Tailor Archive

Okay, here's my issue. I decided to set up my shop in a small house on Tatooine... I'm no Master Tailor or anything near it, having just Field Wear I and Formal Wear I at the moment. Still, I thought what the hey... I looked around the Bestine area for a while and made sure I wasn't near any other tailor shops (which took a bit of looking) and then set down my house. I concentrated on making lower-level items but in a good variety of colors (and, naturally, black in everything) and kept my vendor stocked. Business was good.

Then I talked to another tailor, much more skilled (Field Wear IV with II in everything else) and she mentioned she had a shop on the other side of Bestine, but it wasn't doing well. Just conversationally I mentioned that my shop was doing pretty good... but probably because I still sold items on the public vendor and advertised my co-ordinates there all the time. She said she didn't do that because all she did was grind to pick up her skill. End of conversation.

What happens not three days later? I come out of my shop to find a big house placed RIGHTIN FRONTof mine. A tailor store by that very tailor I spoke to, set up so that someone heading from Bestine would run across it first before they even saw my little house. I asked her if she knew she had set up right next to another store and she said she hadn't, claiming she had upgraded to a larger house that couldn't fit in her old lot and how she had searched for somewhere to put down her house by going all the way around Bestine and this was the only spot it could fit.

Now... there's obviously nothing I can do. Her skill surpasses mine completely and she had every right to set up where she did. She offered to share her wearables factory with me as a conciliatory gesture, but I'm not even sure that's a good idea. I've already noticed a severe drop-off in business, which makes me sad. I don't really want to uproot and move elsewhere... heck, I don't even know how possible it would be to pack away everything in my vendor and in my house. Can you do that?

Regardless, my question is: what's the etiquette on this matter? Should I just suck it up and move elsewhere? Her story sounds a bit fishy to me, but this particular person always struck me as very nice and she gets along well with others. I don't want to be rude or start a fight, but it hurts me that she didn't take the same care to look around that I did and I apparently don't even rate an apology from her. Should I stick it out and try to compete? If I move will I just face this same kind of rudeness elsewhere? What are other tailors' experience with this?

Yuthura Ban, Tailor / Tarquinas

That is just RUDE

1) if you're going to put your house down, you ask your neighbors. That is common courtesy! Until they put in towns, we all have to have common sense. You don't put your harvs on someone's doorstep, and you don't move into an inhabited area without permission (had some guy plop down in the middle of our little "town" and fail to understand why this was a problem. I banned him from my shop, and as soon as he moved out I plopped my factory down on the vacant spot... so much for open space in town!)

2) Depends on what you want to do... Maybe you can work out an arrangement with her that you put your vendor in her house and sell the low level items, and she can sell the higher level models, sort of a strip mall. But if it were me, I would not want to speak to that evil thief, let alone do business with her. Maybe you should find a community that lacks a tailor, and they will be the "muscle" to protect your interests. It's hard to be off on your own.

Good luck, and remember, there are rude people everywhere.

wow NJ62, I think you may be jumping to conclusions there. Calling this person an evil thief is pretty harsh.

First things first. Large homes take up 5 or 6 lots. That is a huge chunk of space that can not be occupied. Since you live around Bestine, you know there are really 3 or 4 nicebuilding zones (if they aren't being used by harvestors)within distance of Bestine that have nice flat streches of land. It's very likely that this person could not find a good spot, much less a spot at all.

Now, I'm not cold to your situation. If a master tailor moved in next to me, regardless of reason or situation, my business would take a big hit. Honestly, if I were you, if you have a substantial customer base, inform your customers (at least your best ones of the situation). Also consider moving to the other side of Bestine, perhaps to the very lot that this other tailor left. Or do as NJ62 suggested, see if you can get a vendor installed in her shop, but like him, I think there would be a conflict of interest on both parties, and it's best just to make your own way. If you're business is still hurting after a move, offer your services to a PA or too. Make them items a slightly reduced price and get that customer base back up.

Or do as I would seriously consider before moving, stand by your laurels and customer service. If this person grinded her way to the top, and you (like myself) have paced yourself and invested time in display and customer service with your shop, stick it out. Who cares what that other tailor does. You don't have to play hardball, just stand by your values. Or move, there's no shame in that either. You're just starting out and have lot's of room to grow. Suck it up, grab a taste of "that's life" and find another good spot.

Also, if you're on Eclipse, I'll lease you a Wearables factory. You can pay me 5K-10K per week for 6-3 weeks. That's only 30K for a 45K average factory price. Don't share with the other person. Likely they'll be using it all day. With factory bugs never ending, have your own. Though you can really get away without a need for factory items until level 3 of something. You can still sell crates of metal fastners, synth cloth, and reinforced fiber.

