I'll try it, thanks!

Edit: Worked like a charm! Any idea why they would have vanished in the first place?

Glad it worked, no idea why it happened but it sounds like something went wrong during the write process. If nothing else in-game is amiss then I'd chalk it up to a glitch, and just keep frequent backups.

So, I have this recurring problem in retail businesses. When I'm at mid-levels, past the point of getting new cash handouts, at which point I start taking wholesale discounts, I start losing money. I have everything set to "average" price, and regardless of what level of wholesale discounts I have, at the end of the day, after restocking, I have less money than I started with. Which makes no sense, as I definitely bought all the non-crafted items with the wholesale toggle on, and am hardly ever using the "sell at cheap" sales option, so even average should net me a small profit. Yet even setting everything to "expensive" doesn't fix it; I have to mark everything 'very expensive," or lose money. I don't dare hire an employee.

I am not capable (literally not capable; I'm pretty sure I have a learning disability about numbers) of keeping track of actual amounts that pop up at any point, but last night I happened to notice that my bookstore owner, having crossed the street to restock the misplaced items, restocked something that cost $787!? Nothing up for sale in this shop costs that; I don't think any of the fixtures or office furnishings, even, cost anything like that bought new. It's all sellable novels by sims in town, book deco, and bookcases selling the Maxis books, which even at "expensive" don't go for more than $40. I did have a CC magazine rack, mostly for show because no one ever does anything but browse at it and the owner gets no "set for sale" option but it looks good, so I sold it to improve the cash flow for that day -- it gave the store back over $2000 and I still was in negatives for the day!

The cash hemorrhage happens at every store I run, at some point, regardless of what's on the lot and what mods I have in the version of the game I'm running. I do have some mods that are supposed to fix business problems which I think are consistent from version to version, but haven't checked. I have never noticed the restocking of nonexistent pricey stock before; if this happens consistently it would explain the problem, but I don't know whether it does or not. Obviously this is untenable.

So, is this a known bug, and if so, what's the fix? If it's not, it's probably a mod conflict, but I'm hoping not to have to do that -- it'd be such a pain to do with an owned business.

Are you selling custom items? Could be something to do with how those items are made.

I have this same problem. My stores don't sell any crafted goods and unless prices are set to "extremely expensive" (and rarely "expensive" depending on the type of store) my poor business owners are losing money daily. I've had to turn some of them into home businesses since there was no way to sustain a community business and a house without going bankrupt. I rationalize it as import fees, since things need to reach Portland is so out-of-the-way and most items (and sims) are shipped in via train.

Depends on the store. It takes a lot of crafting time to make a full, interesting store, so when someone's got a crafting bench I have them make a bunch of stock, but surround the crafted items with similar catalog stuff. So the florist stocks a lot of plant deco, the toy store sells catalog toys, etc. The bookstore that restocked the absurdly expensive nonexistent single item is almost all book deco, but also has some regular bookshelves, and a "local authors" display with novels given to the owner by the authors, who are local playables, and the sellable novels mod does the rest. I have no idea how that mode determines the wholesale price of a book. There are custom workbenches, like the gnome bench and the woodworking bench, that allow enough variety to fill a store without custom items, but they're a rarity. And things like electronic stores, that have big ticket items and no craftables, show the effect early and extremely.

Random question for all those out there. Would you rather play/download a custom 'hood that gives a sense of belief (can/would this exist in reality type of feeling, often being influenced by real world events and architecture) or full-fantasy (a 'hood that exits beyond the constructs of our reality, often relying on fantasy tropes)?

I would want it to be based on a realistic settlement in a modern time period without aliens or magic because the day to day life without extensive total conversion modding is invitably modern and western.

I would want to download the neighborhood that was made with love, passion, and vision instead of according to perceived market forces, sorry.

Hasn't anybody modded this stupid business glitch? 'Cause it seems like a serious basic flaw in the vanilla code that should have been addressed by now.

Y'know, you could have just typed your message without the 'sorry", right?

I mean, what are you sorry for? For having a preference?

Or is my self-doubt actually true and you're insulting my creative process and ideas because they're more grounded in reality?

Look, there's two styles of play, two styles of creativity. Those creative ideas based on real experiences and those based on purely 'what if'. It's okay to like the 'what if', but don't go shoving your insincere "sorry" to me just because I prefer and create for the opposite style.

