Incentives to visit shops?!?...

mastermesh

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Maria Mesh
What would get you to go visit shops in outlying areas like Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis more often?... Or what keeps you from visiting them now? Is it prices on things in the shops? Do you hesitate because some shop owners are paying rent while other are and you don't know which shops are actually open? Is it that the auctioneer is just too easy to deal with compared with having to go in person to various locations to shop around (even if the stuff he's selling is way overpriced many time)? Do you have some grudge against LA owners and don't want them to get taxes? Name your issues and maybe us shop owners or FPC can do something to help resolve whatever the issues are?!?...
 
The main reason for me is that I don't know if I'll even find the item I am after (Went to 2 malls without finding the amp I wanted since they had ran out...)
 
something i definitely DON'T do is go visiting shops, just looking around to see if i see what i need.

however, if i know of a good shop (from ads here in EF, or ingame), regularly stocked, and with lower prices than auction BO's, then i go. i don't care who gets the tax.
 
i see here that all those threads about shops is just couse your items dont sell..

i' going to tell u the main reasons

1. u r a trader
2. no one knows u
3. crafters can beat your prices
4. crafters do buy stuff from players u dont
 
...what keeps you from visiting them now? Is it prices on things in the shops? Do you hesitate because some shop owners are paying rent while other are and you don't know which shops are actually open? Is it that the auctioneer is just too easy to deal with compared with having to go in person to various locations to shop around (even if the stuff he's selling is way overpriced many time)?
Yes!

Somotimes when I want something which I cannot find on auction I go round the shops to see if I can find what I want there. About half the time I can, but it often takes me a couple of days to find the item I am after. I have nothing against window shopping, but it seems to take forever in EU.
A clearly visible open/closed sign outside the shop would be a great improvement, and I don't understand why MA have not already implemented this.
 
What would get you to go visit shops in outlying areas like Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis more often?... Or what keeps you from visiting them now? Is it prices on things in the shops? Do you hesitate because some shop owners are paying rent while other are and you don't know which shops are actually open? Is it that the auctioneer is just too easy to deal with compared with having to go in person to various locations to shop around (even if the stuff he's selling is way overpriced many time)? Do you have some grudge against LA owners and don't want them to get taxes? Name your issues and maybe us shop owners or FPC can do something to help resolve whatever the issues are?!?...

last time i looked in shops most had what I call FU pricing. They are almost always higher than what u can get the same item for in the auction.It seems like they are saying "cant find it in auction - FU pay my price or go without"

And considering some are active traders that do not hesitate to take advantage of players by offering seriously bad prices (ie 110% for a item with120% market value) why should I help them profit?

In reality its all about the loot. It all goes to the uber ath's and hof's lately. Be it a 1 day old noob or a five year verteran. If loot was better I would still play like I used to and not worry about a few % more or less. This would make trading either in Twin or in a store much much better also.
 
Wildman's Auction Radio! (WAR)This is why I took a look at trying live auctions!!! To bring equipment to everyone at better rates. I have a shop that is stocked with SOC looted items. I try to keep prices at or below MU to sell the items faster. Some items with low MU it is hard to do as we are restricted to a +1 MU on items in the shops then add on the tax. I hope payers get some items out of their shops and give my show a chance. Repeat auctions from crafters would help a lot for this Free Service Free of Taxes and Auction Fees!

I will be at Port Atlantis Saturday @ 10:00 MA time for 3 hours auctioning off items over both major radio stations. All items you wish to auction should be present to be listed over the air. Everything may not sell but hey it is exposure in either case for your items and shops to be announced (exposure for your goods/services will be avalible as well).
 
- Update Wiki so that we find what we search visthout spending 1h30 in each mall.
- Propose decent prices. All shop onwer claim they are below market, but it's generally a lie. Two minute seeking in auction and I find my gear, available and cheaper.
- Find a way (harasse MA) so that the closed shops are closed.
- Find a way (harasse MA) so that shops are in one-level, open to exterior malls.



Edit: as others say, I don't care buying to you or to X, Y and Z at auction. But Auction is 20 sec away from TP, and is overloaded of decent prices 24/24.

this



too short
 
- Propose decent prices. All shop onwer claim they are below market, but it's generally a lie.

