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The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

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Ravasheen is probably one of the Simming community’s most beloved modders and it’s not hard to see why. She’s always pushing the boundaries of the game to bring players unique and inventive content that enhance our playing experience. She’s made countless mods that have really impressed me but this one might be her most ambitious project to date! Ravasheen has just released a retail system mod that does not rely on Get To Work! The entire mod is 100% base game compatible! Players can both manage and visit retail stores with this mod even if they don’t own Get To Work.

The best part? This mod is compatible with any lot type! Run a business from home or have a retail store alongside a café, a gym, a veterinary office, anything you want! All of these venue types will function normally alongside the retail aspect. You don’t even have to own the lot to set up a retail store on it!

Today, I’ll be walking you through the features of the Saleabration Retail System mod!

Getting Started

Of course, you will have to install the mod, first. You can get it from Ravasheen’s website. The current version is in early access for patrons only but will be released to the public on December 8th, 2021. If you need help with installing mods, check out our article Getting Started With Mods and CC.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

Once the mod is installed correctly, all you have to do is load up the game and go into Build/Buy. Searching the term “saleabration” in the search bar will bring up the two custom objects that come with this mod; the Open for Business Controller Sign and the For Sale Mini Retail Sign. You can also use the search term “retail,” but if you own Get To Work, many other objects will show up as well. Since I own Get To Work, I prefer to use the “saleabration” search term to only bring up those two objects.

Open for Business Controller Sign

This is the object you will want to use if you want to manage your own retail store. Simply purchase it from the catalogue and place it on any wall or window. I like to put it on windows since that’s usually where stores put their open/closed signs. Now your lot is almost ready to become a retail business!

Click the sign to bring up the option to Create Unique Retail Business. You’ll be able to give your business a name and description here but if you’re impatient and just want to jump right into running your business, Ravasheen has added lots of adorable pre-written names and descriptions that will auto-fill these fields when this popup appears. Click the checkmark when you’re ready. You can always go back and edit your business name and description later so don’t stress too much about getting it perfect the first time.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

The Sim you had active while creating your retail business will automatically be assigned the Business Owner trait, giving them the ability to open and close the store and set prices on things in the store. Only the Sim who owns the business can open and close the store but if you give the Business Owner trait to other Sims in the household, they will be able to help manage the store by setting prices. You can also Shift+Click the controller sign and enable retail interactions for other Sims.

After setting up your store, you’ll see new options come up on the controller sign when you click it. You can Edit Store Information which is how you can edit your store’s name and description. You can also Enable Set Items for Sale. This is what will allow you to mark items for sale in your store. You’ll get a popup explaining what this does but we’re going to explain it here for you! You cannot set items for sale until you enable this on the sign. This is because you can set almost anything in the game for sale and having that “Mark For Sale” option pop up on absolutely everything all the time would be extremely annoying. Instead, you can toggle this ability on and off. While this setting is enabled, you can click on just about anything you want to set it for sale. This works with Maxis items and should also work with most CC items. When you are finished setting all your items for sale, click the sign again to disable this setting.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

Once an item is marked for sale, it will stay for sale until you click the item and select Set Not for Sale on it. By default, you will be selling your items at 0% markup. To change this, click on any item that has been set for sale and choose Price > Mark Up Prices. You can go all the way up to 75% markup. This can be adjusted later at any time as well. You can also assign sales to items which will sell them at a discount until you end the sale on that item. You will have to do this for each individual item for sale in your store.

One thing to note here is that some craftables, like food, cannot be set for sale using this method but worry not! Ravasheen has made sure we can sell our crafted goods too! This is where the For Sale Mini Retail Sign comes into play!

For Sale Mini Retail Sign

The mini sign can be used to quickly set all items slotted to a surface for sale. The mini sign is most useful for quickly setting items for sale on unowned lots that you don’t want to personally manage but it can also be useful for managing your own store, especially if you’re running a bakery or something like that where you sell food items.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

The mini sign is very easy to use! Just place all the items you want on a surface and then place the mini sign on the same surface. All the items slotted to that surface will instantly be set for sale! The mini sign is just a tool for setting up your retail lot. Once you place it down on a surface, you can delete it if you want to. All the items set for sale will remain for sale even after deleting the sign.

