I say 3, because we usually only have 5-10 people on and we need people to come and visit from other servers. Also, as mentioned before we only have 1 mega mall that is actually stocked. Thanks
Sounds as if you know what you're doing when it comes to membership although it may hurt sales... Anyways I can't wait!
Hi guys. jkrmnj and I have been planning this for a little while now. I have just made sketches and ran some numbers. What we are planning to do is like Costco or Sam's Club. If you are not familiar with these, these are called wholesales in america. It is a store that tries to cut costs and sell in bulk by selling items for more money and more quantity but are cheaper if you were going to buy the same amount at a normal store. I ran up a draft sketch and ran numbers on supplies, area and other things. PM me if you want to see the final draft when it is ready or want to donate. Construction hasn't started yet but we recently got a better res (401) and are starting to get serious. I am taking wool orders in bulk to raise money. All wool is 3000r a DC and there will be a list. jkrmnj is doing this, not me so PM me, not him.
Well, people sure tend to like Costco. We are planning to have just a small fee rupee wise and we may employ people to do membership checks like at the wholesales but since it is summer jkrmnj and I will be on a lot and we can manage that. If we become successful we plan to open more stores that are non member.
Costco = Real life not EMC again member ship malls are usly not allowed and if they slip by the mod they normaly shut them down due to issues they have caused in the past just be pre-warned. Doesnt help that you advertising to make it a member ship shop. Just trying to save you some hard ship. to be honest just run a normal mall and keep it supplied and the people shall come i have about 400 people hit my mall up each day
I appreciate your advice and thank you. I have to say though, what in the empire guide or rules says it isn't allowed? The reason we aren't opening a normal mall is because we want it to stand out. Most malls don't unless it is design wise (architecture). I am still happy that you gave me advice and happy i know what could happen but why do these get shut down?
400 people? That would be a high percentage of the people who play daily, and a lot of people like myself don't shop at megamalls. Sorry, but I find 400 very hard to believe.
And on the membership thing, if you go through with it you should keep a book of members so the door person could check if you had one, it could also be done with hoppers, though it would be very complicated.
That is sort of what I am planning to do. What it will be is a book with a signature by me, jkrmnj or an authorized person and it will be shown to the gate person. There will be a book of members if someone loses there ID though.
If we became big, simple access signs wouldn't cut it. I am speaking for myself and my opinions but what I would like to do is just have that until we become profitable then open up but there will be memberships with benefits but all people can shop there. One thing we haven't discussed is that members will have a special area where you can buy vouchers that can be redeemed for SC's and DC's instead of auctions and maybe transporting of purchased goods. We don't want to be Sears or JCP. We want to be something with more vibe, feel and to be cheap like Ikea. That is why we are doing things a little different. One problem we have is that one thing we did was move from 860 to 401 which is close to spawn. I don't know if there are any good available res addresses on the other servers.
Well, as jkrmnj said, we truely don't know what exactly yet. We may have members but everyone can shop and there are benefits or we employ many people with many time zones.
If you want something with vibe and feel, what you are planning to do won't do it, people won't be bothered to do that, and if you have manual checking, someone HAS to be on to check something if someone wants access to something. I honestly think you should create a store with character, put in lots of plants or water features, put in some other facilities, not just crafting and shopping. And prices can still be low if you keep everything well stocked. Vouchers is still an option with this, people could redeem a DC of something or a discounted price on something. Just my thoughts.
I have to say, I agree. Don't worry. The voucher this isn't final and we were planning to have something like that on the top floor. We were planning to do the checking and just members just for the break when it is completed. Around winter break in the USA. We have some designs but don't worry. We will not disappoint. Thanks everyone for the input on the no just members policy and that will be scratched. There will be memberships though with features non members can't have like the cheap dc thing. Thanks for the input guys. We appreciate it very much. For more info follow jkrmnj and I and we will post more stuff as time passes. In the next few days I will post a final draft with specs and floor plans with drawings, area and a bunch of other stuff. Thanks for everything and if we don't stay at smp1 (we will not most likely) res 401 will be available unless jkrmnj will upgrade to gold in that time frame.
I see a lot happened last night. Don't worry about the memberships too much. As Olaf said the main store will be for everyone. If we do memberships it will be very organized and automatic. Thanks everyone who commented or voted. The good thing about getting advise and such now is we can change our plans easily. We are still open to suggestions if you have any.
