Mega Malls and Corner Stores: Behind the Counter

Neopoints. They seem to make the Neo world go round. For one, you need neopoints to buy pets, food, medicine, grooming supplies and toys. If you wanted to buy the rarest food for your pet, you could end up spending over 10,000 neopoints a day easy.

It’s really hard earning decent money playing games. You don’t usually earn 100,000 neopoints playing a game.

But who cares, right? Just buy your pets the cheap stuff, the void fruits, or catch some bland fish. Still, life is hard earning neopoints playing games. So some people set up shops to help support themselves. Want to know what it is like to own a shop and what the shop owners think? Good! In fact I am on my way to interview the owner of a small chocolate shop called Chocolate Paradise.

*Note: this interview only expresses the views of the shop owners interviewed and does not reflect the opinions of other shop owners.

I met the owner at the shop and began my interview right away.

“So tell me,” I said, starting up the conversation, “on average, about how much do you make a day?”

“Well,” replied the medium sized yellow Ruki, “It varies, but I mostly get 2000-3000 neopoints a day. For the most part, though, it depends on what I have stocked.”

“Can’t you get that kind of money playing games?”

“Yeah, and I do, but you only asked me about the shop, and the games don’t do much when you’re buying stuff.”

“Okay, so decent wages, but not enough to have an extra large shop, is it?” I asked.

“No, keeps me alive and saving up. I got about 15K neopoints in the bank. The major mall owners would see that as quite petty, but you gotta start somewhere, right?”

“So are you saving up for something?”

“Not really; just having extra money in the bank like that is nice, though, in case you find something you do want and it’s expensive. Petpets could be a good example.”

“So what do you do with the money that's not in your bank?”

“Well, each day I put about half my wages in the bank and use the other half to buy more chocolate. You see, the Chocolate Factory sells it cheap, but it's hard to get a hold of and normal citizens need us chocolate sellers to get chocolate easier.”

“So when you sell chocolate, you buy more chocolate? While making a profit the whole time?”

“That’s right.”

“So what made you start selling all these chocolates?”

“Well at first it wasn’t all chocolates, but there was some chocolate. Chocolate was fairly cheap and could be sold for a good price, but it made my shop look much more professional if I just sold chocolate, so here I am now!”

“Wow! Is it hard getting a hold of chocolate?”

“Well, kind of; you see, when more chocolate is ready at the factory, then you gotta buy the stuff as fast as you can.”

“So do you usually get a lot of chocolate?”

“Well about 3-5 pieces every time they have more.”

“Do you ever plan to be a big seller?”

“Well, the shop may get there but it would be hard to keep a huge chocolate mall stocked and besides, chocolate's the only thing I’m really good at!”

“Why’s that?”

“I don’t know, it just seems easier to sell than expensive Battledome items.”

“Okay, so do you think you overprice your items sometimes?”

“Well, not at first, but if something is not sold after a while of being posted, then I lower the price.”

“One last thing,” I said, eyeing an impatient customer out of the corner of my eye, “can I try out that chocolate piece right there?” I pointed to a dark chocolate Uni.

“I would, but this guy is here to buy it.”

With that he turned to the customer and I left.

Next on my hit list was a huge mall, called THE mall. The sign outside read:

High-quality, first-class, superior, exceptional, outstanding, good quality, premium, superb, choice, exceptional, advanced stuff sold here! And all for small, low, tiny, little, mini, itsy bitsy, insignificant prices!

Of course the stuff isn’t really small, low, tiny, little, mini, itsy bitsy, insignificantly priced, nor is it high-quality, first-class, superior, exceptional, outstanding, good quality, premium, superb, choice, exceptional, advanced stuff either. In fact, it's found true that most large malls have more expensive items. Surprised? Don’t be; read on, brave adventurer.

I went to interview this huge mall’s owner.

“So,” I asked, “there’s one thing I really want to know; is it hard to keep stocked?”

“No, just buy cheap stuff and sell em for a lot, I don’t really care how expensive any item is; if people don’t buy, that’s their loss.”

“About how much do you make a day?”

“50,000-100,000 NP a day,” he replied.

I held back a yelp.

“And what do you do with all this money?”

“Buy more stuff and buy my pets rare foods. Notice that every single one is painted with a rare paint brush, none of which I won; I bought all four. They like to stay at the neolodge too. I book em for as long as I can... Did I mention that this one here read over 2000 books?”

“Erm... okay, so do you care about the poor neopets that are starving?”

At this he huffed and began to ignore me so I left the mall and headed back.

There it is, and a tip for all you shop owners out there; look up stuff that you sell at the shop wizard and try to place your stuff on top! Even one neopoint lower than the cheapest puts you highest! And the highest are selected first!

Oh, and visit The Bloatation Device sometime. Slightly over priced items right at your fingertips! Thanks a lot for reading my little article, and happy shopping!