Should SL stores offer premium members a discount?

I like idea for the room for premium only people but I'm not premium so I guess I can't go in my own room.

In all honesty I do think the idea of being premium is a bit antiquated in that people own sims or buy lindens from LL directly which amounts to the same thing.

I stopped being premium ages ago now because the private land was so much better and nicer so I kinda dropped the premium as it made no sense to hold onto it.

It still means that either directly or indirectly I have in some way put money in LL's pocket so I'm payment info uses and onfile.

It does mean though I guess I would be offering people a discount on stuff that I would not myself technicaly be entitled to which is a whole other kettle of fish although I kinda like the idea of a room for people who contribue in some way to LL getting a slightly different service with a discount etc.

Then I think about it and anyone that spends lindens in my store (err although i'm uh rearranging now and thinking of doing something else and closed my stuff down a week or so ago..) is entitled in many ways. If they have lindens to spend they aqcuired them somehow.

meh

thinks some more..

*wanders off*

Seems silly to me - first off - why would the seller care if the buyer is or isn't premium? How is helping LL to have more Premium members a help to the Residents anyway? And also- seconding, thirding and whatever those that pointed out that we spend money here whether we are premium or not. I am Premium and consider this an a non-issue and cannot fathom what purpose it would serve.

I know I would not care to buy at shops who discriminated in this fashion.

No.

I have plenty of customers who are not "premium" who spend money in my shop, I dont get why I should offer premium members, who are paying LL, a discount out of my own pocket.

I do not think "Premium" members get what they are paying for, which is why I never understood why someone would go premium, but there are other ways to make up for it.

Agreed. And why should any individual business person be made to compensate people who pay LL the Premium? No, LL should be the ones giving the Premium Members something for their money. no one else.

EDIT: There. Jesse beat me to it.

That nothing but Elitism and snobbery. I'm Basic,and this past month I bought and spent approximately 25, 000 lindens in world, which is about my average for non land spending since the day I joined. And LittleMe is correct. Most of it does go for shoes. And I'm always looking for more. Why not award those with low ARC scores with a dicount as well, for being "Good Citizens" It a ridiculous idea. Focus your frustrations on Premium being devalued on where it belongs. LL. Not your fellow resident businesses.

Why should I discriminate against the largest demographic in SL? There are of a lot of non-premium members that do much, much more for the SL community, than premiums.

No give us a break ,there is already too much political stuff happening.Why try to regulate this word out of existence.There is enough of that in RL already.

This isn`t true. If anything I think a lot of non premium members might even have more money to spend on content as their money is not going into paying LL every month.

I don`t know, I think we all just need to leave the mindset of "Premiums are the backbone to SL`s economy!" behind.

We should leave all the RL class and caregorizations behind. For a place supposedly one of equality and freedom of expression, a lot of people seem to want to find ways to categorize and divide us.

I agree. I don`t even like it in RL, I definitely don`t want to see it here.

No offense to the OP, I just think there are more logical ways to give premium members their moneys worth, unless all there is to it is the ability to hold (main)land.

definitely. That's partly why I stopped being premium. I don't want to own mainland, and the 300 L's a week is chump change. I saw no return in value for my 9.95 a month

I would never assume that just because a resident doesn't have payment info on file, that they have no money. Check out merchant profiles - you'll see a lot of merchants have no payment info on file as well.

if only that could somehow be set up *intentionally* it could be an enormous marketing ploy. The "Forbidden fruit" theory.

I'm not familiar with this "copybot" stuff or how people steal stuff. Would those types have payment info on file? Would selling to only PIF have any crime reducing qualities???

It's a marketing idea, clearly with pros and cons. One would need to embrace and maximize the pros. Are the items for sale ones that would be appealing to "elitist" type people?

All in all, I'd say a "Frequent Flyers" Discount would be more successful at attracting and retaining deep pockets. OR have people "purchase" a membership account like Sam's Club or Cosco. Then you get the "premiums". But the store would need to be a big one that sells alot.

Premiums getting a discount huh?

Any discount should start at 25%

And forget doing it for Premiums, Basics seem the better investment.

Or why not just use the avatar rezday and offer discounts only for those born before 2004 only?

And what about we give some discounts accordingly to race, sex, religion.... humm maybe we can also institutionalize gas chambers and create the SL-ku-klux-klan...

I'm a free basic and I spend USD in SL, too much I believe, I know some premiums that spend most of their income on tiers, so why should I give them discounts over the basics that buy me stuff?

Maybe if you sugest some discounts to clients that buys more often...

Because it cannot be scripted/coded.

It can....

If look_is_holy = true then
religion = true
End If
If has_breasts then
gender = female
End if

And for the race you could use a case-statement I think....

yes, I learned some basic long ago .

Morwen

The biggest ones do, they even own estates. One can download the stuff using one account then upload with a throwaway, so payment info isn't going to tell you anything.

Nope. In addition to the tag team thing, one only needs to be in the same area as an item to copy it. Ownership and permissions don't matter (but the ownership part may be changing for clothing).

I suppose that if we residents feel that having more Premium members benefits us, then we have some interest in making that happen. I guess personally I'd like to see more folks owning Mainland and doing interesting things with it, and they'd have to be Premium to do that. And if Premium memberships actually accounted for enough revenue that the health of LL's balance sheet were at stake, then we'd have another reason to care. But as it is, I'm really not sure any resident has all that much reason to care. (That's ignoring the practical problems of actually doing anything, if we did care.)

A while back, some Lindens were collectively ruminating over what if any additional Premium perks could be added, and what to do with the program as a whole. Haven't heard anything about it recently but they sometimes discuss things without checking with me first.

That is so misleading! If you have the right to resell it, you own it. Doesn't matter where it is.

As for premiums vs. basics and spending, as one who spends over $200 usd (yes, real dollars) per month, I would be unhappy to know that being a "basic" account would cost me more in the stores.

Have to agree with you. Its either elitism/snobbery or something-for-nothing greed. In my two little shops, the motto is 'Your money (er, scatch that, You..yeah that's what I meant) are always welcome here, regardless of your payment status!'

I hardly think that you "own" it if your island owner can pull the rug from under you and kick you off without recourse. Which is what happens often when islands are sold. Just because you can sell your right to be there to another person doesn't mean that the right is absolute. The only absolute owner is the island owner, absolute in the sense that only a TOS violation or non-payment to LL would divest them of the right to be there.

Premium should get you something for your money, definitely. But it really doesn't. That's LL's fault. More people are Basic than Premium. That's LL's fault. The influx of NPOIF's many, not all, who freeload and never invest a single Quatloo. That's LL's fault. They have reapt what they have sown. None of you business owners should be made to compensate for their short sightedness when they threw open the gates.

"Unless you bought the entire island, you do not, nor ever will, actually "own" land on the island."

You don't actually own anything in SL -- you pay for the use of it. So the difference is who you pay tier to.

Special interests are a load of crap -- what a great way to create descent. Ever given consideration to the fact that many EU folks are NPIOF because of VAT? Its hard enough to draw attention to business and now you want to polarize my target market?

I regularly discount my shoes between 30 and 80% WEEKLY. So how would that work? Would you be so arrogant to demand your premium discount before my sale price making your discount even larger? Now that would make YOUR 'special' discount more than my net profit or equal, at the end of the day.

How bout we do this -- Let the shop owners decide the rules of their business and we won't tell you where you must shop.