BayCity...What do People think of the Retail Possibilities there ?

I have been watching the parcels in BayCity and thought it might make a good showcase Retail Location...I see several Big Names with stores there...


I have bid on a few...But it looks like if you bid less than 100L/m The bid is always immediately too low...I made a couple 50-75k bids on pieces and they were trumped right away..Wonder how much I cost a few Land Flippers LOL...

Well thought I would see what everyone thinks of the Retail/Showcase Value of a store there.

Showcase promoting commercial properties is an absolute disgrace and the Lindens involved should be ashamed of themselves.

Go for it!
Commercialism exists everywhere so why not there?
If the builds are pretty much to theme and you'd like to open a satelite location, all the power to you.

You'd most likely get the best price at auction rather than pay 200% + profit to a Fliptard. ;]

I have one on my satellite shops there (and im not a "big name" lol), ...if it works? Yes it does indeed (tp's to the main store), but buying a parcel there expecting to raise your sales to cover the whole cost of the parcel won't work at all... be prepared to wait 12 months at least. So it's more advertising as "image", than advertising to have a real and immediate profit back. The only ones that had an immediate return in Bay City were those land flippers.

Initially i wanted to buy a plot and place a shop on it, now i'm kind of glad i did not squander 70k + on trying to get one.

I have an option to rent a small shop there from a existing land owner, but i'm not even convinced its going to have great shopping traffic compared to the high rent being asked.

Bay city region is now 20+ sims....and LL are likely to add to this. You have to be hard core shopper to visit an area of 30-40 sims containing mostly shops.
Sure you can market the plot, but its unlikely to be higher up the ladder on any of the search categories when compared to your Mainstore located elsewhere.

Like Vittorio mentions above...a great Mainstore landmark giver....but not convinced regarding direct sales versus investment, if it's your sole shop in SL.

I would not pay more than 2 or 3 lindens per prim for a shop there (rent) and would not even consider purchasing one.

I have yet to look around to see if there are any stores for rent there at that price.

It would prolly be handy for exposure but not much more.

I was quoted 2000 L a week -rofl
I would have to really sell hard to be profitable week in and week out there......and i don't want to pay that just as a landmark giver to my mainstore, ......for that kind of money i could find more effective marketing strategies.

I prefer and wait and see how the whole region develops first....then maybe in 6 mths to a year, i could always make a bid to either rent or buy 2nd hand land .....if and only if the region is super vibrant!

how many prims?

I do not know what the 2000L was quoted for...

if it was 2000L for say 500 prims then that would only be 4L per prim (of course I have no need for 500 prims but just saying)

105 prims

Premium rates -lol.......this is Bay City after all!

are they nuts? that is almost 20L a prim (close enough I would consider it 20L a prim)

holy crap that is nuts!!
I won't go over 5L a prim for rent anywhere, and usually not even that high

I have a store, my own land, so mainly I just look for locations for satellite stores (so far have not found any places I like, so if anyone knows of any good non camper locations that have stores for rent for 5L or less (prefer less) per prim, let me know (please use a pm or drop me a notecard in game as I am currently on the road and connection is iffy at times so I might end up missing a post)

thanks

PS I rent out little stores on my land, right next to my ground level landing point, for only 4L per prim, sheesh, 20L per prim... *shakes head*

It's hard to know what will or won't be good retail locations. I've had shops in quite a few locations, some with quite high traffic and other seeming advantages and I've had varying degrees of success but I still don't have a sure fire formula for where will be good. Oddly I sell far more at my main shop on my own land on a hill in the middle of nowhere than I have sold anywhere else. I barely even advertise it. I don't know where my customers come from - maybe some tp from the satellite shops.

I a putting in a satellite store: My main will still be on Livingtree, of course, but it'll be a decent store. I see it as a good location for a small store, with enough prims to "play" and experiment a bit.

Mari

Who is? I believe this is one of the guy i built *FOR FREE* their shops.. ...just in front of the bowling correct?

Thank You all for the comments, I appreciate them

Well, I did put in a bid for a parcel in BayCity and it is holding...So will wait and see...

My Main store has been in the same location for well over 2 years...Just Expanded !

So this would be one of several satellite stores for advertising...It will just be an Expensive Experiment...I guess, if I get the Bid.

Besides, It's always fun to build ))

I think that eventually Bay City could be a good location for satellite stores, a way to show a sampling of your work and direct people to a main store elsewhere. But it will only be good if LL gets a backbone transplant and does something about the rampant land speculation and ad flippers that are trashing the area. As long as most of the parcels remain in the hands of people whose only motivation is to extort as much value from the land as possible, while doing nothing constructive with the land, Bay City will be a "good idea that failed to do what was hoped".

Pardon my extreme ignorance here, but why is there so much attention on Bay City here and elsewhere? What makes it so special for a region/sim?

Hrm, as long as they keep in-theme and aren't overly laggy then it could be okay, but otherwise it just runs the risk of turning the bay-city area into yet another lag-fest mall. At those prices though I'd hope people would take the extra effort, I won't be buying a plot as at those prices they seem to be worth more than all my land combined!

Bay City is 20 or so sims that LL caused to be created as a more or less urban environment, with double prim allocations per parcel. The promise of the multi-sim area was that they would actually have some sort of zoning requirements, even though they were mainland sims. So in theory, the builds were supposed to fit the theme of the sim.

In practice, LL allowed the land flippers and speculators to swarm in and turn the place into a wasteland of hyper-inflated pricing and unused parcels that do nothing but boast an unreasonably huge price tag.

Linden Lab had what should have been a good idea. It still could be, if they would hold people to the plan that they initially announced.

For me personally the reason to be in Bay City is fairly simple.. because I like it!

My business likes the potential there, but more so the stability. There are alot less reasons why I will ever want or need to move again. I am thinking of it as my main business headquarters, with my larger and more prim heavy stuff at the island.

Its very hard to judge Bay City by what you see going on now. I predict soon prices may come down a little, not below 70l/sqm. I think in a year you will not see much land for sale.

Renting this land is not really a good proposal for most landowners since tier is relatively the least important part of the equation. In my opinion its not right to ask those kind of advert or small store rates and I would not pay that untill they could prove the traffic etc.

In terms of are people selling thier products in Bay City? of course.. as good as anywhere else and better. I know I for one bought a Ultra Light plane from Cubey Terra to check out the area, and a Primouth to cruise around.. not in Bay City(I dont think so but he should be!)

-whyroc

That's very interesting. The things the typical SLer doesn't hear about.

Which continent does this cluster dominate, and how can one tell which sims belong to it?

Their prim limit (much as no one likes it) is to avoid lag. Doubleprims - IF people stayed on the plan - would mean one helluva strain on bandwidth and their servers I would think.

Bay City extends West from the NW corner of the oldest mainland continent, the Southern Continent. Look at the waterway between the Northern and Southern continents, and go West. Bay City is on the Southern shore at the end of the waterway. All those sims have names starting with "Bay City - ".

Buy City....

the sim still has the same max allowed prims (15000), so even if everyone used all their prims it would be no different than any other sim with full prim usage

the "extra" prims basically come from the portions of the island that are linden owned, but not full prim usage.

Purty much the same here. I also like dat a lotta people I know are movin into spaces there.

Mari

That's the one Vittorio

I had a feeling it was your building work as it seemed to fit the theme of your own stores.