The Former Galleria Sims: A Point of Utter Annoyance

I know I am not alone in my personal disgust at the almost constant change of hands of the sims formerly known as Galleria Skywalk and Galleria City. Briana did such an excellent job not only building, but maintaining those sims and driving traffic. Understandly she had to relinquish her ownership due to personal RL issues.

Since this transition I have become utterly sick and tired of moving, rebuilding, different rent structures, new owners, new sim name, rebuilding and so on and so forth.

So, here is my beef and a brief recap, Apparently as none of us were informed that Rodeo Drive (former galleria skywalk) was sold and the sim was wiped clean. No warning no nothing after many of us spent hours building stores and stocking out merchandise. Gee Thanks. This is poor if not shitty business practice to not even notify the vendors. So The sim has once again changed hands and who knows where it will end up. and I AM OUT and well as the others who were in the Mourning After Store there. **EDIT: For the record: As I was later informed *some* people were told but not all**

This is on top of the Skywalk (where we had our store, prime location) being originally sold to Anshe Chung at which point we pulled out and moved the store to Galleria City - rebuilt and restocked and then poof That was sold and another sim came along with exorbitant rent. We opted out on that one. Its just not worth it. Its not worth the time, the effort and the rent for that fact.

From my experience shopping only sims tend to be somewhat lackluster sales wise for some reason. My best sales these days ALL come from , my own store in Indigo, FREE rental stores that are not shopping sim located. Do the math. Why should I or any vendor spend grandiose dollars of rent on poorly performing shopping mall sims that do not yield any profit? and that are constantly change hands? Its not worth it at all.

Its a shame to see all of Briana's hard work from the Galleria sims being flushed down the toilet repetitively by mismanagement of new owners. But so be it.

(end rant)

Aww Jenn I understand your frustrations, I wouldnt do it either which is why I only have a location in Le Cadre...
Although I know it's very hard to maintain a shopping area...ever since I owned land in SL I have offered free vendor space... alot of times people abuse it... We had over 30 merchants in Le Cadre and only about 5 of them would even bother to update them... so we cleaned house and are only going to bring in about 10 others....

I think that if you are paying rent the land owners at least owes you a 30 day notice of being moved or evicted =/

I do got my store sent back. The question is where the hell is it? It isn't in the lost and found and no where in the inventory. I never made a copy and have lost not only a month worth of rent but my store and vendor machines also. I wish so badly things didn't have to turn out this way. I know ALOT of owners who did amazing huge stores worked hard to get their set up just the way they liked it. Probably spent more hours on making the building then the stuff in the vendors itself. Now its all gone, and like myself most the people won't ever see their store again.

Indeed. I mean Flipper even helped build the Rodeo Drive sim when it first changed hands.
I tend to be VERY particular about how I run my store and am constantly amazed by how much traffic we get in Indigo seeing as I have had to much RL stuff going on and havent been able to do events let alone spend alot of time online. I dont charge rent either, but I am very selective in who my vendors are mainly due to the fact that there isnt alot of space.

When we had the second store in Thunberg and decided to close it - I IMed ALL of the vendors there and sent them notecards explaining the situation AND offered them space in the Indigo store because I don't want to screw people over or waste their time.

So everything was deleted instead of being returned??????

OMG if that is the case that is pure shitty business practice from the get go.

Part of me hopes this is all some sort of mistake or misunderstanding, but with the way that things have been handled since Briana sold the sims it wouldnt surprise me one bit.

I'm joining the rant. I too am sick and tired of having to rebuild and restock and resetup over and over in sims that go down or change hands before they ever get off and running. I'm tired of paying INSANE rent for a place I get very little sales. And I'm tired of having everything returned to me with no notice. I am officially not just pulling out of the former galleria sims, but will not be joining any more. My little free spots and my own store do well, and anyone who wants to can find my product there.
I'm sorry to see this continually happening! The promise is always the same, and the end result thus far, pathetic. This is no way to treat the vendors who make those sims worth going to.