Any food items or floral arrangements you’ve set for sale will no longer spoil! As long as they stay set for sale, they will stay fresh forever, so there is no need to replace any spoiled food at your business. You won’t be disappointed when you walk into a store full of spoiled goods as a customer, either.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

After using the mini sign to set all your perishables for sale, they can be clicked on to mark up the prices or have discounts applied to them the same way any other object set for sale. You can also set them as Not for Sale the same way you can with other objects for sale. The mini sign can set any slottable item for sale, not just food! So if you have a large table full of clutter items and don’t want to individually click on all of them to set them for sale, you can just pop the mini sign onto the table to set everything on the table for sale at once.

The mini sign makes setting lots of small items for sale very fast and easy on any lot, regardless of whether you own the lot or not!

Running Your Own Business

After setting up your business, you’re ready to open up your store! Just click the controller sign to open the business and an Open for Business event will start! There is no time limit on the event. You can keep the business open as long as you want. There are no time restrictions on when you can open your business, either. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that the business owner must be awake and on the lot to be able to open the business. They won’t be able to if they are asleep or away at work.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

While the business is open, customers will come to the business to browse the items available for sale. If you’re running a business from home, make sure the doors to your living space are locked to everyone but the household to ensure customers don’t wander into your home. Also make sure that customers have door access to the store part of your home lot. If you lock the door, they won’t be able to enter. Customers will spend some time browsing the different options in the store until they either decide to buy something or leave without purchasing anything. A sale is not guaranteed. There are various factors that determine whether or not a Sim will decide to make a purchase but one of the larger factors is price. You’ll have to balance your markup with your customers’ needs. If a lot of customers are leaving your business without making a purchase, try lowering your markup or starting a sale on some items.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

The business owner can also help make some sales. Ravasheen intended for her retail system to be more hands-off than the Get To Work system. Those who own Get To Work will know you have to constantly be interacting with customers trying to convince them to buy something. This isn’t necessary while using Ravasheen’s retail system but you can still make sales pitches to customers if you want. Your Sim will also autonomously show off items in the store to customers about once every hour while the store is open. When I tried a sales pitch on a customer, the interaction didn’t go over well but she still ended up making a purchase, so don’t be scared of making sales pitches. Failing them doesn’t necessarily ruin your chances of making a sale. Since Ravasheen’s retail system doesn’t demand your Sim’s constant attention, they’re free to do other things and take care of their needs while the store is open. My Sim spent some time training his dog while customers browsed his bakery.

When a customer makes a purchase, you’ll get a notification telling you who purchased the item, what item they purchased, and the price they paid for the item. Purchased items do not disappear and therefore never need to be restocked! When an item is purchased, it creates a copy of the item in the customer’s inventory, leaving the original on the shelf. This is super handy for unowned lots where you just want to browse as a customer but it’s also convenient for busy Sims who don’t have time to restock their wares all the time. You won’t receive the funds from any purchased items until you’ve closed the store so don’t worry if you don’t see any simoleons being deposited after making sales. All the money you’ve earned that day will be deposited when you close the store.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

While the business is open, you can hover your mouse over the controller sign at any time to see how the business is doing. You’ll get a breakdown of how many customers have visited the store and how many of those customers made a purchase. You’ll also see how much money you’ve made so far that day. When you’re ready to close the store, click the controller sign to close the business. Any profits you made that day will be deposited and you’ll get a popup breaking down all of your sales for the day. Since items do not need to be restocked, Ravasheen has implemented a restocking fee to balance out the mechanics and make things a little more realistic. The money you made that day will be your total sales minus the restocking fee. In the future, Ravasheen plans to implement some features and rewards that will allow you to reduce the restocking fee but for now, the restocking fee is set to about 50%.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

One other thing to keep in mind with managing your own retail business is that you cannot have a social event while your business is open. Opening the business starts an event which is what triggers customers to start showing up. You cannot have two events running at the same time so you can’t throw a party while your business is open. You will have to close the business to be able to host a social event there.

