Shop n' Hop impressions

[Mollymews]

i have 2 impressions so far

1) a thing I am noticing at Shop 'n Hop from more than one vendor. Which goes like: pay 250L to join our shop group and we will give you a Shop n' Hop gift of 300 store credits. Is getting pretty close to (if not over)  the edge of what gifting is about

 

2) I notice that this year the regions appear to be more organised by content. Quite a few regions seemed to be grouped by content type (not every store, just quite a few). So Shop n Hop feels more like a department store this year, and less like a jumble sale as it has been in the past. Which is a good thing I think

[Marianne Little]

"Pay me 250 L and you get this 300 L item".

No, I am too old for that *****.

Pay to join groups is something I consider as another way to shop. And I do not have enough groups to join groups for a single item.

[Lindal Kidd]

I only ever join groups with a fee if it is clear from a glance around the store I love the products, will probably shop there often, and will make back the join fee with group gifts and discounts.

[Tary Allen]

So far I've felt a lot of lag so I'll wait a bit more to go.

And honest, nowadays I'll join a group with fee if there is a gift I like and the fee is something I would pay for it. And then I leave, I have some groups with fees that I've been for ages (I think I didn't even pay for it because I was already there).

And usually I forget about those credit cards and never use them, so no point

That said there are some great gifts there without group join. I intend to explore more next weekend, hopefully with less people around. I like to find new stores and also to see old favs of mine

[Chic Aeon]

2 hours ago, Mollymews said:

i have 2 impressions so far

1) a thing I am noticing at Shop 'n Hop from more than one vendor. Which goes like: pay 250L to join our shop group and we will give you a Shop n' Hop gift of 300 store credits. Is getting pretty close to (if not over)  the edge of what gifting is about

 

2) I notice that this year the regions appear to be more organised by content. Quite a few regions seemed to be grouped by content type (not every store, just quite a few). So Shop n Hop feels more like a department store this year, and less like a jumble sale as it has been in the past. Which is a good thing I think

The rule at Shop and Hop (not a new rule but in effect for this round also) is that each store needed to have a completely free GIFT that was NOT GROUP oriented and any gift cards needed to be 300 or more (no group required to qualify as the Shop and Hop gift).  There were not supposed to be "dollar back" vendors but I found a couple of those along the way.  There were some stores where I never found a gift and I really looked hard, but most creators made their gifts obvious AND many had pictures or the actual item out so you could skip buying if you knew you wouldn't keep it.   

 

I did all 400 stores over a matter of days and found a lot of stores that had both gifts AND group credit.  A few S&H gifts were under the 300 minimum when I looked; that may have been adjusted after the store was checked as I was doing the round before opening).    So in MOST cases there was ALSO a S&H gift; you just may have missed it.   

 

 

[Bree Giffen]

I noticed in one store that a mole added a gift box prim next to the store’s hard to see gift sign. 
 

I like the grouping.of similar shops but it seems the clothing stores were placed in different regions. Probably for crowd management. 
 

I mentioned on another thread that the steampunk aesthetic does not appear to be a good design for most stores. While going through the regions I began to dread going into any store that was heavily steampunk decorated while having no issues with stores that weren’t themed at all. I don’t mind steampunk and it surprised me. Maybe it was the complexity in both the store and products that made it hard to focus. 
 

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

6 hours ago, Mollymews said:

1) a thing I am noticing at Shop 'n Hop from more than one vendor. Which goes like: pay 250L to join our shop group and we will give you a Shop n' Hop gift of 300 store credits. Is getting pretty close to (if not over)  the edge of what gifting is about

Report every store that does this.  As Chic says, it is against the rules the merchant agreed to when applying to be part of the Shop & Hop event. 

If enough people reported these stores, LL might do something about enforcing the rules and the merchants might stop trying to ignore the rules.

[Ceka Cianci]

It just sounds like it's been a terrible experience there all around, from the threads I've been reading so far about the SLB..

I doubt I'm gonna even bother with it this year. 

 

 

[Marianne Little]

Recommend me a good freebie blog so I can find direct locations? My alts need new clothes.

I also look for good quality stuff, like animations with 50% off. I am not a total freebie grabber, but I love to feel I made a bargain.

[Persephone Emerald]

1 hour ago, Marianne Little said:

Recommend me a good freebie blog so I can find direct locations? My alts need new clothes.

I also look for good quality stuff, like animations with 50% off. I am not a total freebie grabber, but I love to feel I made a bargain.

I use Naria's YouTube videos. I've only watched her first 2 regions so far, but I was planning to watch her review 2 regions, then shop those 2 regions. My alts shop after Persephone does, so they can just grab the stuff that suits them best. 

 

[Polenth Yue]

1 hour ago, Ceka Cianci said:

It just sounds like it's been a terrible experience there all around, from the threads I've been reading so far about the SLB..

I doubt I'm gonna even bother with it this year.