And, really if the tailor is high level and gets much business, eventualy he/she will be very backed up and most first time customers would rather just find another tailor, and lo! There is one next door! Besides maybe you can do something to distinquish your locale over the other tailor so she won't be hijacking your advertising revenue. Which is what it sounds like this person is doing.

I find it incredibley rude....I would never presume to place anything next to behind or in front of another players home. ...house, harvester or factory. To place it in front of your house completely blocking your shop had to have been quite a shock to log onto.

Well, there's always two sides of a story. As coincidental and "fishy" it may seem, maybe it's true, maybe she had no clue at all. I know when I was trying to find a place for our PA Hall/Mall it was very difficult finding a prime location with enough lots to hold it that was actually in a buildable area.

When I set up my first little small generic my husband had found the location. He found it and talked to the person that was the first to settle the area. He made quick friends with this person and even now, this person is part of our PA and is a weaponsmith in our mall. However, what he didn't know was that down the river a little ways from the settlement there was another tailor that had already had shop set up. She was much further ahead of me at the time, but still, I had met this person previously. She had bought her medium naboo house from my husband and while she was waiting we talked shop. She had told me her sales increased by moving to the "boonies." Now I'm just NE of Theed easy run even for someone with no explorer skills. I wouldn't define that as the "boonies" and when I realized that she was there I was afraid she'd think that I purposely set my shop next to hers because of our discussion just a few days earlier. When actually it was just coincidental. She never said anything about it, even offered to train me. We had different pricing on the items I could make, but she still retained her customer base of loyal followers and I had a chance of developing mine.

You can make it a win/win situation even if it isn't the ideal you had previously had. For one if this person is nice, stay on friendly terms with her. Explain to her how your sales have dropped (expect that your sales won't be as high ever until you reach master with her next door) and ask if there could be an agreement between the two of you.

She will be wanting to make master wear items where her profit margin is greater than novice items. So by taking the time to make novice items when she may be backed up or having to turn down work for masterwear she's losing money. That money is something you can gain. Ask her to send business that she is too backed to do but you can do. Have her send people who go into her shop and gag and the prices to you. Have her send noobs to you, the people still in their noob clothing. Ask her if she will refer all the armorsmiths to you for factory cloth (I'd highly recommend having your own factory). For a master it's sort of a pain and you need all if you can for yourself anyway. Until you get up in skill it might be difficult. YOu might want to focus on one tree and get to the third tier. Maybe even suck up and grind a little to get there. That way when this other tailor gets requests for bustiers (if you go up casual) or dusters (if you go up field wear) then she can scoot them your way. You can handle all the black pants and black shirts and leather gloves still to this day. I sell tons of those still it's something you can offer.

As a side note. All of these people that say that the ones who did grind don't have product knowledge...well maybe for some, but don't generalize it. I grinded a whole lot. NOt by choice, I tried to drum up business but no one wanted the stuff I could make until I got to tier 3. By that time I made some business, but not enough to support myself, and not enough to have a constant flow of customers because there were other masters and plenty of them around. I know my products. Each new box I'd check what I could make, eagerly anticipated the next box by remembering the names. Making note of the ingredients I'd need on each, and noting the color pallettes. Not all grinders are product unsavy. We may surprise you some of us are just as knowledgeable about our products as the people who do not purposely grind.

I'm a bit skeptical that she had no clue she was placing her house right in front of yours. However, that let's you know how she does business. If she would go to the trouble to place a large house (which is not cheap) in front of yours, she will also go to the trouble of undercutting your prices. Personally, I would move but that's completely up to you.

I placed my house first and although I do not have a master title in anything, there are multiple people with just about every type of profession around me. I honestly could not start a profession without a master being with 200m of me. That being said, we all get along just fine. Some have higher prices than others and the lower priced masters are not considered to be undercutting - they are running their business. Because of this, I usually don't get my panties in a bunch when someone moves into the area with low prices. More power to them. A person's reputation will speak for themselves.

However, we are all playing nice with each other. If we don't have something in stock, we refer the person to someone in the neighborhood that we know provides quality service. We do not backstab each other. We all get along. We are not all in the same guild (I am not in a guild at all) and there are multiple guilds in the area. We are fair to one another, and treat each other with respect.

That is not happening in your case. This woman showed vindictive behavior and due to that, I personally would move because I would feel like she would undercut me each and every time. Yes, she has the right to drop her house wherever she wants, but out of respect, who would drop their house right next door to the person in their profession? Especially in front, dwarfing the house of the competition?

Let this be a lesson. I don't know where you dropped the house but try to place it as close to the city as possible so no one can place anything in front of you (a house, harvestor, etc). Since you are just starting your customers will find you. If you have items in the bazaar replace the waypoint for them. If you have the extra cash, keep the house there with a message to the new location for a couple of weeks then sell it.

