OK - i gave in to peer pressure

Stiletto Moody's is a well known expensive shoe line in SecondLife. Expensive like 2000 to 4000 Lindens per pair. People swear by these shoes...and then moan about how it was sooooo worth it to get them.

They put up a pair of shoes as a group gift. I gather it doesn't happen very often. There has been an unbelievable crush of folks trying to get the shoe. For most of yesterday you couldn't tp to the sim where the shoes were. This was bad since they were also having a 40% off sale and lots of the faithful wanted to come spend money on new shoes. Today they moved the group gift shoes to their smaller boutique store. Here's is the URL of the smaller store - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stiletto%20Moody/128/128/2
They have a tp system to take you to the main store.

When it's not so crowded I will go back and take pictures of the store - big shoes on display, whole ranges of colors available.

Here are 2 pictures - close up of my feet wearing my first *and probably only* pair of Stiletto Moody shoes. They are really well made. You get 3 sizes for a good fit. Check out the detail on the streps, the highlighting, the rich color

And - unlike most clothes in SL - they have the brand on the shoe - there's a small heart on the sole. Very cool. And it comes with painted toenails...and toes *duh*

So what's this mean? Other than with a little pressure I can dress up and get out of my raggedy tennis shoes or green sandals? There is knowledge of brands in SL - people recognize the name of this shoe maker. People aren't turned off by having brand labels on their clothes. People are willing to pay an immense amount of virtual currency for a virtual good - or more specifically for a quality trendy virtual good.

Another instance of gacha machines

I visited a hair store today with 3 gacha machines each holding an assortment of hair that you could win. Above each machine was a display of the hair in that machine. Each machine had some secret prizes you could win too - probably different hair.

On the other side of the store is a wall of group gifts and freebies.

The store did have things for sale - you were wondering right? They were on the back wall - and i forgot to take a picture of them!

Notice the black walls. Lots of windows - the ceiling and the front wall. It was a small store in terms of floor space. All stores in SL seem to be tall so that there is no interference with the camera that hangs behind the avatar.

Shopping Sims

I visited a couple of sims that seemed to be all shopping. Individual stores around some open space.

One had a boardwalk coaster car that you rezzed to move you around the island. There were points were it stopped and you had to get out and look around/shop or rez a new car. Here is a slurl to one store on the sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/TSUKIJI/65/84/22

One the sim was all black and grays - the sidewalk, the trees. The stores had a little color in the store names that you could see from the streets. Inside the clothes of course provided color. The black/gray background made the colors stand out. Here is a slurl to this sim - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Heartless%20City/134/136/41

One was just a series of open stores around a grassy plot. Felt less permanent than the others. Definitely felt less upscale.

I didn't see any way to know what was on the sim anywhere on these 3 examples - no island directory for instance, although granted, I tp'd into a specific store on each sim and not some central landing zone. You just walked around and looked to see what was there. With SL being slow to rez, that can be kind of aggravating because it seems the store name is often the last thing to rez (kind of like finding your keys in the last place you look). The vast majority of the stores on each of these sims were women's clothing. They're kind of like a RL mall in that. But no game stores or furniture for the most part. All in all, there's not much reason to wander if you came for a specific store - nothing to lead you around the sim.

The exception was the sim with the boardwalk coaster car. That sim had little carts set up all along the waterfront with freebies and cheap things from the merchants on the sim (I think that's what was there - the signs were mostly in Japanese). There were some humorous themed elementsIt also had some machines that seemed to be set up to change RL currency into Lindens.

Here's a view of one of the stores on the Japanese sim with a view out the door

And here's a closeup of the machines you can see out the store's door.

A couple of interesting store interiors

I was following some links earlier today and was really taken by the entrance to this store...unfortuantely not much else outside of this one to make it worth going outside to take a look. It was in a castle. The floors were wood planks. The walls were stone. It looked like a castle inside. The front doors were massive, metal engravings. Stained glass images flanked the doors. It was the stain glass that caught my eye.

This is a long shot of the inside of Vinyl Addict. . It's fun. There's a giant glass of milk and some cookies, some cupcakes you can sit on, a big stuffed rabbit, dance balls for tinies (little avatars that come up to a typical avatars knees), and record album covers on the wall. Nothing for sale, just a fun space as you come into the store.

Here's a close up of the milk and cookies. Big - that's me next to the glass.

Here's the outside of the store..it's also fun. Oversized fruit and mushrooms, a Mini Cooper (don't know why). There's water behind me and there are some boats out there. I'm not sure who sees it tho since the TP lands you inside the store.

This post is related to the one about TP landing zones. Where the avatar enters your store seems important. Do you feature a few things for sale, put out a gift item, visually lead them into the main retail space? If you have a central TP spot, people do tend to pile up there - they just stand and wait for things to rez or they land but can't move because of lag. If you don't have a TP landing spot, then sometimes it's difficult to tell what store you're in or where in the store you've landed this time.

Last day of the Fashion Fest

I visited a rew more sims in the2010 Fashion Fest. There were 9 sims altogether in the event, each with a different theme. Today I visited sims with an  Egyptian theme, an Italian renaissance theme, and an American Wild West theme. The brands or the products they're offering don't seem to have any connection to the sim theme. The retail spaces are very nicely themed tho.