Very cheap items like the novels don't make enough profit to actually make money selling them. You have to sell some expensive items in your bookstore as well, in order to make money. You don't have to price them at "expensive", they just have to be worth a lot of simoleons.

The "sorry" is for "This isn't a useful answer and yet here I am." It's perfectly sincere, for what that's worth, which isn't much, and I should have just skipped that sentence.

Look, I know I'm not good at math; I don't understand it at all; but I thought I at least understood that if you made something for $5 and sold it for $7, that's $2 profit. If you buy something for $1, and sell it for $2, that's $1 profit. If you then reduce the wholesale price, which I am doing by taking those perks, the profit increases. If I have the 75% wholesale price discount, then that $1 is being bought for $0.25 and selling for $2 and that's a whole $1.75 profit. I know, Sims 2 doesn't do fractions of prices, but I'm keeping the numbers as low as I can, illustratively, so my brain doesn't panic.

I don't need a big profit, I just need to not lose money and still sell groceries my poorer families can afford. I would understand completely (well, not completely, I would not even try to parse the details, but in principle I would accept that) if you started to lose money when you got an employee, because then you'd have to jack the price up to cover their wages and the math gets more complicated and therefore less comprehensible. But if the people working the store are members of the household working for "free" (i.e., their wages fold back into the household; obviously they're sharing the profit and this is one of those things the game abstracts for convenience), then it seems to me that the math isn't mathing at all.

I also really want to know where that $700-odd item that got paid for and didn't appear and therefore can't be sold is coming from and how to prevent it because that is B.S.

I am covering some of my shortfalls by buying those CC silver and gold items somebody made, that increase in value, so they can sit around for awhile and be sold when the funds get lower than the concept of the household is comfortable with; but it really shouldn't be necessary and not everyone who ever runs a business in my game will be in a situation in which that makes sense.

Ah, I have definitely misunderstood what you meant. See I thought you were honestly being disrespectful to me. A snide remark because of the way the sorry was used. Perhaps my ego is in the way here. But, I appreciate you clearing it up. We might not have the same playstyles or creative mindset, but I never disliked you, nor wanted to start 'shit' with you. It's just that with text speech things get lost in interpretation. I only can interpret however my brain wants because I can't actually hear the way you or anyone would inflect their speech.

I know you're trying to find logic in the odd business model of OFB, but I'm still in search of answers to my question. You answered it, but I would love to hear input from others y'know?

Do you (informal you, not you Peni directly) as a player enjoy grounded stories/neighborhoods or do you as a player enjoy stories and 'hoods that are more influenced by just mere randomness? Basically if I can put it in a nutshell, fantasy aliens/plantsims/zombies/outlandish and otherwise things not restricted by our reality or down-to-earth creative reinterpretations or reiterations of real things? Not necessarily boring and tedious US politics and the like... It can be anything from any part of our blue marble. You guys know my preference, but I want to hear from you guys what your preference is.

Double post here, sorry, but not really.


Yes, it is concept that has been intricate to The Sims series since its inception. Thee... western Americana influence. It makes sense for those influences though what with the series creator being American, but I don't hate it or anything, in fact I actually like using it to my advantage to tell stories, like with Plot of Land where I used our beloved and infamous Malcolm Landgraab and made him inspired by Donald Trump. The Carranza family in my 'hood is heavily inspired by Al Capone. The train station inspired by a real train depot turned museum in my state's capital city... Yes, I have no shame in being American. And honestly why should I be made to feel bad about my country? We gave a lot to the world both good and bad of course... but still many of the technologies you use on a daily basis were invented here... Like that computer you use! Or electricity, or lightbulbs, the airplane, the telephone... Heck even the popularity of the automobile is thanks to the United States. Sure technically Germany invented it first, but we made it affordable for the masses. We kind of built the modern world, in essence so it makes sense for a life Sim game to be heavily influenced by us. Honestly, the concept of feeling ashamed to be American is honestly stupid and immature. Why should I feel bad for something beyond my control simply being the Europeans don't like it, or perhaps don't understand it? Live and let live Is what I say.

An idea I've had while reading your posts about businesses: do some of your working Sims do the "offer at cheap" sales interaction? Maybe that's how you leak money?

