Chef Archive

Message Edited by Aitass on 03-04-2005 09:09 PM

I have my own shop in a merchant tent. Why? Because nothing screams "There's a shop here!!!" like a tent does. Guild halls show up on the planetary with the blur of vendor names overlapping each other, but my tent, regardless of whether there are a ton of other names around it or not, still LOOKS like there is a place of business inside. Aside from that, I enjoy having total autonomy. I can place new vendors as I see fit, and take them away without worrying about the vendor layout of somebody else's mall. I have total decorating control and so nobody else can be blamed or praised for the design of my shop. If one day, I feel like ripping the whole thing up and starting the decor from scratch, I can do that without having to either wait for somebody to log on to give me admin or having the building owner bite their nails while leaving me on permanant admin.

As long as your individual shop will be someplace close to another large merchant group, I don't see any drawbacks to owning your own place. Really, the only benefit to being in a mall is that you have the draw of other vendors around that create impulse buys. However, if you're just going to plunk down a house and it's not in a place where there are many, many other merchants that run out of their homes as well, be aware that people don't usually go scanning random homes' signs to see what's inside. If you're on the planetary, it helps, but I would still venture to say that merchant tents send the clearest message that there will be something for sale inside.

I've owned my own shop out of a Medium Naboo House near Theed for over six months, and for me there are a lot of benefits:

1. Control over the environment.

I get to change the name of the house to indicate when I've restocked, I can decorate the shop how I like, and I basically have control over all those aspects of the store. This lets me create the kind of shop and the kind of environment that I want, plus it acts as a home base for me and my close friends in game. I have spare food stored there for our personal use, and that kind of thing.

2. Focus

My shop is one thing--O.Foods Chef Vendor. I sell food. I've had offers to place vendors for spices, for loot, for medical supplies, but I prefer to focus this location on selling my food only. There's no confusion about what's on my vendors or what kind of shop it is. I keep it stocked, I make sure people know the location and the waypoint, and in return my customers get to associate my shop with one single thing--affordable prices for good food.

3. Reputation

My reputation is my shop's reputation, and it's based solely on how I do business myself. There's no chance of negative publicity for one of my partners, which then reflects on me, or of anybody having problems with someone else in the shop, because it's my shop and mine alone. The only people I have problems with are the Overpriced Chefs Union, who keep trying to shut me down for selling food at a reasonable price!


You asked for the benefits, so those are my opinions on the benefits. There are obviously benefits to working together with a person or a group that you trust to build a shopping center or a mall, so my answers aren't meant to disregard those. I've enjoyed running my own shop and those are my views on what's good about it.

O.

I fyour more or elss jut startign out id would higly recommend jt goign for the busy mall. That will bring a good income. I know when i shop i go dtraight for malls and dont bother looking at the other vendors until ive looked in the malls. I started in a mall and havent expanded past there yet. Once im really making it big i may condsider moving to another locaiton but i probably will never stop sellign stuff at the mall.