I hope it all works out for you. It's sad to see situations like this. here is enough business for everyone to have their share of the pie and for everyone to get along.

Good luck to you.

I'm hesitatnt to either condemn or excuse without more information. But one thing I know *is* true, is that placing a large house can really be a pain in the neck, especially if you've got a lot of weird terrain around. Not sure what it's like in Bestine (never did understand you desert people), if it's like all totally flat around you or something, but Corellia tends to be a *huge* pain when it comes to building. Very hilly terrain, and even in the relative "flatlands," there tend to be lots of dips and bumps that make building tough.

I had a small house, and bought a large house with the idea of relocating my shop to that large house, but in the same general neighborhood. I wandered around looking for spots, and found basically nothing. The best spot was still pretty far away from the old shop, and also would've been smack dab next to someone's big PA hall. No rule against that, of course, but I imagine they wouldn't be thrilled (nor would I, really.)

I wound up "buying land" from a friend who had a large house only 100m from my old one - paid him generously to pack up his house and let me put down mine (before any potential "squatters" showed up.) Worked out rather nicely all around, actually, as he really had more house than he wanted or needed.

But anyhow, my point is that I wouldn't necessarily dismiss her story out of hand. I'm not sure I actually *do* believe it, but it's not impossible, anyhow....

Hey Yuthura!

I think you, myself and herare the only people working on being master tailors in the Bestine area. And all our houses are next door to each other. I didn't even notice yours when I placed my medium house down next door to where my little house was. Had I not dropped 30k in maintenence in it, I probably would have moved to the other side of town. I just instinctly placed it next to my old house (whichwas next to my boyfriends house) so it would be easier to move, finally hit business 3 the next day and was able to open shop.

So I have been trying to think ofthe future of my shop. Should I move when my maintenence runs out? Should I keep my house there and get a small house and have a second shop in another location? Or can the three of us work out a deal where maybe one week you focus on formal, I do casual, she does field and then switch off?

I'm not too worried about it yet because at this point, like you, most of my business seems to be on the bazaar.

I'm also trying to make sure that I never undercut you or her. I want to keep the prices the same. So if you ever see anything that I may have priced too low, please give me a /tell.

I hope we can all work together and have successful tailor careers

Very true Yuthura.

And I think we will probably all have our own customer base just from the different people we know. 'm hardly anywhere on the skill tree and already I am getting /tell's from people in town or people who have bought stuff from me on the bazaar. 98% of my business is on the bazaar and if that's where I get my money from now on, that is fine. Because the more I think about it, the more I don't want to spend all my playing time behind my crafting tools. I want to go out and play combat and shoot things and dance too.

You're right, the whole game will change once player cities become available. I'm not really going to worry about it. having three of us there in one spot could allevaite all the extra work and maybe we can have more fun. I don't need to be a zillionaire or anything. lol. It is fun playing dress up though

I think she was oblivious to the whole thing. It is kind of funny. You're both very nice people and I enjoy having you in the neighborhood. Maybe we should all do lunch. hehe!

Actually, I wasn't worried about your store at all, Lora. Yours is relatively close to mine, that's true... but I don't think we interfere with each other. If someone is coming from Bestine to visit your store, they're not going to come across mine first, and vice versa. Beyond that, if someone just happens upon your store or mine because they're running about the area, that's no different than it ever was.

That's my main problem with our mutual friend... I advertise my co-ordinates a lot and she gets the benefit, as they come across her store first because it's in front of mine.

Regardless, I've decided to just suck this up and deal with it. The real problem is that there's no way to zone or see what kinds of stores are nearby... there's nothing but a laissez-faire economy out there, and either you compete or move on, that's the way it is. I find it really hard to ascribe ulterior motives to the tailor who moved in on me... most likely she is just guilty of being oblivious and little else. I'll just build up my skill, keep my little shop going and make my money off the bazaar as I did before. It's a little disappointing seeing as the shop was doing so well for a while, but oh well. C'est la vie.

Really what I want is to find some PA that wants to build a player town and join them as their resident hard-working tailor, then I can just pick up my little shop and move it there. Until that happens, though, this really isn't a crisis, is it? I'm not losing anything, she's not Wal-Mart, and this is just a game. Time to relax.

Yuthura Ban, Novice Tailor / Tarquinas

Well, I can see that you decided not to move. I would have. It may not have been Bestine, but another city on the planet. You mentioned that you do a large business on the bazaar? Well, probably 80% of mine is on the bazaar. But I cover the Bazaar in every town on Naboo, not just my town. I also have made little form letters with my waypoint on them so actually I am doing in a way, the same thing that vendors on E-Bay are doing. Selling items to bring customers to my store. When they come into my store, most don't just buy one item. They buy 5 or 6 items. My prices are lower than the mastersand I also am not a master but I also try to make my prices worth the effort I put out making the garment. If it only takes 2 items to make it, and it is a breeze, why would I want to charge 1K for it? I would consider that ripping off the customer.