It's not about hate or feeling ashamed for me. But the lack of immersion when on one hand you there is fanfasy, and on the other hand the people seem to be locked down to problems of Suburbia. I didn't see it for a year or so while playing Castaways. But then I couldn't play it anymore because it felt like being at home.

I get that, but maybe differently perse? I felt more at home in Egypt than i ever have in America. The people there are just more humane I guess is the word? They picked me up when my own countryman, the Americans, would just say "get over it" and arrest me. I was homeless and poor, I had a mere 50 USD dollars to my name and lost my apartment and such. I won't deny or sugar coat it. I WAS addicted to drugs at the time and they helped me get back on my feet and gave me a safe place to stay while I figured out how to get back to my home country for the all-important American holiday of gluttony known as thanksgiving. I have no shame in admitting that Egypt felt more like a home to me than my own homeland did. I recreate many Egyptian things in the world of video games (not just limited to TS2), and am a follower of the ancient Egyptian faith simply because it saved me from what was likely death. Being murdered on foreign streets. I'll never forget what Jafaar did for me. I'll never forget the TEFL academy (I'm legally permitted and trained to teach English as a second language thanks to their insights and knowledge of a subject that should seem easy to me but was yet still somehow not. The American school system often fails the very people it's supposed to teach, ironically.)

These experiences are things I take to the grave with me. I can share them all over the internet, I can spew my feelings and thoughts to every one, including even my sister (which I have) but reality is nothing replaces reality. Not even a simulation game.

But in terms of like TS2, I do get wanting to simulate more than just Americana culture, and I won't deny that it's something TS2 could have done better. But I'm biased because of life experiences. Egypt and the US are my only homes, so I tend to recreate and simulate them in TS2 more than others. And it will remain that way unless another country can wow in the same hospitality that Egyptians did.

I have been playing GTA4 lately, and Niko's story is the best way I can describe my time. Niko's story resonates so much more with me now than it did in 2008. I genuinely can feel Niko's pain and outcome a lot. I feel sometimes as if when I play that game I can step into Niko's shoes very well. I can look back at my time overseas, and go "yes, that's how I felt!" Because I know what it's like to be in a country that is so foreign and different from your homeland, and I know what it's like to be promised big things only to be shat on. And what it's like to be a 'peasant' as the character Vlad often calls Niko. I can relate especially with the beginning of the game where Niko is trying hard to grasp the English language, as that's how I was with Arabic.

Not often enough to make this kind of difference. When a sim I know is genuinely low on cash (like, dubious they're going to make rent) is shopping, but the active sim is jonesing for a sales badge, it just doesn't feel right to try to talk them into a "ridiculously expensive" plant they don't even have room for; but I know the sim I'm playing doesn't care about that, that's when I trot out the price-lowering pitch, but that happens maybe once per session. I should be able to more than make up for that with siccing the gold-badge playable on the rich playable looking at the most expensive thing in the store, in most businesses.

@Peni Griffin - I think it has to be a glitch?

I can't remember if I have ever had a problem with restocking (I know I had several problems when I started playing owned businesses, and some were due to my own stupidity, and some were later fixed a bit by a mod or two). What I do know is that I kind of like to keep my stock fairly simple (even my bakery only sells 2 kinds of cake) - I wish I could help.

If you find a solution, I would really like to know what that is.

Dude, noone was insulting America just because they might like playing other cultures. And it's kind of offensive to say that you built the modern world as if the rest of the world didn't do anything important.



I can see that you don't like fantasy lol. Mere randomness?

Personally, I have no interest in sticking to real life types of neighbourhoods. Real life is bad enough in reality, let alone having to relive it through sims. That doesn't mean that all my neighbourhoods are totally fantastical. It just means that I don't bother to make them historically accurate. Yes, I like using supernatural sims, but in moderation. I don't have a whole neighbourhood of them. Maybe a few vampires stalk the night of an otherwise regular city.

I honestly find historical time periods more interesting than current day, hence why I have a Victorian neighbourhood (which has devolved into 'any time period I'm interested in' XD). I have plans for a futuristic, kind of apocalypse, hood, too (if I ever get around to it DX).I don't intend to keep it 'realistic'. I plan on using Pescado's 'zombieapoc' mod (I sincerely hope that never becomes realistic lol).

You can make Sims into whatever you can imagine. Why restrict yourself?