You do not want to go to a shop when you know that 98% of all items in shops are above the prices you can find in auction in a 5th of the time or so :silly2:

And dont say it is because shop owners cant update "every few hours" or something, because sometimes you see stuff that costs double of what it does in auction, and haven't cost that in years... maybe never
 
- Find a way (harasse MA) so that shops are in one-level, open to exterior malls.

I must say, I do not like the current mall design... For me, a mall should be a big open space, maybe with a small square in the middle where people can stand around chatting... maybe if they designed the malls like a + instead? :) with big roof windows, so we get a lot of light, and nice and open design...

I would go there more often :silly2:
 
Most shops are unadvertised, inconvenient, it wastes much time "shopping", ok i could go on and on for the reasons i don't waste my times with shops.

I do endorse one persons shop many times per week because he has useful item that is about 2 to 3 peds less than auciton. He spent the money on bannar ads on ef and other place so it was easy to aquire location. Also I have dealt with him off and on for 9 months so I have a rapport built up with this guy. I am willing to recommended him and take time to "shop" his shop. To put it blunt i won't bother doing this for other shop owners cause the mall/booth system is very flawed to me.. Too much running around, tping, etc etc. Aucitoneer you walk up grab what you need and go.

Mastermisiah sorry everyone not going to run to your remote shop even to save a few pec or ped. Maybe you should try a bannar ad campaign on ef and build up more contacts. Btw I have no issue paying taxes for items or loot if it makes sense to.

Kosmos
 
i hardly visit any shops at all. mainly due to the factor that they are almost always never stocked. if a player did have a shop AND keeping it stocked (with what i need ofcourse) i would rather go there than use the auction actually, but since that is almost never the case i tend to use the auction.
 
normally i buy from the auction! on occasion when i am bored i might visit the various shops around calypso(with no intent to buy, just window shopping) As said before, most of the time the price's are double what they should be(okay maybe not double, but why pay more than what u could get it for in auction). if someone selling something that i could actually use in one of those shop's, i might go visit them. Also this has been said, but alot of the shops in apartment's usally wont let u in because they are expired(this is even the case with a good number of mall shops aswell!) One thing the malls have infavor of them is the fact that there is a teleporter right there in the mall which makes browsing the shops alot easier, as compared to the apartment building shops, cant tell you how many times i thought i went into the proper building only to find out that i wasnt in the right building. in my opinion unless something is done with the city's themselve's, i dont really see many people shopping there, just take's to much time to walk from building to building looking for a decent deal.

Maybe a good idea would be to petition MA to take those shops from the apartment buildings, and turn them into a shopping center in that particular city. Not saying turn them into another mall to sell, just give them a central building that has the teleporter in the center of it, with a televator to go from floor to floor! honestly i doubt they would do this, but you never know.

As far as taxes go, i dont think most people have any problems with paying taxes on items, specially if the item is below MU to begin with.
 
1. prices often too high (sometimes i go in just to laugh at crazy prices). to me it seems a lot of shops are counting on a visit from some rich unexperienced/idiot, who buys because doesn't know how to check prices, or cant wait.

2. not so easy access. DrDC is doing great job with updates of all shops,but he cant do everything.

3. lagggg and slowed down movements inside.

these are my reasons to mostly use auction.


Posted via Mobile Device
 
Reasons I don't go to shops:

1) The "I'm cheaper than auction" line is a LIE. Almost never is an item in a shop cheaper than auction, in fact, usually it's ridiculously overpriced. You would think someone that could afford a shop would be willing to accept smaller profit margins to get customers, but usually the reverse: they overcharge to try to "pay the rent".

2) The lag involved with shopping makes it a frustrating experience. Enter a shop and then wait while all objects load.

3) Being unable to tell which shops are open/closed, stocked/unstocked etc.

4) Having no idea what is in a shop - wandering around 20 different shops in the HOPE that they might have what I'm looking for an hour versus 5 minutes spent on auction to find the item instantly and at a better price (usually).

5) Architecture and design in EU is horrible. Shops in apartment buildings are far flung from the tp and all over the place, mall design is awful. The only good design I've seen is the booth promenade at Corinth tp.

