Week number, keyboard, retail shop and bassinets

[Antalia]

I just got Sims 4 and I have a few questions (probably basic!).

1. In Sims 3 when I hover the mouse over the game clock, the game would display the week number. Is there a way to see the current week number in Sims 4? I like to do the challenges on this forum, and being able to see this and track which week different things happen is helpful! (Such as while practicing)

2. Is there a complete list of keyboard shortcuts somewhere? (Thankfully these are nearly the same as Sims 3, but I seem to keep accidentally pressing keys that do other things...)

3. There's no way to designate the Retail Shop as the home lot, right? >

4. I've seen pictures of Retail Shops with bakery display cases. How do I get those?

5. I've noticed at my Retail Shop, customers mostly buy items priced between about 200 and 600 Simoleons. I have a wide variety of items on sale (by type of item and price). They only occasionally buy items outside this range. Is this just 'how it works' or will my customers eventually get richer?

6. Following from #5, how do I get customers to buy baked goods? I wanted to have a bakery but my treats weren't selling well. So I diversified, and now I see what my customers really want is furniture! Lots and lots of furniture! Lamps, toilets, end tables and paintings!

Admittedly I just put out plates of free cookies and brownies (since nobody will buy them!), which everyone helps themselves to, and this seems to work well. I just wonder if there's a way to cast the shop as a bakery?

7. I think the game is gorgeous in general but I wonder, is there somewhere to stick a baby besides the dusty looking bassinets that appear?

8. Are you also finding it harder to make big piles of cash very quickly now (as compared with Sims 3)? I feel like when I create a new family from scratch now, they're having to live in a tiny shack for the first few weeks! (Don't get me wrong--I like it this way. I just wonder if I'm doing it wrong...)

Many thanks in advance!

[Playalot]

Hi Antalia, I can answer a few of those questions anyway. I don't play with retail as I don't enjoy it but there are many here that do so I'm sure you will get those answers soon.

1. There is no way to track weeks passing with the game, only days of the week and hours. It's quite different to TS3. If you want to track weeks you would have to do it manually using every Sunday midnight or something like that.

7. Babies are tied to the bassinet until they age up to a child.

8. Making money with the painting or writing skill is the best. You can switch between aspirations as your sims goes about their day, raking in the Satisfaction Points to buy rewards which will help you sim to make money quickly with both/one of those skills. If you go the career route then making money is quite tricky to begin with. There are some tricks like taking selfies on your sims phone (which is free) and then selling the stacks of photos or breeding the more expensive frogs but this is relatively small change compared with painting/writing. There are loads of tips on the career boards/making money and around the forum on ways to make money, so have a read through the threads for more ideas.

[Ferretmania]

2. Keyboard hotkeys can be found in Carls guide :   hotkeys sims4


I haven't really played with retail shops yet , but there's a section in the guide you might find helpful :  retail guide

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[MarianT]

I just got Sims 4 and I have a few questions (probably basic!).

3. There's no way to designate the Retail Shop as the home lot, right? >

Right. What I do when starting out as a sim with a retail shop is give the shop a flat roof and place a tent and cooler up there. If you don't have Outdoor Retreat, you could use a bed and refrigerator and counter. I put a bathroom in the shop, and my sim pretty much lives there full-time.

4. I've seen pictures of Retail Shops with bakery display cases. How do I get those?

You can find them in the retail section of buy mode. They're empty, but you can put baked goods in them.

5. I've noticed at my Retail Shop, customers mostly buy items priced between about 200 and 600 Simoleons. I have a wide variety of items on sale (by type of item and price). They only occasionally buy items outside this range. Is this just 'how it works' or will my customers eventually get richer?

The way to get your customers to buy more expensive goods is to have only expensive goods in your store. If they have a range, as you pointed out, they will stick to the 200 to 600 simoleon items.

6. Following from #5, how do I get customers to buy baked goods? I wanted to have a bakery but my treats weren't selling well. So I diversified, and now I see what my customers really want is furniture! Lots and lots of furniture! Lamps, toilets, end tables and paintings!

Admittedly I just put out plates of free cookies and brownies (since nobody will buy them!), which everyone helps themselves to, and this seems to work well. I just wonder if there's a way to cast the shop as a bakery?

The lice freezer (I think that's what it's called) is your best option. I think you can put baked goods into it without setting them for sale. I tried running a bakery, but my sim mainly supported herself by selling tables and chairs. If I were to do it again, I'd get my sim's cooking and baking skills as high as possible before opening the shop.

I think Playalot and Ferretmania covered your other questions.

[dodi90]

I 'll try to answer #5 and #6 of your question since they are related to retail store

#5 As MarianT pointed out, to ensure people buy expensive items are make sure only expensive items tagged for sale. You can have cheap items but don't tag them for sale.

#6 To get customer to buy baked goods is easy, you only need to ensure only baked goods are for sale. Setting the price too high requires your sim / employee to persuade them first into buying them before they decide to buy automatically. The sims actually did not mind the retail value of the item, a 15,000 items sold just as quickly as 100 ones as long as both are still on the cheapest price modifier.

Simply put, if you don't want cheap item to be sold, just don't sell them. For baked goods, be sure to purchase Marketable beforehand and make sure you only sell Excellent quality goods. They give the best price modifier and I even managed to sell Excellent Baked Alaska  (Level 10 Gourmet Cooking) for 3,000 simoleon.

Also Lice Cold retail freezer is your best bet for selling baked goods since your sim did not need to ring them up for sales and just concentrate trying to sell the goods.

[Joria]

I built a bakery for my elder dynasty founder, to keep her busy.  MISTAKE.  The entire family is busy with it.  However, she is a maxed out in every kind of cooking skill master chef.  Her food never spoils and her baked goods sell very well.  My shop also has a few items but all relating to food, like coffee makers, tea pots and so on.  She had a 10,000 profit on day one so it is a good way to make money.  Tip, do not click restock on baked goods as it is cheaper to make them and then sell them.  Just remove the sign and make more.  I placed the coffee pots out at first so my customers  could have a free cup of coffee, which they ignored! 

The Lice Cold refrigerator will also hold fruits, veggies and regular food dishes, all of which can be sold.  Imagine, $800 for one trout meuniere!  I haven't stocked the bakers warming shelf yet so don't know if that will work like the Lice Cold.  Make sure you have signs up, they attract customers a lot.  Also, invest in advertising.  I was swamped with customers after I did that.  My shop is so busy I can only handle keeping it open two days a week or I'd go insane.