First, I think it's possible to create every shopping experience be it furniture, grocery, or clothing with the get to work retail lot. The problem is that the player needs to build these stores and add what they want them to sell. There is an entire world dedicated to retail and the option to build the lots almost anywhere. Some items that can be sold are not accessible in build mode (for example: harvestables in seed packs.) Nifty knitting adds Plopsy for online sales. City Living has a flea market and Eco Living has a lot that can be changed to create items and then sell them in an open market. If you don't want to do any of that, you can use a sales stall on your home lot and basically have a yard sale. They might not have a lot of them premade, but most people don't have stores because they didn't build them and not because it isn't an option.
One thing they haven't included as an option is enough water activities for a water-based life style. To that end, I am recommending that they create more content for merfolk in the water. I recommend this for all occults BECAUSE occults involve playing the game in a different way that could lead to enhanced depth for non-occult players. And before people jump on me, occults bring with them distinct themes. While it might be nice to not have vampires walk up to your doors if you don't like it...
(I think you can click your front door to block them and merfolk don't even have a visible merform until a household is merwoke, aliens don't show up unless you take an interest in them...)
Anyways, vampires come with gothic decor, aliens with futuristic decor, and merfolk with coastal decor. If you live s water-based lifestyle: There is scuba diving (specifically to see what's underwater meaning following your sim underwater), fishing, sailing, living on a house boat, free diving (Again following a sim underwater), Underwater photography (following a sim underwater), spear fishing (following a sim underwater), treasure hunting (following a sim underwater), seashell collecting (following a sim underwater), scuba diving tours, marine research for marine biologist, submarine underwater exploration (more relevant to people who want to be marine biologists or oceanographers because of the high demand and shortage of submarines capable of reaching certain depths), steam punk style build items like the stuff from 20,000 leagues under the sea...
A new water style for pools, new water objects that can make a pool look similar to a giant aquarium, if you've seen Tanked from animal planet you'd know that aquariums can be a big thing for some people. some objects that can be decorative could also double as an underwater bed for merfolk, AND
I'm certain that if the developers spend time playing as merfolk doing everything they can without leaving the water as much as possible, they might detect some areas for potential additions to the game.
Island Living was supposed to represent Polynesian Culture, a culture centered around living in the middle of the ocean and around the ocean. I'm not kidding, some of the people living around pacific islands don't actually have much land around them. It's just shallow areas of the sea. Personally, I don't live anywhere near the pacific, but I do have personal experiences near coastal areas and islands near the Caribbean. Specifically, mangrove islands, inter-coastal areas, and the ocean shores. Outside of the ocean, there are fresh water springs and pool activities.
My only personal complaint with the Lifestyles is that they grouped the Water Activities with Outdoor Activities. I live in a Sub Tropical Climate that gets very wet. There are two different types of people, people who love the beach, swimming, diving, and exploring coastal environments with mangrove islands you can get lost in, and people who will avoid the water, prefer hiking, off-roading, exploring forests they can get lost in, and other land activities overwhelmingly represented in the sims game right now.
Island Living doesn't capture ocean living as I imagine it, and there are so few things you can do with your sim because your sim disappears into a rabbit hole for so much of the water activities.
I'm sure if you spend time playing with other occults, the occults will expose the areas where they can add depth to the game.
But, one thing I will say... I can wait for them to expand the water activities and develop an underwater environment. Given what I think it will take to expand on what's there, I'd rather wait for it to be done right instead of rushed.
What I would really like to see patched into the game because I very strongly believe it should have come with Island Living when merfolk were introduced is as follows:
Merfolk Bassinets. Every single occult has a bassinet except merfolk. They did the best job hiding the existence of merfolk out of any occult, but I still think they shouldn't be left out of something every other occult gets.
A kind of underwater decoration that can be placed in a pool or the ocean of water front lots that can be decorative and double as a bed for merfolk. It could be themed after seaweed, soft-corals, or even a clam shell. The point is that merfolk can use it as a place to sleep underwater where time speeds up... If that isn't a possibility, it would be nice if time started speeding up for merfolk while they sleep near the surface of the water.