* rantRANTrant*

- Munch

I talked to a linden who had heard about the problem. I ask if the things were to go to inventory and they said yes usually in lost and found folder. The linden is hoping that the complete deletion wasn't caused by the server problem/update deal that happened the past day or so. Also hoping it is just a server lag and that it will return shortly.

This is something to consider while we sit and wait for stuff to return.

I just hope that everyones stuff wasnt deleted by the owners because if it was deleted instead of returned that means its gone gone gone for good.

Whether everyones stuff was returned or deleted still does not make up for the fact that not everyone was told what was going on. If I was told the SIm was changing hands I would have gone and taken or deleted my own stuff to save myself the annoyance of 100+ things being returned to my inventory.

I do not have a store but I have been VERY confused with the quick changeovers happening over the last few weeks. One thing gets remodelled completely over the next, and especially after so many store owners have set up their shops, I can see why it is so dang frustrating.

I believe more public clarification as to what is going on is important, because right now, the setup of the three sims is a little nutty: I thought they were all going to be themed California shopping places, but when I flew over there last night, a lot of the cityscape I once saw was completely paved over... with grass!

Sorry to hear that my friends with stores have to go through this -- it's sounding redundantly aggravating.

Also, I don't get why the sims are next to each other either, if Amy is banned from Lensey's land and vice-versa. Why is this?

There are a few spaces left at the Aasim Marketplace.
Stop by and check it out if you haven't been there yet.

Who owns them now?

Galleria City now Beverly Hills is owned by Amy Stirling

Galleria Skywalk/Rodeo Drive now San Salvador is apparently owned by Mex someone. Lensey Roark had Rodeo Drive before it switched hands again.

and it looks like Centreville has been renamed the Warehouse. Guess thats still owned by Anshe.

I "JUST" paid rent for 1 month @200 linden a week. I am maddddddd GRGRGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR


I WANT MY MONEY BACK! all 800 linden!

O my... That's sad, lastnight was my first time of seeing Rodeo and it's gone already? I am curious to know why people are getting rid of islands so much lately...

My guess is 1) the cost of maintaining a sim (which usually equals high rent for vendors)
2) bringing steady traffic to an island sim through events and promotion 3) lack of time and/or general management skills.

It is annoying, and it's not fair to the shopper or the retailer.

Another thing that ticks me off is the land owner thinks their shop renters are successful because the land owner gets dwell. I can assure you that is not the case. Dwell is not an indicator of a good retail outlet. It is however an indicator of a confusing build with a lot of slow loading textures. And, many sims that are 'retail' sims also boast a club while their shops lay empty 98% of the day the club is packed with people licking the free money spammer.

When a mall owner fails to meet their tier the first thing they do is raise rent on the retailers there, Im sorry but your dwell is not my concern as a retailer, if I think your rent is too high then I will open elsewhere.

I think where the Galleria sims went wrong is they were in competition with each other. How many club owners do you know that open a second club elsewhere in SL? Why saturate your own market and divide your income while multiplying your overhead?

Placing two mall sims so near each other is assured failure.

1- the L$ is down in value that makes it harder to support a full mall sim

2- it's the holiday season, people are spending money on RL goods not virtual money, our trends in SL should be opposite of RL trends.

3- Take examples from successful operations, run a tight budjet, monitor your retailers, keep tabs on their shop content and take interest in their business. If your renters are successful the land owner will be successful.

4- current trends are just that, trends. Do not get yourself stuck in one mindset of how to do business, inversely do not spread yourself thin trying to change or cover all bases.

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If you think Im full of it and you don't take these words to heart, I implore you to look at the player run shops that have lasted a long time. I have learned everything I've talked about from the owners and operators of those shops and malls. Surreal and I impliment this in our Riiki outlet / specialty shop. There is a reason a lot of shop locations such as Riiki's Phobos Design, Indigo's Mourning After and Umber's Midnight City are successful outlets, they limit and control the content, and take an interest in their retailers. Also the owners of these shops are designers as well and have a genuine understanding of what it's like in the trenches.

