I'm planning a new video series, Life Unlimited, that will start rolling in October. Setting everything up includes building a new hood in Newcrest. I've picked a 5 lots hood, and thought that one lot should be commercial, so I've built a small shopping mall on a 30x40 lot. The mall needs some active play to get established, and this gives me the excuse to write a few posts on the progress :)
Today you'll get to see the build and thoughts around the set up. In a couple future posts I'll go more in depth concerning the 4 specific stores that exists in the Newcrest Mall and how the mall is managed. I will try to keep everything simple, and there is no CC involved. My current packs are Get To Work, Outdoor Retreat and Dine Out.
So, this is Newcrest Mall. There's just one floor, which I think fits the quiet residential hood the better. It's got a typical, rather boring exterior, plain and gray. It might get improved later on as the mentioned series rolls out, although the mall will not get much focus besides being a location.
I created a test-sim to actively build up the business, it's a lot harder than I expected. But first, let's take a tour.
Entrance is on the corner, and a wide corridor leads right through the building, giving access to a nice retreat area behind the mall. Note the four display windows along the streets. A floor plan for the mall is posted below.
You also find a couple locked in displays seen through huge windows in the corridor. I plan to update these displays later on. Right now one shows two kids with school stuff, and the other displays an easel with a half done painting (not pictured). In the corridor there are simple rest benches and trash containers, a few commercial posters and access to toilets. It's supposed to be not very appealing. On each side there is access to a store, which again leads to another store through open arches.
I love the display windows, and I will have fun decorating and updating them. Unfortunately the clothes models can't be set off sale, and customers can't access them, causing some frustration. So I had to rearrange that back wall after this screenshot. Left and right window are now locked off, while those with models are open from the clothing store behind.
Below you see a few of the other 4 displays, and these are still locked off as they hold regular decor objects that are not set for sale.
This is the bakery, with a few tables lined up facing the street. These tables won't be served as a restaurant, because the lot is categorized as retail. But by setting it up in a smart way, customers do actually sit down to eat a cake or drink some coffee. And my owner needs to clean up after them, adding to realism. More about the bakery in a future post.
Talking about ownership. I plan to have the mall NPC-run. This means I won't be playing the owner. In order to do so, I will first have to build up the business, because I think the NPC-version will be just like the previous owner sold it. If my current owner sells the mall with just one employee, there will be just one employee when a NPC takes over. So, my goal now is to build up the business, having at least 3 NPC employees.
To handle this huge task I created Ms. Corinne Dougham. She is wealthy and smart, but coming straight from CAS she has very limited skills - and I didn't cheat on anything but her funds. This means she has no business traits either. I chose to play her from scratch, because it's my first time running a retail store ever, and I wanted to learn from doing.
More about Corinne later. Now for a full floor plan of the mall.
Like you see, there are two stores left of the wide corridor, and two stores to the right. Let's call them 1, 2, 3 and 4. I placed a cash register only in number 2 and 4, but like you probably know, in TS4 the sale is ringed up on the floor and no cash register is needed for that. My employees will serve all 4 stores.
There is a photo gallery (1), clothing store (2), general retail store (3) and the bakery (4). Only 1 and 4 can be accessed from the street, while 2 and 3 can be accessed either from corridor or from the neighboring store.
Behind the mall there is a parking place with spots for 2-3 cars (you wish), a swimming pool under a pergola, and a boring bbq area. I hardly see anyone using these outdoor facilities, probably because the lot is tagged retail and not park etc.
Well, enough for today. I'll post again shortly with more focus on how Corinne manages the mall. I have lots of fun doing this, although I do realize that the game is set up for a sim to start out with a much smaller store than this :)
Poor Corinne Dougham is rather exhausted when the night comes. She will not actually be a character in my new Life Unlimited series, so I didn't even bother with building her a home. I guess her customers would be quite surprised if they found Corinne spending most of the night on a public bench in Newcrest...
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