The Former Galleria Sims: A Point of Utter Annoyance

Lensey, I think you're taking this too personally; they're not bitching about you, they're bitching about the fact that the sims have changed hands, between them, about 10 times in 2 months. That's a lot of work and unkept promises overall. Also, Jenn and I do own a sim... Indigo. I was the second person in SL to buy an entire sim. Its been under the same ownership for a full year now.

-Flip

(my oppinion here) i htink people dont want to rent little stalls next to telehubs because prim limits are very low, u dont have the opportunity to express your shop with your OWN build and lag can be worse with neighbouring people who you have no control of. I loath little stalls like that as it lags the hell outta me when i tp via a th newehere on mainland sims. Personally i never stop at nething when i am going newhere, i go places on the map not becaus ei just found them when randomly flying around (because nowadays that is impossible with the unbelievable lag).

Of course, Anshe, that was only a rough IDEA, i hadn't planned out the very last detail, it was a suggestion nothing more.

I think it is also a matter of consideration. I expect to be treated with the same consideration I give to all of my merchants. I guess I set my standards too high in expecting that from other mall/shop owners.

Jennyfur, i agree with you.

BTW Lensey, im not flaming you or nething i know you were good to my store too and im greatful but im just a little miffed about not getting ne prior notice.

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NOTE
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It is NOT Lensey's fault that some of our prims/objects were not retured. That happens all the time and it is the servers fault. LL claim we will get them back eventually, but i know from experience that that does not happen, well it has never worked for me.

I quite like the competition bewtween malls and mall sims in SL. However I think each mall should come up with a unique layout and plan to say their competitor.

My experience with Centre Ville was putting up a booth in what was the Free Market that became Centre Ville. I found out the land had changed hands by getting all my stuff back when the build was wiped. In spite of that, I decided to take a chance and joined the new market you set up ... I found a decent double-site and spent several hours doing a build, setting up... the usual - paid 3 months rent in advance. A very short time later you bought the Centre Ville private sim and the market became a ghost town. All focus transferred there and I was basically left with a worthless space. Like I have said in previous threads, I track all my sales so I know exactly how a site performs. When you opened in essence what was a shopping mall that competed with your existing one, my sales in the ground sim went to zero... as did several other people I know who were there.
This happened too when Briana opened Skywalk and closed Galleria City for an impromtou remodel. (since you brought up Brianna and GC)

Your name on a business only assures me that you will do what best serves Anshe... it gives me no other guarantee. Ironically, you getting out from under the Skywalk sim, only served to reinforce my opinion that the day of the mall sim is done.

Don't take it personally Anshe, we weren't in Skywalk, but we would have left GC if you had bought it.. purely for business reasons.

Surreal

I no longer have any outlets in malls, though I haven't ruled it out. In the long run I think it's best to be able to get your customers used to being able to always find you in one place. I think satellite stores should always be a secondary strategy for established designers. Malls are perhaps best for helping new designers build some word of mouth. If I were just starting out now I'd probably try and get space in 3 or 4 malls until I'd built up a bit of regular clientelle, then I'd build my own store and get my regulars coming there. Word of mouth does the rest of the work for you, but when you get to the point where you're starting to get word of mouth you really need a main location that you can keep in one spot for as long as possible.

yes Chip, but how do we get our own land when the main land owners buy it all up and increase the price by 33.3%? TH land is OTT$$$ and people are afraid to buy land in the old mainland sims because of the news that 'these older servers will only be replaced with the newer faster ones when they kick the bucket'.

I have had my face dunked in the brown stuff quite a few times. my last store location in Tupi was flushed down the toilet when a neighbour who bought a 4032m plot from auction decided to build the most beautiful 30m high brown mossy green wall the whole way around their EMPTY plot, blocking ANY coverage i might get for a new store opening up.

In RL, you don't have the poshest shops in the middle of the country side, why should the popular shop in SL do that also?

(btw, im not meaning to be nasty by saying that chip )

This was before I bought Sage Open Air Market. That was previous owner who wiped. Please don't confuse that with my business.