I am very hesitant these days to accept an outlet invite from someone who is not a designer as well as a shop / mall owner.

Also, if you are retailing on land owned by another designer... DON'T BUG THEM CONSTANTLY, USE COMMON SENSE... They have another job too and if you become annoying, you become evicted...

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Ok I kinda drifted all over the place....
Surreal's turn to reply to the thread... take it away Surreal! *lick*

It's true that tenants have no rights as it stands. As sitting tenants we can be evicted even though we have paid rent in advance etc.

Landlords decline to tell us when they sell the property. It seems to be standard practice for landlords to presume they have no responsibilities when they sell a sim.

There are a few exceptions but being irresponsible is the norm rather than the exception

*sighs* I love our 3 islands, I would be devistated to give em up

maintaing them is rather hard, and I can't imagine why people get an island if they have to depend on others to pay the bill... I think that is the biggest problem...

I feel really bad for all that has lost thier vendors cus of this

AND... it's a drama-free environment No lag, nice, open shops, and lots of sheep for all your thrills.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that one Sensual. It seems like alot of sim owners are trying to break even from charging rent. And this does not need to be the case. Flipper owns Indigo. People pay rent on the land plots they own if they live there, which is relatively cheap. We do not charge store vendor rent because we dont need to. Its hard work managing a store and luckily we divvy up the responsibilities between myself, Flipper and Munchflower and occasionally look to Ferran and Surreal for guidance and suggestions.

OMG! You actually expect me to be responsible and constructive!! *hides the various immature projects co-chaired by Siggy or Flipp and tucks away the sheep and pornographic snowmen*

I've mostly handled the retail end of Phobos Design since we started. That means setting up in 3rd party sites as well as running our Riiki store. Some observations.

One of the big problems for a retailer is the lack of any formal contract process. I can set up in a site, pay my rent in advance, and poof tomorrow everything is gone and it's up to the good will of the landlord to return my unused rent - build & setup investment in time aside. I'm sure this bites both ways. If you just bought what was a sucessful retail sim, then probably part of the attraction was the rent roll. You have no guarantees that the retailers aren't going to decamp in mass.

Side Note: The lack of a formal contract process stifles commerce in game anyway.... It is only possible to collaborate on projects with those you know and trust. And you still may get burned. If LL wants me to bring my RL $ in game in a serious way.. show me some protections for my investment.

Many, even most people I've encountered seem to not have a firm grasp on business realities. I track all of our sales and know exactly how a retail site is performing. If I am expected to fork out big bucks for rent, then I expect the mall owner to make it worth my while to be there: good lag control, events to generate traffic, nice clean build, etc. If a site doesn't perform, then we don't stay. I have had mall owners take it as a personal affront that I evaluate a site based on business parameters.

Speaking of business realities.... IMO the solely mall sim is a dinosaur. With the current value of the Linden, saturated and aging market, and online & speciality store alternatives... I don't see how anyone can support a mall sim tier solely on dwell and rent. I've done the math... it doesn't compute, unless you have a club, people living there, other events... or just RL money that you enjoy putting towards this as a hobby.

Our three best selling sites: our own store, which we rent out space to others in for free based on their content and other personal selection criteria; Mourning After in Indigo, another free spot, and No Mercy... a very nice speciality shop for the goth inclined crowd.

We support the Riiki store out of our tier (which is a full sim tier btw) for a couple of reasons. Our retail sales support our tier also. One of course... we like having our own retail spot where we can rez any damned thing we feel like rezzing. Two.. we wanted a place to sell mature toys with a prim allowance that would let those toys stay rezzed. and Three... to host and promote like minded retailers, especially those just starting out.

OK.. the above is sort of random, but take it as you will...

Surreal

not responsible and constructive... other than to point out where to strategically locate sheep and blinking HOT SEX signs. lol

Flipper made me do it!
*points and laughs @ Flipp*