6) Convenience. There are auctioneers everywhere, even far from tps now. Shopping is usually massively inconvenient and require me to plan a trip.

7) Stock. Shops usually either stock uber items I totally can't afford, or absolute crap I don't need - either Mod/Imp weapons or jester D1s. Angel armor or Hunter. The one exception I can think of is clothes - this is about the only thing I've shopped around for.

There are other reasons, but these are the main ones.
 
3. lagggg and slowed down movements inside.

this too, and to the owner of the svempa XT shop on floor 1 in twin, please remove that horrid movie sign! once i can use them, i will not be buying from you unless you remove that sign!

EDIT: it takes me a good 5 minutes to go into that store and leave cause the lag is so horrible!
 
If I had to be honest, people with obscene prices are one of the reasons I prefer auction. If I have to spend over an hour to find a place selling what I'm interested in, just to find out its up to double (or more!) of what it has ever been in the history of Calypso, it's just not worth it at all and makes me think twice about going to a mall or city unless it's something I really, really want or need.

One thing that would be interesting, however, is a directory. An NPC in a wicket that can tell you if what you're after is in the area or not, and the location to go to with no mention of prices or value to keep it simple. For instance, looking for P5A's under laser weapons would tell you say 5 shops sell them and where they are (global listings). Nothing fancy, just a way to speed things up and keep us from banging into those damn force fields. After taming, makeup, body sculpting, mindforce etc.
 
I just dosent care about shops, this for me is just a shallow game. I log in and either hunt, craft or mine, i buy what i need from AU and then i play.

Thats it, fast and effective, maybe not so eco but i dont care about some pec or ped here and there.

In other MMO:s that i play, there i do care about stuff like this just couse it is fun and i love to put down time in them and in my char. In EU it`s just boring, like a job or something, it`s just feels to serious and dosent offer anything.

Strange logic i know, but thats how I feel.
 
Where I shop

I don't go to Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis very often for a few reasons.
1. Not that many shops there, I think the main Malls have reasonable competition and you can usually find what you want, lots of variety.
2. Access is slow at Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis. At Twins, PA and Emerald Malls you can quickly nip down the hall, quickly up the teleporter without much hassle and there is a main TP close by in the building. At Omegaton and Genesis I find it difficult to find the shops and often find most stores empty, or with one or two overpriced uber items.

I would suggest you move your shop to one of the main malls, you will get better foot traffic and more sales. Its all about kerrrrrrching!$$$$$

Cheers
Bjorn
 
What would get you to go visit shops in outlying areas like Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis more often?... Or what keeps you from visiting them now? Is it prices on things in the shops? Do you hesitate because some shop owners are paying rent while other are and you don't know which shops are actually open? Is it that the auctioneer is just too easy to deal with compared with having to go in person to various locations to shop around (even if the stuff he's selling is way overpriced many time)? Do you have some grudge against LA owners and don't want them to get taxes? Name your issues and maybe us shop owners or FPC can do something to help resolve whatever the issues are?!?...

Yup, auction is accessible and cheap. If you want to compete with it you must do so with prices or selling items that are hard to sell at auc (clothes look better in shops for example).

The amount of people who decides to spend a few hours of just "shopping" i think are very few.
 
Hopefully FPC is reading...

Hopefully FPC is reading this stuff...

sorry everyone not going to run to your remote shop even to save a few pec or ped. Maybe you should try a bannar ad campaign on ef and build up more contacts. Btw I have no issue paying taxes for items or loot if it makes sense to.
I have thought about an ad campaign and might do that at some point in the future. As far as contacts go, I'm always trying to network a bit, but it's difficult due to real world issues since I'm not online as much as I'd like to be. I'm actually in forums here more than in game most of the time unfortunately... which is why I can't emphasize enough that if folks are trying to reach me, a PM in here is probably the best way to get a hold of me.

cant tell you how many times i thought i went into the proper building only to find out that i wasnt in the right building.
I agree with this statement 500%! FPC SHOULD redo all buildings in game and give them a unique look. Even an open area like the Corinth booths can be confusing since every darn booth looks alike.