No idea what you are talking about. The old Sage market was moved to Centre Ville sim. Everybody received new spot very cheap. Nobody lost even 1 L$.



Which is why shortly after we changed the teleportation system in the sim and started Bingo! events on the ground. And for 25 L$ a week I really don't know what you expect, sorry.



I have not made a profit running malls yet. However, I try to make the malls break even, which I think I managed for most part now. This allows them to stay around long term.



Thanks for blaming me that people boycotted my business.



Funny. You know who and how Galleria City project actually started?

Yes, i know how GC started, you helped with the build but not with the business side of it, am i correct? the build was completed and Briana gave you your share of it all.

But had briana not already had Galleria set up in Aqua, before GC began?

I am also renting out full size store buildings and there is option to build your own building. Quite popular are 20x20m stores with 250 prims near telehubs.

The good of a stable location outweighs the bad in my opinion... and there's going to be a downside no matter what strategy you go with. My store where I get the bulk of my traffic is surrounded by nature... lake, forest, mountain... in SL location doesn't mean as much as it does in RL. What matters most is getting your name out there. If you build a following it will be because of your merchandise, not because you're in the most popular mall. Malls can help you get your name out there though. If you have people who come to you because they love your stuff, they're not going to care that your neighbor has a wall. SL stores are like websites. People don't just stumble onto them (well, they do, but it's only a minor benefit in the scheme of things). People find you because someone sent them a link and told them they should check it out, or saw something someone has and asked them where they got it. Another advantage of a stable location, even a less than ideal location, is that you can spend your time working on your products rather than updating vendors and setting up stalls. Ultimately, the success or failure of your business will hinge on the quality of your products.

Thanks for clearing it up that the previous owner of Sage wiped the build... although usually it is the new owner. What I expect from any retail location... be it free to expensive is that it stay in one place, in the reasonablly same condition that I entered it in for at least a few weeks. My $L are much less important to me than my time investement.

You can't say that people fled because they saw your name on the lease... and then say I'm blaming you that people boycotted you. You already said it yourself.

But yes, what I said was that Phobos Design would not have considered you a good management risk if you had bought GC. And all the drama and annoyance connected with watching you and Brianna duke it out over the original sim build was not a plus from either my business perspective nor a personal one. The only thing that makes me flee the scene faster than erratic business practices is drama.

Surreal

Anshe, your title says "Business Girl". In business, you have to be cutthroat sometimes, wheel and deal, and I think you'd agree you've done quite a bit of this... just look at the land auctions! Not everyone in SL wants to be involved in this type of business. Its nothing personal, just a second lifestyle choice.

AnsheCorp's reputation, deserved or not, is that of a megacorp in SL. You make the most money, you win the most land auctions, you resell for a profit. Not to get into the whole land baron argument again, but that reputation will play itself out differently in different types of markets. I don't think you can be surprised that certain people don't want to play that game in SL. Surreal didn't say anything mean, just expressed the facts from her meticulous tracking of sales.

-Flip

Yes. Briana was running Galleria in Aqua when I approached her about shopping sim. She was probably also toying with the idea while I was looking for partner to start new mall with telehub inside. I paid 50% of the sim, then some time later we had to go separate ways for reasons that neither of us had control over. I just mention this because I find it a little funny how some people perceived my purchase of the second Galleria sim, while in fact it was just the most natural thing to happen after Briana decided to scale down her involvement.

Surreal, are you aware of Briana's medical condition at the time? Maybe you may reconsider this and see the drama from different perspective. Briana wasn't herself and I did not know about it and reacted in wrong way. I really like Briana and I also liked her in spring. But around the time Galleria City was started something happened. I think nobody can be blamed for this and now that Briana's health is better I think we can safely forgot that most sad episode. And, yes, I would like to thoroughly apologize for whatever role I played in this. I simply did not know what was going on.

Yes I understand. Although I believe that I don't do cutthroat but provide honest and fair service. I also don't "wheel and deal" if you mean talking people into something. Cutthroat is something for people like Paris Parks or for people who rip off customer with high price. Mind you, first thing I did when buying sim was to reduce rent. First thing I did when enter land business was undercut margin of competitors. First thing I did when selling animations was sell for half price compared to <unmentioned name>.

