Chef Archive

---

DoveAthodo wrote:

I have been a Chef for awhile now and my sales have been steady, so here is my 2 cr. In no particular order

1) Vendors:

A) Naming:

Create vendors with names that say exactly what they hold. Vendors with names like "Sally" make your potential customers guess what might be on that vendor. Why do that, to me it seems almost shady, honesty for a Chef-Merchant is the best policy. I have 3 Chef food related vendors, can you guess what they have on them? 1) Bio Enchanced Chef Food Crates 2) Chef Food Crates 3) Chef Food Stacks

---

---

DoveAthodo wrote:

5) Shop decorations:

Vendors just standing is a room all alonein boring. Make your shop look like a lived in shop and people will remember your shop over another Chef shop. Here are a few ideas: take a few toolchests and turn them around to make a counter that your vendors stay behind (can you thing of any fast food place without a counter?) Put food with interesting graphics on the counter, it displays your food and adds to the mood you want to set (I have been told my shop makes people hungry). Set up a few tables with a couple of chairs and have place setting of food and drinks (add a candle on the table for a finishing touch). When comparing Chefs and the prices are the same you need something to set yourself apart from the rest.

---

Actually, another thing I do with vendors is make little stories with them. I run a cantina and I treat my vendors as if they were Norm, Cliff and Carla from cheers.

I have four vendors.

• Lee Viz - Lazy Bouncer


• Naman Noodon - Gentle bartender - drinks


• Aylsea - Sassy Waitress - foods


• Tasalak - Shady Spice dealer.

When you walk into the cantina, you meet, in order, the bounder, the bartender, the waitress and the dealer. The latest ad barking I made up is:

• Lee Viz: Heheheh. Hey, want to see something funny? Tell Tasalak that Borvo the Hutt is coming.


• Naman Noodon: Murhuchada moruun. M'roomana Borva mu dun Hutt. Ho ho ho ho (he is Ithorian, what do you expect?)


• Aylsea: Hey Tasalak, did you hear Borvo the Hutt is coming?


• Tasalak: My good friend Borvo is coming? I wonder if he is still mad about that slave girl. HIDE ME!

And then I change it every few weeks. Customers seem to appreciate it.

---

DoveAthodo wrote:

I3) Top Quality:

A) Skill Tapes:

Make sure you get at least +20 Food Experimentation tapes, it is expensive but worth it. People want the best, so give them the best. B) Know what works: Read these forums to find bugs and foods that have limits. This can be seen in Bivoli Tempari that is made to be +23.9, because I read the forums I know that this is no different then +23.1 Bivoli. Don't waste experimentation points on useless things, those points could be used better in duration.

Message Edited by DoveAthodo on 04-13-2004 03:42 PM

---

I have been a Chef for awhile now and my sales have been steady, so here is my 2 cr. In no particular order

1) Vendors:

A) Naming:

Create vendors with names that say exactly what they hold. Vendors with names like "Sally" make your potential customers guess what might be on that vendor. Why do that, to me it seems almost shady, honesty for a Chef-Merchant is the best policy. I have 3 Chef food related vendors, can you guess what they have on them? 1) Bio Enchanced Chef Food Crates 2) Chef Food Crates 3) Chef Food Stacks

B) Registry:

Make sure you have your vendors registered so people can find them and get an easy waypoint

C) Vendors that sell stacks:

I have gotten lots of thank you's over this. Some consumers may not be able to afford or even want a full crate of foods. So what I do is break up the last crate in my factory run and put 10 stacks on my stacks vendor. It does good sales.

2) Stock:

A) Quantity:

2A) Too much:

Make sure you split up your vendors so you do not have 1 vendor with 10 pages of items, having a large inventory is nice but people tend to loose interest if they have to load page after page after page of items and may miss what they really want.

2A) Too little:

People hate empty vendors. Make sure you have enough items so that you are not wiped clean in 1 day.

B) Variety:

It is nice have have a vendor that sells only 1 type of food but that makes the customer inconvienced when he wants something else. Also that is lost sales that you could have had. Make sure you have many different types of food, there are lots of professions that require different buffs. Just because a combat class won't use it doesn't mean a crafter wouldn't.

3) Top Quality:

A) Skill Tapes:

Make sure you get at least +20 Food Experimentation tapes, it is expensive but worth it. People want the best, so give them the best. B) Know what works: Read these forums to find bugs and foods that have limits. This can be seen in Bivoli Tempari that is made to be +23.9, because I read the forums I know that this is no different then +23.1 Bivoli. Don't waste experimentation points on useless things, those points could be used better in duration.

4) Dealing with customers:

A) Food Naming:

Name your food so that the customer can know what is does in a glance. Example: (BE) Vasarian Brandy - +410 M/F/W DR=43m13s F=49 Q=18. (BE) means Bio Enhanced, M means mind, F means focus, W means willpower, DR means duration, F means filling, and Q means quanity.

B) Discounts:

For special orders charge less then you would put it on your vendor for. It will have your customer come back later when they need more. Also discount for big spenders. Read those e-mails and find out who drops off lots of cash and offer them a 10% cash back so they come back again.

