Open an in-sim shop, not a market place shop?

[AmandaLynnWest]

I'm looking to open a little shop in a rp sim I'm in. 

The thing is, it's more to match the mood of the sim and build the rp. So I don't care if it made L$. I mean yeah, some would be nice, but the goal is not to make money, just to add to the experience. 

How can I go about that? I'm a total newb, so I'd need a step-by-step.

[Ohjiro Watanabe]

If the place has a group (search in groups) join that and then ask for the name of the person to contact. It might be the owner of the sims or someone who helps them out.

[Bree Giffen]

Does the sim have existing stores? Does it look like they have spaces available for rent? Do they have any stores at all? If your store idea hinges completely on making a store on a particular sim, then checking w/ that sim's owner/manager is the first thing to do.

If you can build this store on any sim, or are considering selling on the marketplace then you might want to explore making your products first. You may need linden$ to upload textures, animation, sounds, etc and it may take some time to create the products.

You may want to pre-design your store as well. Just go to any public sandbox that allows scripting and try making some vendor signs. Maybe design some shelves. You also want to test your vendor signs and make sure that the permissions for your products are set up correctly. You may want to create a 2nd avatar to 'buy' your products and see exactly what your customer will get.

[Nalates Urriah]

The other two answers are on the mark. I'll frame an answer a bit differently.

You are going to rent a shop or land on which to build one. Renting is easier and quicker. I suggest visting some places with shops and looking at rental rates. Get a sense of market prices before actually renting anything.

To actually sell items you need to learn how create sellable items. The basic idea is to put your products inside a prim and set it to sell-copy. This avoids any scripting.

There are vending machines you can buy. Their advantage is you can place several different products inside the vendor (sometimes a single prim). This too avoids any scripting. But, you may have to build a note card describing your products and the related images. The vendor maker will explain what is needed.

It is good practice to include a link to your shop and a note card explaining how to use a product with each item. Assume the buyer has been in SL about 2 days.

Look through the SL Wiki for more information on selling in-world. If you were trying to make money, an important factor would be the number of people passing by your shop. There are devices you can place in your shop that will count visitors to your shop and email you the information.

Good luck and have fun.