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Wildefire Walcott
Heartbreaking
Join date: 8 Nov 2005
Posts: 2,156
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08-21-2007 20:09
From: Capella DeCuir On the topic of malls.... Do people usually get a positive return on rent? It depends. My mall is a specialty place- mostly BDSM/kink-related stuff. BDSM furniture, clothing, cuffs/collars all sell very well, and I've got one merchant who's renting 3 different stalls. I've lost a few vendors who had niche items- or things that didn't really fit the kink/fetish vibe- and two who actually left SL altogether and thus stopped paying rent.  But I've had several merchants tell me they do very well there. Several of them have a small selection displayed at the mall and then a landmark giver to drive customers to their own stores. Usually these landmark givers are scripted to send an IM or email so the vendors can track which givers at various malls are generating the most trips to their store. Whether a mall works for you depends on how your product fits in thematically with the rest of the mall, the attractiveness and visibility of your setup, and the amount of REAL traffic that visits the mall. Seriously, avoid places that use campers to spike traffic ratings; campers don't shop- and those places are often in laggy sims that make for an unpleasant shopping experience. I'd recommend looking for malls with moderate-to-high traffic, reasonable rental prices, and short minimum rental periods. That way you can test the waters for a couple weeks to see if it's going to pay off for you. |
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Zazas Oz
Rufeena Fashion Designer
Join date: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 517
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08-22-2007 14:13
From: Sae Luan Maybe if all the people who rented stopped renting anywhere other than at other designer's places, we could drive out these people that are doing these rental scams, but realistically, I don't think there's anyway all the renters are going to come together on that. Greed sort of drives most people in SL I'm coming to find out and if someone thinks they can make a little money, they would probably just drop the cause. The best route, if you are a renter, talk to your friends that also rent and tell them to support SL's real shopping areas so we can get rid of these other places. I know I'm going to stop renting at places that don't have a large business driving traffic. It's just not worth it. I've lost too much money lately renting at places that are just trying to scam people.
I rented at a new place recently and then the guy came over notices after renting out all his spaces at a good cheap price and told everyone "oh sorry, I have to up the rental prices. If you want to stay you will have to pay double." His reasoning? To pay tier fees. I was disgusted and made sure to get on his group chat and let him and everyone else know that I own an entire island and don't even need to charge half that much to make my island's tier (this guy owned far less land than me). Needless to say, I won't be renewing my rent there or at any of these other places that have moved the landing points. I have talked to a few designers but they still rent and so I dont think I could get them all to stop renting at these ridiculous priced places. I'm not sure but maybe its the "want to be first and get the best spot" thinking is why they do it and the prices dont even come into consideration. I had over 175 stores at one point. I was one of the rent everywhere I could designers. What started me was when I started designing I saw my mentor everywhere and thought well thats the way to do it and it is what I did. Then a few others started and now several people do what I did. I have now scaled down my stores to around 150 and am weeding out the not so good selling ones. Also I am not going to rent at all these places that we are talking about because its just throwing your money away. If the rent is 3200L a month the odds of you making that rent back and profit now in a new mall is like getting hit by lightening. If I rent it better be pleaseing to the eye - theamed, decent prims and comparable rent and some traffic (definetly not just based on campers). I have come to the conclusion though that campers are here to stay but its one thing to open the map and see 2 to 5 green dots (campers) and another to see lines and lines of them:/ As far as the reason for changeing the rent prices cause they need to make tier. Well they should have known what the tier was when they decided to build the mall and setup the Rentos. I consider that another bait and switch and would leave that mall. I Have owned a sim and now an island and I do have a Shopping Park. My rents are no where near these high prices I see and the prims are way over what they give. Ok not all can be like me and not base paying thier tier on rentals but if they are going to base the rent on tier then do it from the start. |