C) Attitude:

Always be nice and courteous. Good manners go a long way. But don't go too far and be too chatty, remember they want food you sell it, they aren't looking for a chat buddy. Also be prompt in returning e-mails to potential customers. If you wait too long they will move on and get someone else to do it. Also if they are waiting for a certain food send them an e-mail with updates every so often, people like to be in the know. Also allow the customer to have a custom name on the food, some people want them as decorations.

5) Shop decorations:

Vendors just standing is a room all alonein boring. Make your shop look like a lived in shop and people will remember your shop over another Chef shop. Here are a few ideas: take a few toolchests and turn them around to make a counter that your vendors stay behind (can you thing of any fast food place without a counter?) Put food with interesting graphics on the counter, it displays your food and adds to the mood you want to set (I have been told my shop makes people hungry). Set up a few tables with a couple of chairs and have place setting of food and drinks (add a candle on the table for a finishing touch). When comparing Chefs and the prices are the same you need something to set yourself apart from the rest.

6) Pricing:

A) Too high:

If you charge too much people won't buy your food.

B) Too low:

People might think it is poor quality, or you will sell out in one day and have empty vendors. Also other Chefs on your server may tend not to like you very much.

C) Just right:

Set prices that are a bit over average but not too high. At a middle range some people will buy your food and some people won't. The cheap vendors will eventually sell out, leaving their customers looking for other Chefs. The high priced vendors will scare customers to alsolook for other Chef vendors. If everyone always buys every food item they look at on your vendor,this would be a bad thing. Why, because then you will usually be out of stock and people will stop visiting your shop because of you being out of stock all the time.

I hope this helps fellow Chefs get the sales they want.

Message Edited by DoveAthodo on 04-13-2004 03:42 PM

My business parnter bought the outfit for me for 10 million off another Chef that was quitting the profession.

Since the revamp I have made over 15,000,000 and 3,000,000 this weekend alone. I mostly buy my resources instead of harvest and I spend lots of money on decorations. Everything I sell (-Vasarian Brandy) is under 150K.

I wrote this from a business point of view, not a roleplaying point of view. If one of you guys want to go ahead.

Message Edited by DoveAthodo on 04-14-2004 07:34 AM

---

DoveAthodo wrote:

My business parnter bought the outfit for me for 10 million off another Chef that was quitting the profession.

---

True, I never said it was easy, I what I should have said was "if possible get the tapes" because customers want the best over the rest. 2 extra experimentation points makes the food 16.66% better then the food someone without the extra points can make. Would you like a 35% slice or a 24% slice? Would you pay more for a 35% slice?

This guide I created was trying to showmy view how to have a successful shop NOT THE ONLY WAY sheesh.

Bottom line: Vasarian Brandy that is +412 for 46m is better than Vasarian Brandy that is +412 for 39m and people will buy the better Brandy over the lesser Brandy (if you don't over charge).

Here is my story so you understand why I wrote this the way I did, if anyone cares.

I started Chef in early October 03. I was in a very active guild. 95% of the people left the game in November andI was left guildless.I took a break from the game.

I came back when player cities were introduced. I had no home an only knew about 3 people. I asked around for a place to live, selling myself as a novice Chef. Another Chef who has been a Master from almost the beginning took interest in me. She invited me to the city she lived in and asked ifI wanted to go into business with her. I said yes.

She supplied me with the money I needed to finish my grind to Master Chef. We then set up shop and she felt that since she had +20 food experimentation that I should also have +20 food experimentation so when we sell our food there is no quality difference.

I'm a Master Merchant and she is a Master BE, I supply the vendors and she supplies the additives. When she wants to sell something she offers it on my vendor and I buy and put it for sale at the same price.

Since the revamp I have made what I consider a good deal of money and our business is doing well. Last weekend we had over 40 sales.

So I guess I was just lucky to meet a person as nice as Natacha my patron. /salute

---

SirVimes wrote:

When you walk into the cantina, you meet, in order, the bounder, the bartender, the waitress and the dealer. The latest ad barking I made up is:

• Lee Viz: Heheheh. Hey, want to see something funny? Tell Tasalak that Borvo the Hutt is coming.


• Naman Noodon: Murhuchada moruun. M'roomana Borva mu dun Hutt. Ho ho ho ho (he is Ithorian, what do you expect?)


• Aylsea: Hey Tasalak, did you hear Borvo the Hutt is coming?


• Tasalak: My good friend Borvo is coming? I wonder if he is still mad about that slave girl. HIDE ME!

And then I change it every few weeks. Customers seem to appreciate it.

---

Wow - that is so cool! Makes me wanna create several vendors! hehe, very cool idea...hmmm, need to rethink vendor shop very cool...very cool....

---

DoveAthodo wrote:

This guide I created was trying to showmy view how to have a successful shop NOT THE ONLY WAY sheesh.

---

And all I was trying to do was give some insight in trying to make it an overall guide. In the past I have given advice on how to make a guide better in certain ways. Your right this isn't the only way. When I read a guide to learn something new though I prefer it to be as general as possible and then details can be added in in certain things.

If I had read this before I started chef I might have gotten the impression that if I don't plan on getting +2 exp points then I shouldn't bother with chef because I can't run a successful food shop. I know you didn't mean it that way, but that is an interpretation people can get from it. I would love for something like this to be added to the FAQ or something, but in its current form it is way to specific for my tastes. All I was trying to do was help you include other viewpoints that you don't have or wouldn't have considered.