Second Life Residents in a serious shopping mood have never lacked variety, but they’re likely to put quite a few miles on the odometer tracking down all of the far-flung retail outlets in our rapidly expanding world. Governor Linden wants to change that by offering Second Life’s merchant class the opportunity to gather together and enjoy the benefits of critical shopping mass.
Introducing the Luna Oaks Galleria
LindenWorld is decamping from Luna to make way for Second Life’s most exciting new retail concept – the Luna Oaks Galleria. The Galleria offers potential retail tenants a variety of options – ranging from 32 square meter stands all the way up to breathtaking 1,300 square meter anchor stores. Merchants will be able to buy the land – so it will count against their allocation. In order to accommodate proper amounts of retail merchandise, only a small part of the region will be leased and Linden builds will be kept to a minimum --Galleria merchants will enjoy a primitive allocation five-times higher than normal. Stand owners can expect to support about 22 prims, and the lucky proprietors of the anchor properties will have 1300 prims with which to stock their shelves. Should demand warrant, a number of small, 16 square meter kiosks supporting roughly ten prims may be added to the Galleria.
The Luna Oaks Galleria is not intended to replace resident-built shopping centers and stores in Second Life. Participating merchants are encouraged to offer the message, "If you like what you see here, grab this landmark and visit my main store."
Galleria merchants will enter into a two-month lease, with the right to lease the six biggest spaces offered in a Linden Dollar auction closing (edit) Sunday, January 11; the remainder of the stores will be distributed by lottery. At the end of the two-month lease period, new two-month leases will be auctioned.
Don’t Forget About Vehicles!
Busy Ben’s Hoverboard Emporium and Motorcycle Ranch has long been Second Life’s Premiere vehicle dealership – now Ben is offering Resident’s a chance to own a piece of the lot. Ben will allow vehicle dealers to buy individual plots of 32 to 64 square meters in which they can place a single for-sale craft, and each plot will be ready to accommodate a
vehicle-friendly 32 prims.
Ashes to Ashes…
While v1.2 is introducing exciting new opportunities for Second Life merchants, it also means saying goodbye to some old friends: the two AV Centrals and the Zoe Superstore are set to pass into history – resource distribution in v1.2 will make these longtime-favorites difficult to manage. All objects currently on display will be returned to the sellers immediately after 1.2 arrives and most of the land will be released. We hope that the merchants who used those locations will be able to participate in the Galleria. The Bazaar – with its freewheeling, free items philosophy – will remain for the time being.
Speaking of good-byes, this is also the end of the road for the Amphitheaters – they’ve already been deleted to free up prims and the land will be released. There have been just two events hosted in the Amphitheaters in the past three weeks – that’s less then one percent, and the primacy of dwell in v1.2 means that demand for the Amphitheaters is unlikely to increase.