But my business looks large. I think it is still dwarved by what some designers sell because their sales and profits are hidden. But I can understand the perception, especially after the forum campaign in autumn.

Yet, the bottom line is IMHO that Galleria sims would still be there if some people would have given me a chance. You can walk away and decide that it is not good to do business with somebody you perceive as big corporation or whatever. But then it may happen that nobody else step in and the project ends. Which is what happened to one degree in the Galleria sims.

Anshe,

I was aware of Briana's situation. That doesn't change my business evaluation. How people behave under stress is very illuminating of their fundamental values and mind set. A lot like how people behave when drunk. I do business with people I don't like, but I don't do business, if I can possibly avoid it, with people who disrespect my time by forcing me to be involved and a witness to a situation which in no way interests or concerns me.

I don't think the Galleria sims would still be around if you taken over them. IMHO the day of the mega-mall is over. SL might be able to support one or maybe even two, but not 4, 5, .... I talk shop with a lot of other retailers, both established and newer. My fairly educated sense is that web commerce (if anyone does it right) and speciality shops are going to be the future.. especially if people get a firm grasp on MARKETING!!
... and the Linden's or somebody gets some better marketing tools out there.

As for my opinion of you. It has been formed solely from my interactions with you dating back to when you were an escort at the Cartel. I pay scant attention to the flames in the forum, little is more boring.

Surreal

Oh? *raises an eyebrow* When did I ever have interaction with you there?

Well it wasn't as a client.

I have no desire to hijack this thread from what I think is an important point.... that retailers are justifiably tired of investing their time and money with no protections to their investment.

Surreal

My strategy is to be in as many places as possible. Im currently at over 40 malls in SL, and i jump on every new mall that i think has a potential.

Of course I get burned, several times per week. But I learn. I learn which land owners I can trust with my money, and I learn who doesnt give a shit about my investment. I take that with me, and shy away from the people that dont give a shit about their customers.

Paying 3 months of rent to people you dont know enough about to trust is... well... not a good strategy to put it mildly. Current rental systems makes it easy to pay just for a few weeks, and you get timely reminders. Why take the risk? It takes 2 minutes to fly over and renew rent.

All I can say is that I had my shop in Rodeo Drive, as well. I was never -ever- notified of a wipe. I logged in one day to see -all- my stuff had been returned to me. Lensey never said a word, and I had just paid for multiple weeks in advance for land rent. And for new sim owners, well I havn't been keeping track, nor do I have any desire. Briana did a very good job running those sims, but it was at the cost of alot of her time and effort. From here forward, I don't think i'll be investing my business in actual shopping sims. They take too much work to operate effectively, and I really don't think anyone has what it takes to keep it going. The only person i've come to know who was doing a damned fine job was Briana Dawson, and it was sad to hear she had to let it all go. I'll miss GC.

Right. This is why they should look for stable and reliable business partner who run mall

Mmmm, and about Cartel... the only thing I remember was when somebody there was unhappy and complain because I earned money with my Lovemaking classes. That person was holding some "box" class for free and was obviously frustrated that people still came to me and paid. Well, it seem my "bad business practise" of being successful and charging for my time follows me everywhere. I am very sorry that I create bad feeling that way. I honestly mean that. But wouldn't somebody who create items for free feel the same about you being successful selling items for L$? I wish everything in SL would be free and people could still earn nice L$

Yay for aasim hehe

Rodeo Drive (now San Salvador) has been bought by Mex and Wes. They're gonna rent parcels in it as homes. Liquid, sorry to hear that Pirata rocks. Lensey was about to start renting me somewhere there before it was wiped. I knew my friend was about to buy a sim, but i didn't know it would be Rodeo Drive.

Anshe,

Stable and reliable are essential. So are compatible business ethics and a good reputation. Some people don't want to do business with you. Accept it and move on.

As for the Cartel, you have confused me with someone else.

This horse is dead.

Surreal