Chef Archive

I get way more than enough sales than I could reasonably handle, and I've entirely stopped advertising, because to be honest, I dont want more regular customers now, because I already have to spend about an hour or two daily grinding orders since the factories dont work. However I'm sure many of you do want more sales, so I'll share what I've done.

1) Location. Build as close to a major city as you can. My shop is 1km away from theed, naboo, which is one of the most busy cities in our galaxy.

2) Location part2. Join a community. It doesn't need to be a PA. My shops located next to 2 master tailors, 2 master weaponsmiths, a master armorer, 2 master architects, and a couple of other shops. Even if people dont come for my wares, they generally drop by for other stuff.

3) Contacts. Talk to some other artisans. Weaponsmiths would be more than happy to advertise you so that people can defeat the HAM costs of their weapons. Some enterprising people would like you to pass them regular supplies on their vendor(this is a lot of work, since they want a lot at a time, and expect a bulk reduction). You may want to arrange with a friend to have their vendor in your house(I have a friend thats a master doctor selling stim B's from my house. I just pass her all the proceeds). All these will boost your sales LOTS.

4) Advertising. Once you get to Advertising III of the merchant class you can place your vendor on the world map. A lot of people dont check this, but the more intelligent people do. That's the market you're aiming for anyway, because they can understand the benefit of your buffs.

5) Be friendly and polite. I always greet my customers and give them a wave when they're leaving. I've got many regulars now. I also sometimes spend 15-30 minutes going through the different buffs I can make, their benefits, prices, etc. This is a pain in the ass, but once people are more familiar with your buffs shouldn't be as necessary.

6) Advertising on the bazaar. Place a description on the bazaar with your items. It doesn't have to be anything special. Mine generally says where you can find my vendor, what makes the buff useful, and what my rates for bulk orders are. It also says any missing details(like how many uses, since this isn't always displayed).

I've stopped posting my vendor to the world map and advertising on the bazaar because I'm now getting more business then I want(until the factories are fixed). I dont want to have more customers than I can keep happy. Also, if I'm too busy, I try to redirect people to another chef.

I hope this helps. Good luck

Great post J2xC!

Looks like we're on the same server, same planet. However, I'm northeast of Moenia and am not quite 'open' with my shop.

However, I've pretty much done all of this except for obtaining Merchant: Advertising III. It seems to be doing the trick quite nicely.

I've setup my place to look like a nightclub, and I get compliments, people come to rest up and relax, new folks wander in, and what not.

Suggestion for you tho, even though you're the master chef here, and I'm just the Culinary Master...

Set up hotkeys to explain your foods. I've sat down with a notepad and done it, took about an hour to come up with using the recipe printouts, but now when someone asks, I poke one of a few macros, and all of thier questions are answered.

In the meantime, I'm sitting there grinding away on Ithorian Mist...lol (not that you need xp, but we don't want annoyed chefs out there!)

Great Tips! Now I'm going to add mine

Patience - as J also said, people will really appreciate you spending time discussing about THEIR needs, not what you can make best. Even though I don't need any XP from Domestic Arts foods, if a Dom food is what will best suit their needs, I will make it for them.

Reliability and Punctuality - I always get my orders done ASAP, and always offer them exactly what they wanted if not better. They notice the effort and keep on coming back.

Advertising - Just wanted to back up what J said, Advertising is SO important, your loyal customers and friends will gladly spread word of mouth about what you can offer if you ask.

Galaxy Forums - Post there! Let them know you exist! A lot of people want food but simply cant find you!

It took about a week of regularly posting sunburns on the bazaar and giving out free samples to friends, now I have a TON of orders, it gets hard to keep up. I have yet to open my store too (hopefully today or tommarow).

This is true ... it is a great post Thanks.

Its been a week now that I setup a tiny place with a simply coke machine vendor just north of Coronet next to other well know merchants. I sell exclusively Tatooine Sunburns for now as I am finding that I dont have the time to make anything else and frankly the demand/price makes it worth it. Currently the price is 500cr per use/drink and I think that fair plus it keeps the inventory moving lots. (at least till crates are fixed)

I have advertised on my galaxy forum by simply stating that my shop was now open and when the benefits of the TS is. Also putting a product on the Bazar as advertising has worked along with the occasional yell when in highly dense areas. However I have found that people have actually purchased 1 use of Tatooine Sunburn on the bazzar for 3000cr not knowing it was for advertising only cause they didnt read the description. When I get the email like that I immediately send the buyer a tell and explain to them where they can find my vendor and how much cheaper it is there. Instand customer. The bottom line is that over the last few weeks I have come to realize that there are people out there with lots of credits and they WILL pay for great stuff.