The lag involved with shopping makes it a frustrating experience. Enter a shop and then wait while all objects load.
This is another very valid point! Hopefully both FPC and MA are reading! Keep working on the lag please!

Being unable to tell which shops are open/closed, stocked/unstocked etc.
The closed door thing as only way to know a shop is closed is annoying, I do agree. It might be interesting if FPC did something different, like leave the terminal there, but put a huge brick wall in front of a shop or apartment that doesn't have rent paid at the moment.

Having no idea what is in a shop - wandering around 20 different shops in the HOPE that they might have what I'm looking for an hour versus 5 minutes spent on auction to find the item instantly and at a better price (usually).
Hopefully FPC and MA are reading... adding a terminal that shows what's in every shop in game would be very helpful, regardless of whether it shows prices or not - even though it would be a better system if it did show prices.

Architecture and design in EU is horrible. Shops in apartment buildings are far flung from the tp and all over the place, mall design is awful. The only good design I've seen is the booth promenade at Corinth tp.
I agree with this 900%! Marco has said he wants us more involved in the future. Hopefully he can talk FPC in to letting us change the way things look on some level, or at least higher a real world architect to build the models for the game and make every building more unique looking.

Convenience. There are auctioneers everywhere, even far from tps now. Shopping is usually massively inconvenient and require me to plan a trip.
I agree with you there! Hopefully FPC can do something to help this in the future.

Access is slow at Omegaton West Habitat and Genesis. At Twins, PA and Emerald Malls you can quickly nip down the hall, quickly up the teleporter without much hassle and there is a main TP close by in the building. At Omegaton and Genesis I find it difficult to find the shops and often find most stores empty, or with one or two overpriced uber items.
I'm not sure if I agree with you here. It is nice to have mall shops right next to one another, but they are even more confusing than apartment shops to me since each floor looks alike. With apartments, you know that just the basement is shops. ONE THING I REALLY HOPE THAT FPC might look in to would be putting doorways from the outside directly in to the shops... or at least replacing the walls between the outside and inside of the shops in apartments with transparent glass so that it's more like a real world window shopping experience instead of literally looking at a brick wall that you have to run around to get inside!

I would suggest you move your shop to one of the main malls, you will get better foot traffic and more sales. Its all about kerrrrrrching!$$$$$
Yes and No. More foot traffic might be possible, but does the higher up front cost and monthly rent justify it, especially when number of item slots in mall shops are not significantly higher than what's elsewhere, especially now that FPC allows us to buy more slots from the estate broker.
 
I stopped looking thru the shops the first month they were implemented and rarely go back now unless I am really bored and really broke.

Most (not all now days as some have learned) dont keep up with the market values now and never change prices nor rotate stock that does not sell.

When shops first opened I saw items in these places at double and even some places over tirple current values. Thats why I stopped bothering to even walk thru to ooh and ahh over them.

There were many items in these shops collecting dust simply over greed and I for one will never want a virtual item from a shop costing 2x or 3x what I could get it for on auction including fees even if I had to wait a year for one to show. There is nothing in this game I want need or desire to pay that much extra markup on simple as that.
 
Suggestion > https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/wishlist/155630-district-based-market-systems-shops.html

People may say oh but we want people to visit inside shops.

Nothing stops you from doing that yet it is also impractical to force everyone to do this which would deter more away from bothering.

Those who want to window shop great, those who couldn't care less, those who are in a rush or have slow computers do not need to.

Offering this system with both pathways in user choice without forcing people to physically visit the shop if they do not wish to will bring the greatest overall prospects for shop investment and stocking by participants.

Those wanting to force people to physically visit the shop are really kidding themselves if they see this as a viable strategy to maximise shop transaction business potential.
 
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I think everybody has the rigth to don t go shopping and use just the in game auction, because it is fast and convenient.

But sorry, it s unfair to say that the prices in the shops are expensive. Like it s unfair to say that is a pain running for shop looking for your wished item.

U have www.EntropiaBay.com.

It collect all the best shop offers in game. There are listed hundred of items under market value, some of them are listed in my signature too.
You can do a fast check and save hours of research, u can do a fast research in EntropiaBay and save some ped comparing the auction prices.

