Thank you, Marian.
I also thank Nutella for creating this challenge and all other team members for putting up with all my questions.
Prior to this challenge, I had never played shop before. There was quite a bit to learn and I did two full test runs before starting my official file.
Test FilesIn the first test run, I sold comedy books, woodwork, paintings and ambrosia. The net retail funds surpassed 7.5 million. I learned the importance of having a high value product. I also learned that vending machines are not the thing for me. The customers were not able to purchase anything from them. Up to today, I do not know what went wrong there. But one thing was sure, I would have to work without.
In the second test run, I narrowed the product range down to paintings and ambrosia. This would leave me with 4 weeks to prepare for 2 weeks of sales.
This time, net retail funds surpassed 9 million. But I thought I could do better. In order to maximise time for selling, all items needed to be ready by the end of week 4. I also learned that it doesn't harm to have extra stock. The lower priced products will keep the outgoing costs of re-stocking down. But there is a downside to sitting on a lot of stock: bills!
Official FileI created Pip and Roi Baron. (Always scary, because you don't know what you are going to get.)
I gave them the Angling Ace Aspiration which made them collectors. They were cheerful, childish and loved the outdoors.
Pip is an acronym for Personal Investment Plan. Roi stands for Return on Investment.
Week 1:They took up residence at the Agave Abode lot. While building their open-air dwelling, they frequently switched between the Mansion Baron and Fabulously Wealthy Aspirations. They travelled regularly to renew their 'buy x' and 'earn x' whims. By noon, their starting funds had dwindled to a mere $200. But they had lots of whim points
At this stage, I made sure they passed the soulmate status requirement of the Soulmate Aspiration before buying the Connections perk.
This would allow them to complete that aspiration later on.
Pip and Roi entered and quitted all careers with the exception of the writer and the painter career. Then, they unlocked Sylvan Glade and returned home before nightfall with a pomegranate, a snapdragon flower and a lily flower.
When Pip acquired the ability to splice plants, Pip and Roi entered the writer career. They were now tracking the Bestselling Author Aspiration. The requirement to earn $25,000 in royalties would take some time. As soon as they had fulfilled all other requirements, they entered the painter career.
By the end of the week, they completed Painter Extraordinaire. And the garden had been whittled down to 2 mature death flower plants.
Week 2:Pip and Roi completed Bestselling Author and promptly wrote a Book of Life for each other. Their stock of paintings allowed them to complete Mansion Baron a couple of days earlier than Fabulously Wealthy. Pip mastered cooking and gourmet cooking. Thereafter, they completed the Soulmate Aspiration. By the end of the week, Pip and Roi had mastered charisma and fishing. Pip prepared the first batches of ambrosia.
Week 3:Pip and Roi completed Angling Ace. Neither of them were particularly good at catching angelfish, but this seemed to help. By the end of the week, they had 55 batches of ambrosia.
Week 4:Pip and Roi drank a Potion of Youth at 6.00 am on the fourth Sunday. It seemed their fishing prowess was waning and the bills were rising. Pip made the last of ambrosia for a total stock of 60 dishes. They painted for the rest of the week for a total stock of 114 paintings.
One hour before midnight and the start of week 5, they sold all their belongings - except for their stocks and their Books of Life.
Pip and Roi bought Pebble Burrow next doors as a retail lot and transferred $10,000.
They built a 9 x 9 open-air market with a small toilet room. It had two chalk boards and a big sign outside. They placed a big sign over the counter with cash register. They lined an adjacent wall with 13 confidence lamps. The next adjacent wall displayed 13 decorative lamps. I'm writing all this down, because the picture below is dark and doesn't really show it all.
Week 5:The shop opened at 12.08 am on Sunday. The merchandise consisted of 114 paintings with an average value of $4,370 each. The 3 best paintings, each over 11K, were put for sale with intention of re-stocking. The next 4 best paintings, each over 8K, were kept aside for the moment all other paintings had been sold. These would then be put up for sale and re-stocking.
Prices were set for an exorbitant mark-up of 100%. The shop was open 24/7.
The beginning was slow: only 24 paintings sold on day 1. Pip and Roi didn't know anybody in town and had to build up their customer base from scratch. Thanks to their charisma, this didn't take long.
They made a point of both greeting every customer, albeit not at the same time - obviously. This allowed them to make the best of the 'close the deal' interaction. This interaction can be used up to 2 times on 3 different customers. It didn't matter to Pip and Roi whether the customer was ready to close the deal. What mattered was that it steeply increased willingness to buy.
Soon enough, sales were picking up. They ended up purchasing all the retail perks they wanted that very week: faster check-outs, cheaper restocking, instant restocking, serious shopper, sure sale, slick salesman.
Pip and Roi divided their customers in 4 categories:
- serious shoppers would often buy being prompted only twice by 'close the deal' - nothing else.
- normal shoppers: these needed a proper sales pitch and 'close the deal'
- lazy shoppers: these would often need the full gamma of sales pitches
- troublemakers: those Sims that like to pretend they are criminal overlords and yell a lot
The 'sure sale' interaction was mainly reserved for the lazy shoppers and the troublemakers. This means that they used it far less than they could have done.
Pip and Roi closed the shop at 11.56 pm with no paintings left. They had sold 239 paintings.
Their net retail funds amounted to $2,604,835 exactly.
(Note: on day 2 they received a massive bill for $221,584.)
Week 6:The shop re-opened at 12.07 am on Sunday. The merchandise consisted of 60 portions of ambrosia with an average value of $12,339 each. There was 1 portion worth over 18K. The next best 5 portions were worth over 17K. The 3 best ones were put for sale with intent of re-stocking. The next 3 best ones were kept aside for sale and re-stocking when all other portions were sold. Ambrosia was displayed on 2 three-tiered pedestals.
In hindsight, they could have done with a third pedestal. They operated well with 5 to 6 customers in the store at any given time. Two pedestals reduced the flow to 4 customers at any given time. Never mind.
Like before, prices were set at an exorbitant mark-up of 100%. The shop was open 24/7.
(Note: on day 2 they received another massive bill for $262,117)
Pip and Roi were in their element. They sold 338 portions of ambrosia.
At the time, I had no idea that $9,999,999 is the limit for retail funds. I daily noted the number of items sold. I also kept an eye on their net profits. But I hardly ever looked at the figure for retail funds. This means that I do not know the time when they hit the max.
At 11.59 pm I hit the pause button as well as my Frapps Hot Key. And this is what I saw.
My first reaction was one of disappointment and horror.
Disappointment, because I was really keen on making over $10 million.
Horror, because a figure like $9,999,999 is, to say the least, bizarre.
Once I understood what had happened, I felt a lot better about it all.