Over time I am confident that buffs will be more understood and then all of us will be pulling out our hair to make order

<waves and goes back to mixing hehe>

Great post. A lot of useful ideas in there.

Only thing I can add that has worked for me, and I know for a lot of others as well--Make Packs. If you know someone who is a medic, craft a bunch of food and drink that augments the mind bar. I got a satchel and filled it with stacks of Charde, Ruby Bliel and the like, and sold it to a medic friend of mine for one set price, and he loved it. I got a good combo of food/drink sohe could stack as many buffs as possible. It lasted him the whole day and he was able to heal a lot more effectively. I have also made different packs for Action and Health, and other combos like a Regen Packs, Low HAM Cost Packs, and Total HAM Packs. People like the convenience and I've got a lot of requests for these.

Silly question Net but have you equiped one of the packs? That makes a ton of difference. I hope I am not being pedantic wit hthat answer

BTWthis is great stuff guys! I have been so head down bum up grinding that I haven't even stopped to figure out what I can do to get customers. Fortunately my PAs city is well travelled for all the other crafters so I hope to piggyback off of that.

I should be out of Nov Chef and off to the box grind tomorrow. Now to figure out what box to get first.....

This may be a really dense question.. but how do you beat the item limit for making satchels?

As far as I can tell, I can carry total of 60 items in my inventory, regardless of whether they are in packs or not.. am I wrong?

My problem is that with all the stuff I am carrying, to be able to craft a variety of foods at any given time.. I only have room for three or four completed items.. I guess I could go safe deposit some armor in the bank, but still.. doesn't seem like much of an improvement. (sorry to go a bit afk, but it seemed to be the proper place to ask)

To get back on track, I found yesterday that a really good place for me to peddle my wares is in the medical centers.. people are there.. they have nothing better to do, so you can strike up a conversation easily.. they are not in all that much of a hurry... and since I have base medic, and a few skill points to spare anyway, I make money while handing out "free samples", and crafting away on medical supplies too. I know this does not increase my general crafting, but I can hand them to other doctors there, and I have considered eventually trying the bio-eng... all in all.. nothing but bonuses for me.

Good stuff here. I've been wondering about a lot of this kinda stuff since I started working on a chef a few days ago. I'm just getting all my resources together, and I'm trying to set up everything that I'll need eventually for my restaurant in my PAs city. Right now though, it's mostly working on the skills before I begin to advertise and such.

Oh, and quick question... are there many chefs on Chilastra?

yeah very good post dude

A few things that worked for me:

• Grab Novice medic, then go sit in a medical center.. if it's not crowded with master medics, your limited skills will mean that you will take some time to completely heal someone's wounds.. while you do, make sure to tell them about your goods


• The bartender gig... I actually did a lot of action/willpower/focus stuff that I handed out free to the entertainers in the cantina.. it's not TOO useful to them, but I'd rather do that and get some UXP, than practice the things away at +5%..


• others have mentioned this, but I think it bears saying again.. MACROS.. macro all your jabbering to customers.. it saves you time, and makes sure you don't forget anything


• Education: I am astonished to find that people don't know that most foods stack (you can eat more than one before you're full. I always start my sales pitch with the stacked value of the food/drink I am trying to sell. So make sure people understand the following: foods stack, drinks stack, food AND drinks "stack", the character window is bugged, you can eat and drink as soon as you run out.


• Advice on using the foods: give your customers macros.. for instance: a drink macro, which automatically sets a timer for when the food runs out and they need to eat more.


• Roleplaying.. I realize this is not for everyone.. but for me it is fun, and I do get a LOT more business that way, especially while tending bar.


• Mailings: Have ready made mails for your customers. You make these by making a template which you mail to yourself. you can then cut and paste from it every time you need it. I always get acceptance to mail some tips to my customers. In the mail I list the following: location of vendor, pricing information, macros to help managing consumables.. and whatever fluff I can think think of that's appropriate at the time.

I don't have a shop yet, because I've been stocking a vendor at Leppy's Lounge on Chilastra.

I will have a house tonight, but I'm not so sure I want to place a vendor yet... I will also get Entrees 4 tonight (new title, yay!) so we'll have to see

Since I can't make tatooine sunburns, I doubt I'd get any business... most people ask me if I can make those, and if I can't, they scoff and run off.

Mailings: Have ready made mails for your customers. You make these by making a template which you mail to yourself. you can then cut and paste from it every time you need it.

I've not had any luck getting cut and paste to work in game. I send myself Thank You mails or Advertising mails, which I then forward out to customers or potential customers after I've removed all the annoying > and FW: designators.

It does save me time, but Cut and Paste would be faster. How do you get this to work?