The EntropiaBay team is doing a huge job to keep all the offers weekly updated (all the offer are max 14 days long) but sadly the shop owners not use entropiabay a lot. And it s fine for us. If they think that many thousand of people are visiting their shosp a sakura city, or booths at omegaton tower B or their shops in Emerald lake mall...etccc...... than yes they probably don t need to upload their offers in EntropiaBay.

I would like in the mean time use this occasion to thx all the many hundred of people that each day use EntropiaBay. I would like thx for all the +rep we got about our website, and i would like thx the people that in game many time say that EntropiaBAy is probably one of the most useful resource for EU.

For all that, thx

DrDC
 
I only visit one shop. I know its always stocked, always under MU and easy access.

Its too time-consuming running around looking for stuff in shops, most are empty or only offer small amount of items, the rest are closed. Oh and some are highly overpriced!
 
I see a lot of people saying: update your info in Wiki.. now seriously.. Who checks wiki for that kind of info? I mean.. there's also a part where you can see infos about soc a nd players, but who really uses/ckecks it? Practically noone, and if so, it's most probably a 1 time thing. I know i don't and don't know of anyone who does.
People i know of only uses wiki to check loots, damage types, infos about tools, weapons, armors, and locations..

The bottom line is: there is still no effective method of attracting the masses to your booth or shop. You can advertise ingame, and capture the attention of a few.. You can do it here in the forum and hope that someone stumbles upon your thread, therefore increasing your customers to perhaps a couple per week. You can advertise again ingame making a team with friends and your shop name/location... but at the end of the day, the auction will always beat you by far.
Why? we are all more or less lazy. Even if we're people who work hard on a daily basis, and especially then, do you really want to loose your precious time looking for an item for hours?... i mean.. time is limited, and do we have 2 spare hours to loose running around the malls and shops to look for anything when browsing auctions will display everything and you can choose + buy in less than 2 minutes and be ready to go hunting/mining/crafting for the rest of night, until you finally get too tired to continue and go to sleep so you can wake up the next day to go to work? Naah...
Society evolved on the concept of getting life easier, faster, i.e. on the "lazy" concept. Ex: cars vs walking; tv control vs getting up from the couch and changing manually; boats vs swimming :D; airplanes vs.. well.. icarus :D, the guy who flapped his fake wings and got burned; current watches vs solar watches which you could not carry.. so u'd have to walk to the place; Computers vs libraries, walking to the bank, stopping to buy a newspaper; hookers :D.. etc etc...
So, if it's not a couple of clicks away, you have no chance to be effective against the regular auction customer. To drive people off the auction, you have to be way more competitive, i.e., prices ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO BE LOWER than auction, always keep a good supply of those items, get a shop as close as possible of a tp, auction and storage, and promote your shop as often as you can with a short, clear and direct message.
Every pub message i see is too vague and distracting, people lose imediately interest, especially when the message is too damn long or has too many slides. PUB inside EU is not for entertainment purpose as in tv. Messages have to be directly to the point.
 
I see a lot of people saying: update your info in Wiki.. now seriously.. Who checks wiki for that kind of info?

Exactly correct... and which wiki?!?...and which part of which wiki?!?... I think entropedia has entries that would need to be updated under shops, entries that would need to be located under locations, and possibly a couple of other places too. I did used to try to update that a lot, but it never seemed to matter much...

Now it's even harder since you have an entirely new wiki at entropia planets that is under construction...

As far as entropiabay goes, it's a good idea, but hard for shop owners for a couple of reasons - first you have to match up each item in the shop with each item in there, then you have the whole timer issue since ads there dissappear after so many days, etc... then you have the issue that if you do update prices in game, you would probably have to update out there too often... big hassle...

Now... on the other hand, if Entropiabay could talk to FPC and work out something so that Entropiabay pays for the bandwidth and FPC can get Entropiabay a complete listing of everything in game in every shop and update it regularly like through an rss feed or something... then there'd be some possibilities... of course if they did that, they'd not want to just do it for Entropiabay but for the whole community, and then take it in game to a new terminal or NPC or something like the auctioneer or integrate it in to the auction system in game....
 
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