This blog used to concern only my The Gallery and the SL Democide Museum. But since the last blog entry in early June, much has changed on the gallery side. The Museum remains the same, while the gallery has evolved into a shop selling skins and clothes and a garden gallery--the M&P House of Skin & Garden Gallery. I will sketch the history behind this, or our education in SL business.

The Gallery used to rent the first and second floor of the anchor store at Fortuna Plaza for about linden 2,400 a week. It was very nice, brought in about 20-25 customers a day, with money to spend. But few did in the gallery, and sales did not pay our rent. At first we made the second floor our home and this changed when I became interested in the art of fashion designing--skins, flexi, and clothes. We at first sold my efforts in a small kiosk in the gallery, and with the encouragement of some sales, turned our second floor home into a skin and clothing store and made a skybox to live in. Still, sales did not cover the rent.

We tried to encourage more visitors by advertising, but we did not have a niche product and had to compete with those paying thousands of Linden to advertise their similar wares. Moreover, since we were renting we could not advertise events to invite customers. We put up or rented some advertising signs, and also, scattered freebies around. But, this did not make a major difference.

Then the mall was sold, and a beautiful hiking park nearby was eliminated. Our visitor count dropped to 3-5 a day. Time to move.

We believed that the most important criteria for a new store was location, location, and location. So we separated the gallery and clothing/skin stores and rented for each where the sim visitor count was near 100,000, and our gallery/store would be near the action. So we rented at Vienna (Wein) freebie mall, at > $$$ FREE LINDENS HERE! $$$, Live, and at a popular Japanese place. We ended up with six stores, which collectively had about 500 visitors a day. Wow, we thought at first. But again, few bought enough to pay the combined rent.

Our mistake was in assuming that a lot of visitors would mean a lot of sales. No way. For the most popular locations at which we rented stores, the customers were not out to buy, but to get freebies and Lindens. They only came into our stores to window shop, and even advertising that we cut all prices by 85%, and including freebies in each sale, made little difference,

Although I liked the idea of people viewing our gallery, and even the skins and clothes as an example of fine art. we could not long subsidize it.

So, we closed all the stores, and bought enough land to make a new home and our own store. The land level is our home, while the store is a skybox of about 4800 sq. m., about 700 m. high. It is a house of skin and clothes and a landscaped garden gallery. My wife, Pikake, did a beautiful job landscaping the garden and helping set up the house.

We have tried to avoid some of the annoyances of other stores. There are no campers, no salespeople, all items are sold as copy and modify, and guaranteed. We pipe in classical music, and at our 700 m. height we have a great view of sunsets and dawn. There is no lag, and all clothes and skins are rezzable
The pictures below show the house and garden.

It is at $$$ FREE LINDENS HERE! $$$, Live, and at a popular Japanese place. We ended up with six stores, which collectively had about 500 visitors a day. Wow, we thought at first. But again, few bought enough to pay the combined rent.

Our mistake was in assuming that a lot of visitors would mean a lot of sales. No way. For the most popular locations at which we rented stores, the customers were not out to buy, but to get freebies and Lindens. They only came into our stores to window shop, and even advertising that we cut all prices by 85%, and including freebies in each sale, made little difference,

Although I liked the idea of people viewing our gallery, and even the skins and clothes as an example of fine art. we could not long subsidize it.

So, we closed all the stores, and bought enough land to make a new home and our own store. The land level is our home, while the store is a skybox of about 4800 sq. m., about 700 m. high. It is a house of skin and clothes and a landscaped garden gallery. My wife, Pikake, did a beautiful job landscaping the garden and helping set up the house.

We have tried to avoid some of the annoyances of other stores. There are no campers, no salespeople, all items are sold as copy and modify, and guaranteed. We pipe in classical music, and at our 700 m. height we have a great view of sunsets and dawn. There is no lag, and all clothes and skins are rezzable
The pictures below show the house and garden.

It is at
HTTP://SLURL.COM/SECONDLIFE/LITTLE NECK BEACH/22/16/715">HTTP://SLURL.COM/SECONDLIFE/LITTLE NECK BEACH/22/16/715

It is now open to enjoy and shop.