seasons related things like ready decorated Christmas threes, presents and so on.
I was adding a wedding boutique as well, but had to put that on hold after I encountered the dressed mannequin bug.

Midtown streets (Work in progress)
This is where my poor/middle class sims will go for most of their shopping needs as there are plenty of stores in different buildings:
There is Grandmas knitting (also sells llama wool and cross stitching items).
Mr Cake sells cheap wedding/birthday cakes for my off grid sims and looks like a café.
The Handyman for anything outdoorsy, woodworking tables, candle stations and so on.
The Mystique shop has second hand furniture from different packs: Realm of Magic, Vampires, Jungle Adventure and Paranormal. For the unlucky sim there is also the risk of buying something haunted like maybe a medium table.
Johnny’s - cheap music related things downstairs and a special store upstairs.
Sally’s shop for when you need egg, sugar, flour or milk and so on. Also sells clutter items like shampoo and storage boxes.
The Oasis – Anything spa related, massage tables, towels, yoga mats etc.
Joy for all Seasons – Seasons decorations, Spooky stuff, presents etc. Also sells some kid related stuff.
The Amaryllis –Sells Scented flowers.

Charms & Elixirs
Sells potions, and occult/paranormal things. At least to the right buyers. The general public will have to be happy with “magic” crystals, and maybe some lesser magic that can be explained away like the Potion of Good Fortune (It was just luck) and other similar things.

Sandys Pets & Things
A pet shop with pet related things. They were also supposed to be selling pet fishes but it turned out that only tanks can be sold and not the fish inside them…
+ added on the same lot is my little curiosa store with collections items like the easter egg collection, plushies, snow globes, posters and so on.

@Ember_Fox, you can sell fish if you lay it out rather than in the tank. And you can then add it to a fish tank in the home of the Sim that buys it.

That's a little weird though, as it will seem like you are buying a fish to eat, and then it is somehow alive when you get home. :lol:
I sell fish in my grocery store and sometimes buy the fish to then put in a fish tank. It's weird, but ... game limitations and all.