And that’s pretty much all you need to know about managing your own retail business! It’s a lot easier than Get To Work’s clunky system that requires you to transfer funds, spend hours restocking, babysit your customers, and makes it a hassle for you to live at your business. Ordinarily, you’d have to purchase an empty lot as your home lot and just stay at your business 24/7 to “live” there but there’s no need for that workaround with Ravasheen’s retail mod. Your home can be your business!

Just set up your business with the controller sign, set all your items for sale, and open your store for business! It really is that simple and again, this isn’t limited to residential lots. This works on any lot type!

Businesses on Unowned Lots

If you want to turn your café, gym, vet office, or anything else into a retail store, that’s 100% doable, too! And it’s actually even easier to set up than managing an owned business. Yes, you can even use this retail system in apartments and on actual retail lots from Get To Work. It doesn’t conflict with anything at all. However, this retail system and Get To Work’s retail system will function independently of each other. There’s no integration between the two.

The Sims 4: Walkthrough of the Saleabration Retail System Mod!

All you need to do is set out any items you wish to sell on that lot in Build/Buy and place the mini retail sign on any surface with items you want to sell. All the items on the surface will instantly be set for sale. Delete the sign when you’re done if you want to (or don’t if you like them)! And you’re done! Your Sims will now be able to visit that lot and purchase whatever’s been set for sale there. This will not interfere with any other activities going on on the lot. If you set books for sale at a library, Sims will still be able to do everything they’d be able to do on a library lot. If you set items for sale on a café or nightclub lot, any baristas, bartenders, and DJs will still show up and do their jobs. Sims will still order drinks and dance and all of that good stuff. Adding retail functionality to an unowned venue will not impact the venue’s function in any way.

If you’d like to take a more hands-on approach to running an unowned venue lot, you can do that, too! Purchase the retail controller sign from Build/Buy and place it anywhere on a wall or window at the venue, then while visiting the lot with your Sim, Shift+Click the controller sign to enable retail interactions on it and assign your Sim the Business Owner trait. You can now set and manage prices, open and close the store, and interact with customers just like you could on an owned retail lot. This can be a fun way for your Sims to manage a business on a venue they can’t own, like a gym or café.

Our Thoughts

Ravasheen has successfully taken an overly-complicated, clunky, counterintuitive retail system and simplified it so that it’s more intuitive and much more versatile. In fact, it’s so versatile, it doesn’t even need Get To Work at all. It’s completely base game compatible. We found it was not only easier for us to set up our own business but it opened up gameplay options that Get To Work doesn’t allow for. For example, we could have a business on a residential lot without any hassle at all. We could even sell items on other venue types that our Sims can’t own. This let us manage these properties as if we did own them. Ravasheen’s retail system can be as hands-off or hands-on as you like, which gives it a lot more flexibility.

In her livestream walkthrough, Ravasheen did say that she was looking forward to updating the mod to add more features. Things like allowing us to hire employees, giving us some type of reward system for successfully managing a business, and giving us an option to restock our goods are all on her list of things to add in the future. This is fantastic because these are the only things I was going to suggest to improve this mod further. As a player who loves to craft my own things to sell, it’s important for me to be able to continue crafting items to restock my store. While I was using this mod with my bakery, my bakery owner really didn’t need to bake at all because he never needed to restock anything. That took away some important gameplay involved with running a bakery so I’m really happy that restocking will be an option for this mod in the future. I also missed being able to purchase business perks that reduced my restocking costs and gave my business other boosts.

Other than that, the Saleabration Retail System is a vast improvement over Get To Work. I loved that I could properly run a business from home. I loved not needing to transfer my funds from my household to my business and vice versa all the time. I loved not having to babysit my customers and practically beg them for every single sale. I loved the functionality on unowned lots and other venue types. This mod is pretty much everything the retail system from Get To Work should have been.

If you’re tired of dealing with Get To Work’s retail system or if you don’t own Get To Work but would like to have a retail system in your game, definitely add this mod to your collection. I can’t recommend it enough.

About the author

SnarkyWitch

A cranky old lady who prefers the company of cats and Sims over people. Occasionally peeks out from her lair long enough to chuck Sims articles at innocent bystanders.

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