Merchant Archive

This is the original proposal. Please help me to fine tune it. All changes to the original have been made in purple.

The Mini-Mall -

· Lot use =3 personal lots

· Main Hub Item count =200

· Stores available = 5

The Mall -

· Lot use = 6 personal lots

· Main Hub Item count = 250

· Stores available = 10

Only available to a Master Merchant, the concept of "The Mall" is one that has been highly regarded in the merchant community. A master merchant should be allowed to place two (2) Mini-Malls or one (1) Mall. Only the main lobby and empty "shops" would be able to be manipulated by the merchant.

The merchant would be able to control administration to the shops via a sub-structure management terminals located in each shop. Once a shop has been "rented" the shop will act as a separate structure. Each shop will require one (1) of the shop owner’s personal lots and have a storage capacity unique to that shop of 75 items. This will not free up any of the merchants personal lots from the structure.

Once a shop has been rented, the shop owner is responsible for the up keep of the shop. The maintenance or "rent" for each shop would beset by the merchant from the main structure terminal so all shop rent would be identical. Item limit should be identical to that of a merchant tent (previously stated 75 items). "Rent" could be paid for no more thanone weeks worth in advance. (ie, Monday i can put in credits to keep the shop functioning until the following monday without "notice of eviction"). However, rather than "the system" collecting the maintenance fee, the money would be deposited into the merchant’s bank account. As well, rather than the integrity of a shop being harmed upon non-payment, the shop owner would receive an eviction email every day giving them a total of one (1) week to pay maintenance on their shop. If maintenance is not paid on the shop within that week, all items (including vendors) in the shop will be downloaded onto a recovery disc to be placed in the shop owners inventory, and control of the shop is given back to the merchant to be re-leased.

The merchant may "hire-out" up to 10 of their own vendors to any of the shop owners of their mall (leaving 2 vendors for personal use in the main hub or other locations). The vendor would need to be created at the main structure management terminal and placed in the shop by the merchant before the shop is assigned to the renter. Only one "hired-out" vendor can be acquired by any player at any given time; therefore only one "hired out" vendor may be placed in any shop at any given time, and no player would be able tohave "hired-out" vendors in multiple malls. Once the merchant transfers access to the shop to the renter, the renter will be given sole admin powers to the "hired-out" vendor. The same maintenance or "rent" solution would apply as applies to the store maintenance.

Similar to cantinas/med centers/theaters, ect ... a mall would be locateable using the ctrl+v function. The system would need tocalculate the number of vendors and total items listed on vendors at that location and list it as such under the ctrl+v function so to avoid advertisement of empty droids.

*Mall

*Best Wares Mall Of New Hope - New Hope

- Vendors: 3 - Items: 2500

____Zlatan Fulgere________________

well it would be lots vs. income/functionality to decide if you wanted to be a mall owner under these circumstances. The current "mall" system is great, but it is limited and of no help to the owner of the structure at all other than you have a bunch of other businesses in there with you while you pay the maintenance and use up your lots. which, for most, this is great. and other merchants find it handy to incorporate in such a way.

however, using the proposed mall system, you as a merchant would be able to put your own vendors in the hub of the mall, or even allow admin rights to anyone else you want to put vendors in there, which is located on the planitary map listing a description of each of your vendors items and item count. that alone is a big bonus. maybe not an additional 5 lots worth of bonus, but a big bonus none the less. And with the mini-mall you are only spending 3 lots. Of course, you only get 5 shops to work with, but hey, you still have the hub to allow friends to place vendors in with you free of charge.

okay, the bonus that makes up for the extra 5 or2lots spent comes in with the leasing of shops and vendors.

Scenerio:

I own a Large Mall: 6 lots/5 shops/250 item storage (fyi, same lots and storage as a large house)

I can -

Main Hub:

Personal use - decoration purposes only, putting on display some of my rare finds,reception area, personal storage

Personal business use - personal shop, setting up my own vendors, displaying my goods

Co-Op business use - allow guild members/friends/citizens to set up vendors free of charge

Shop Cubbies:

Personal use - Decorate the entire structure as a home as is 6 lots/250 items.

Persona use - "lease" the shops to myself and/or an alternate character to allow me sole access of the mall and each of its shops with a cost of 1 lot/maintenanceper shop but a gain of 75 items per "shop", for amaximum item count for decorating of 1k

Personal business use - "lease" the shops to myself and/or an alternate character to allow me sole access of the mall and each of its shops with a cost of 1 lot/maintenanceper shop but a gain of 75 items per "shop", or merely place a vendor into each shop or decorate each shop without using the "lease" function keeping the lot count to 6 with no maintenance increase, but the item count remaining at 250 items.Then, place different vendors in each "shop" and/or decorate having a self serving mall.

Co-Op business use - Set maintenance fees low and allow guild members/friends/citizens to set up vendors at very low cost but still giving them the advantage of the ctrl+v search functionality and the indenpendance of the sole admin to the shop for decorating purposes

Business use - lease out each shop for a set fee of your choice to those wantingto take advantage of the ctrl+v functionality and independance of the sole admin to the shop for decorating. this would give you sole discression over who places vendors next to yours if you chose to have vendors in your mall thus giving you control over direct competition.

And as you see, you could chose to mix and match these ideas so you use the main hub for personal use and the shops for business use, or you use the main hub for co-op use for your closest friends and the shops for co-op use for guildmates ... ect. But ultimately, you would be able to control how you make the building work for you. I would love to own a mall on ahazi. I would set up a mall in one of the cities ive been asked to join, decorate a reception area, use one of the shops as my own, place one of my vendors as a mall greeter, and rent out the other 9 shops to guild mates (if i chose to join a guild), friends, or other citizens. Everyone wins. Rather than having a bunch of scattered merchant tents, we would all be in the same location, my business would draw you business, would draw them business, would draw me business. A more difinitive mall system that was locateable on the planitary map showing vendor statistics would encourage more traffic through player cities ... and the list goes on and on and on.