This is Kunglers' store on the Italian Renaissance themed sim. There are frescoes on the wall, mosaics on the floor and clothes . That's me sitting in the chair on the left

Here's a long view of the main plaza on the Italian Renaissance sim. Lots of art, plants, and places to walk. Things are huge here. i'm the tiny speck in the center of the picture at the base of the flag pole

Here's the inside of a store ont eh Egyptian themed sim. There was a pyramid, elephants and camels. And surprisingly , lots of water features. I loved all the textures used in these sims - the architecture established the theme and all the details definitely enhanced it.

Here's a long shot of one of the buildings set up on the Egyptian themed sim. See the great desert backdrop?

I'm not sure why the sims weren't more crowded. There were some well known brands. There were scheduled events. Maybe I just went during non-peak times. But to me it seemed less visited than the Fashion Fair held earlier in 2010.

Another Fair..the Summer Gatcha Fair

The summer Gatcha Fair starts tomorrow - here's the SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hyssop/54/205/61

As far as I can tell a gatcha is a machine like a bubble gum machne. You put your money in and one of the gumballs falls out. You don't know what color you're going to get. You put your money into the gatcha machine and one of the items falls out. You don't know which you're going to get. Here's a link to another blog post about them: http://loulouandco.over-blog.com/article-gatcha-machine-50349289.html

The prices aren't too high so you can buy several times from the same machine if you're trying for something specific.  there are lots of different stores represented - I saw Miel and Reek.

The site is cute...a fun atmosphere. There are stand alone stalls along the edges of hte area and a long pond down the center with floats and rafts. The open area is covered with sand and there are some little dunes and a sand castle. Summer at the beach.


Here's a link to a review of last year's Gatcha Gatcha Fair - http://alberogssm.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/gatcha-fun/

And a link to an article from wikipedia about gatcha machines in Japan where they're called gashapon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gashapon

Here are some pictures. Some of the gatcha machines look like actual gumball machines but there is an incredible variety.

Reek's machine looks like a red spaceship.

This stall had a cool treats vending machine

The machines in this stall looked like teddy bears.

Here - a photo booth dispenses shoes instead of snaps of you making a funny face

They had stand alone stalls and these little carts.

Store that doesn't look like a store

Not all stores have to be in buildings with ceilings. This store just reopened after a redesign...pods like ancient temples. The store is in a large box that is colored green. There are big open spaces between the pods that have seating areas. The pods are arrayed around a central plaza with the main teleport landing spot and some ponds and fountains.

And yeah..that's me in the cowboy hat in one of the pictures.

Minimal Store

The store is called Salt. A nice big building but very little inside..and a second floor that was entirely empty. I"m not sure what to make of this...new store, store going out of business, store being redesigned.

It is really, really, really white - I mean like glow int he dark white. I did like the plants at the base of some of the columns - but kind of contributed to the abandoned store feel

In this picture you can see the fish pond that is right inside the front door and one of the few touches of color in the store, then a sign advertising the group gift, and then on the walls, panels with the items currently available - summery dresses. The group gift is a nice marketing tool - sort of a reward for letting the store send the customer periodic announcements and promotions. Most groups are free to join, but a few, where the store gives out really good or really frequent gifts, cost several hundred Lindens to join.

The panels on the wall in this fourth shot are the store's sale items - jeans and tshirts.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bohemia%20Mall/166/104/27

A new view of a big store...i pulled the camera way way way back. THe lit place is a patio in the center. There are stores/departments scattered around the plaza and they all seem to be connected inside

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fashion%20Earth%20Sky/41/137/26

Interesting packaging

I visited Truth hair...a favorite among fashion bloggers

here is a picture of the outside of the building. They have their own sim, which i need to explore.

Here are 2 pics from the new hair style display area. It's where avatars teleport into the store. The area is labeled on the floor where everyone will see it. There are pictures showing off the styles. The boxes have pics showing the different colors that style is available in

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Truth%20Hair/133/56/27

A different look - no light woods here

Many of the stores I"ve been visiting have had light colored walls, light colored woods on the floor. Today I visited one that was very different as you can see in the pics below. As I explored I discovered that the store also carries antique furniture where the dark woods and stained glass make a little more sense and stained glass which explains its liberal use around the store. the walls are more crowded than some other stores I"ve been to also..need to think about how much content to display and how that affects the image people have of your store

The first pic is a shot of the outside of the building - i aimed a bit higher than the door to show some more of the dark wood, the stained glass and the tin ceilings inside thru the windows

They have a couple of interesting things at this store. They have 2 ways to teleport between the 5 floors of the main building and the out buildings around the island. The first one is outside..it's a big map on the ground of the sim. The user clicks on teh green dots to teleport to specific locations.

The second device is a sign that takes you to different floors of the main building.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Paektu/56/177/94

A whole town

Sometimes stores are on sims that look like towns with streets, sidewalks, street lights, billboards..Another choice new merchants in a virtual world have to make - own sim, rent space, be in a mall......


Here is one example - the Leezul store..i'm at one end of the street taking the picture. There are stores on either side (related to Leezul)

Here is another example - the K2 Loon sim..in this case I don't think the stores are related..There are lots of styles, things on the street to see. To me it seemed more lively as well as kind of chaotic. Notice the big billboard in the 2nd picture - some old school real life advertising