Retail store VS yard sale

If you have two (or more) sims in the household, probably not. If you only have one sim, then employees can sell (hopefully) while your sim makes more product

I think retail offers a few more options via perks, and a bit more flexibility on pricing, but I haven't used retail in a long time, mostly for the reason you cited.

Retail is good when you want to spend money. Also, you can sell in retail stuff you cannot sell in a yard sale, like furniture.

I've added little shops to some of my sims home lots so they can use the selling tables and it works well. I have a gardener with a produce stand and a painter with a studio. They make a lot of money and I can lock doors to prevent shoppers from invading their homes. And I can have anyone in the household sell.

Hm, I did not have many backyard sales, and only had a few sims owning a store. But i like building stores also for a place where other sims can go and meet. Like I have 3 or 4 malls (NPC owned) with a variety of stores and normally a café. I use them mostly to meet with other sims. I'm playing on rotation though, otherwise I guess the need of such locations might be limited ;)

"asimbsim;c-17695567" wrote:
I didn;t realise that you could actually do backyard sales! I must explore this!!!

It's such a much less involved mechanic (but not boring); no talking for hours with a single person making them maybe buy an item, no handling of employees, a much much higher profit margin since you don't have to pay for restock (you just sell junk you have or make).

The only downside is that it lacks a restock mechanic so you HAVE to make new things to sell. But then again I find rich sims boring so I only put on a sale once a week or so unless I need to renovate. I mean with bills for a four room apartment at 500 a week (thanks to Eco Living) AFTER patch and an income of 10 000 or so per sale... Yeah, I'm good. No stress, no hamster wheel to lock my Sims into a career. Just dumpster diving, making Fizz and have fun.

The sales tables are definitely easier to use than a shop, but they all have such a shabby and garage sale vibe to them. It's not possible to make a proper looking shop with them.

I use retail stores for storytelling purposes only. Yard sales make more money, so depends on what I'm playing at in my game. My rags to riches Sim, who is homeless will use yard sales to sell his goods, whereas my legacy family who had a flower retail shop in Gen 2 and has passed it down through 7 generations so far, that it's sentimental to keep. I barely use the retail store functionality....but mainly storytelling purposes.

"Sha2520032003;c-17695759" wrote:
I use retail stores for storytelling purposes only. Yard sales make more money, so depends on what I'm playing at in my game. My rags to riches Sim, who is homeless will use yard sales to sell his goods, whereas my legacy family who had a flower retail shop in Gen 2 and has passed it down through 7 generations so far, that it's sentimental to keep. I barely use the retail store functionality....but mainly storytelling purposes.

I also think that for me, having two highly intelligent and well educated "hippies" (aka anti-corporate, pro environment) Sims it is just not fitting to own any kind of business. A yard sale fits their theme perfectly.

I like both options. I play many households so it’s nice to be able to go to a retail store to buy produce when my sims don’t garden. Or alien fruit and gems instead of traveling to Sixam.

"crocobaura;c-17695616" wrote:
The sales tables are definitely easier to use than a shop, but they all have such a shabby and garage sale vibe to them. It's not possible to make a proper looking shop with them.

Did you check out the CC street sales tables at aroundthesims? Sandy made a few versions, still kinda backyard but without the banners and boxes, they make a much cleaner impression. I used some at my Oasis Springs market, you can see some pictures on this old blog post. I think the link to dl might be there, if not - let me know :)

Edit: Why didn't I just post one of those pictures... LOL

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RfQruFqBU14/XqbUvrHY1oI/AAAAAAAAM8o/9nv9v6wtwoYsQ20v6ngdaDjsfu-ZBk7xQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/20200427-sandtrap6.jpg