Anyway, I mainly wrote this to cover my trials and tribulations of moving, actually expanding from a small crowded little store to a medium store. To get an idea of where I am located, if you left the Starport in Theed and went straight to the shuttle in front of you and kept going thru the newb field, you would cross a covered bridge. Then turn left and go to where that little camp is on the river. It is right on the edge of the no build zone. Well, I got a house in there early in the game luckilybecause the areais built up now. A neighbor moved and that left enough room for me to expand to a medium. So I planted a harvester on the spot where their house was to stop it from being taken and went shopping for a new Medium Naboo. After forking 60K for it, I realized that there is much more stuff in that little house than I imagined. So I ended up buying another little house to store the stuff in. Well, that didn't work because all the stuff wouldn't fit. Alot of it had come off of two vendors. So I managed to clean off one vendor. Then I created a vendor in the storage house and loaded everything onto it in packs and thenand priced them for 1 credit, I would take them off sale and drop them into the stockroom. Reason being that you have to have an open house to have a vendor and anyone could have purchased everything I had for a few credits. Now that would have really sucked big time.

After getting my little store cleaned out, I quickly removed the harvester and the little store and plopped on the medium. Found out that it was facing the wrong way and had to redeem it and place it again. Geeesh.

Then came the real fun part. I set up the sign to state that the store was reopening soon. Do people read? No way. I am trying to get3 new vendors in order and potential customers are running all over the place, looking in all the rooms and everything. The place didn't even have furniture down yet. I had alot of furniture but I wanted to get the vendors going. Then they are buying stuff off of them before I could even get my old stock all on. It was really crazy.

But the one good thing about the whole thing is the limited space between my place and the no build zone. If you do move and it isn't into a player town, you want to put your store right on the edge of the no build zone. That way nobody can get in front of you.

I am friendly to the other tailors and I also teach others to help them save a few credits. But I also take pride in the thought that I made it to where I am without anyones help. I have never asked another Tailor for training and I always paid for it. I have always paid for everything. I am far from rich but have around 550K in the bank and a bunch of steady customers. I expect more when clothing decay finally starts.

I find it very hard to believe that she didn't know you were there. Now we don't have to go up and click on signs to see what the place is. The banner hits you squarely in the face when you approach a place. To think that she did this purely by accident is a bit nieve in my way of thinking. But you are alot like me in one way. I didn't powerlevel or grind my way to Casual III, Field III, Formal II, Tailoring IV, but I worked my way there. By doing so, you find out what sells and what doesn't. There are other very popular colors besides just making everything black and you find this out from hit and miss. You put a garmenton the Bazaar and if it doesn't sell in 3 days, get rid of it and put something else there. I sell alot of garments there that I know are popular but also I use it to 'test' the market to find other things in other colors that people will like. I can't count the times I have looked at the clothing that others have put on there and wanted to go off to the bathroom and puke. They have no idea of which colors go good together or anything. Who are these people? They are the ones that grind their way to where ever they are. I will say one thing to grinders and that is if you can't sell clothes now, what makes you think you will sell clothes further up the ladder? You won't. It is as plain and simple as that. And this gal did it for one reason, to steal your business.

I don't care how nice she acts. I have known people in the business world that worked the same way. Smiling and niceas they slipped you a blade between the ribs. If you continue to stay there, you will continue to draw business to her store. She is a parasite, a leach. Move and her business will drop to nothing like it was before she decided to bloodsuck you for your customers. And put your little business on the edge of the 'no build' zone so that nobody can do it to you again. Hopefully, others will move into the area around you too.

After all this....I can just say good luck. Oh...one more thing. Now if your little store was right to the left or right of hers, then I think it would be more in your favor because then folks running out there would see both of them. But as it stands, they can't see you because she is blocking the view with her mansion. Butpersonally, I still would not like it unless I banned her from my store. She has no idea of what sells and what doesn't, what colors are sellers and which aren't. She could nosey around your place and dup your efforts and undercut you. The whole thing stinks.

I have the same problem right now. I have had my shop up for almost a month, but I am not yet Master. Out of the blue a few days ago, a large house pops up in front of my shop, just a little bit closer to town. I haven't said anything yet, because I'm afraid I will get nasty. But I constantly wonder if the person knows I'm there, or not...though I don't understand how you could NOT look around before you place your house.
I'm all for a bit of healthy competition, but I think these situations are a bit ridiculous. Anyway, I have no insight in the situation, just support.
Here's hoping that the rude people will get bored and quit playing!

Aidace