There are always more clashes at the birthday as it brings people together from different parts of Second Life. That does mean more merchants who don't follow instructions, but most merchants did follow them. I've got a bunch of cute gifts. It's not terrible compared to last year or anything like that.

I am relieved not to be taking part as a merchant/exhibitor this year though... nobody to complain that my mushroom shop had mushrooms as a gift, that my exhibit sucks and they could do a much better one but aren't actually going to sign up to prove it, and so on. I can just waft around collecting up all the free cake and toys.

[Ceka Cianci]

11 minutes ago, Polenth Yue said:

There are always more clashes at the birthday as it brings people together from different parts of Second Life. That does mean more merchants who don't follow instructions, but most merchants did follow them. I've got a bunch of cute gifts. It's not terrible compared to last year or anything like that.

I am relieved not to be taking part as a merchant/exhibitor this year though... nobody to complain that my mushroom shop had mushrooms as a gift, that my exhibit sucks and they could do a much better one but aren't actually going to sign up to prove it, and so on. I can just waft around collecting up all the free cake and toys.

Ya, it's not just from this thread that has me thinking this way, but just many things from other threads and things I'm hearing throughout groups..

The gift thing really doesn't impact me much since I don't really grab them anyways..

It just sounds like a  not a good time at the moment..

Maybe when the dust clears and the bodies have hit the floor, I'll sneak in like a little, I Am Legend mouse, after an apocalypse.. hehehehe

 

[junique Tigerfish]

23 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Ya, it's not just from this thread that has me thinking this way, but just many things from other threads and things I'm hearing throughout groups..

The gift thing really doesn't impact me much since I don't really grab them anyways..

It just sounds like a  not a good time at the moment..

Maybe when the dust clears and the bodies have hit the floor, I'll sneak in like a little, I Am Legend mouse, after an apocalypse.. hehehehe

 

Really hope you do Ceka.I have enjoyed my visits there so far.My only downfalls are the lag,only in some spots tho,doesn't seem to matter if ppl are there or not.Usually pretty quiet when I am there.Cool place to see.My worst was live music act I tried to see.I swear my feet were glued to the floor.🤔

[Ceka Cianci]

57 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

I use Naria's YouTube videos. I've only watched her first 2 regions so far, but I was planning to watch her review 2 regions, then shop those 2 regions. My alts shop after Persephone does, so they can just grab the stuff that suits them best. 

I love her channel.

[Ceka Cianci]

I'm looking at the map and all the sims seem to have really low amount of people on them, if they are using the new event regions..

There is only like on avg, 20 people per sim..

I'm curious, is it dying down to where it's not that bad now with lag and things? 

Some sims are even empty.. I may give it a shot today.. hehehe

[Mollymews]

impression 3)

seems to be a quite a lot more items being exhibited this year for home and garden. More meaning relative to clothing. The uptick is maybe influenced by Linden Homes

[Lysistrata Szapira]

I noticed that at least one store offers a gift card that won't pay for a SINGLE item available in their store.  This store only sells fatpacks (both at S&H and at the mainstore) so the XXXL offered in the gift card isn't a gift at all. It's a discount card or coupon.   I deleted that particular card because I'm not buying a fatpack of anything. 

A few other stores offer gift credits or cards that will pay for 1.5 items at their regular store prices. I also find that a bit ridiculous.  I'd be perfectly fine with the amount of a single item available in the store (if the vast majority of items are say 299L each (random number, not picking a specific store), why offer a gift credit of 400L when there's nothing in the store for 99 or 100L? Just offer a 300L card. The 1L left over is irrelevant).  Most of these cards have expiry dates for that amount, so it's not like I can save up my credits for additional items.  At least one didn't put an expiry date on their store credit, so kudos to that store.   I get it. It's more likely it's just a ploy to get us to spend that extra 100L to get a second item. Doesn't mean I like it though.  

I return and purchase a lot of things from stores that don't play like this, so in the end they're losing more money than they're gaining because I'm not the only one who has noticed this. 

 

[Mollymews]

18 minutes ago, Lysistrata Szapira said:

I noticed that at least one store offers a gift card that won't pay for a SINGLE item available in their store

 

i often wonder what motivates merchants to do this.  The Shop 'n Hop is the biggest foot traffic event on the annual calendar and the rent is a gift item of L$300

it baffles me that a merchant would extrapolate this to lost sales: To the sum of L$300 times gifts taken. I don't understand how anyone thinks like this

[Eowyn Southmoor]

Oddly, I didn't find the S&H regions to be laggy at all, in fact I was very surprised by how quickly everything rezzed in for me.

[Mollymews]

impression 4)

not so much an impression as a happening

i saw a person using a follower script to tow their friend. I haven't seen anyone doing this since ages. Was a trip down memory lane that

[Mollymews]

4 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

I'm curious, is it dying down to where it's not that bad now with lag and things?

i first went on the weekend. Got lagged to death, too many people for my computer

i since did the rest in my evenings Monday Tueseday, which is the time of least numbers of people on the grid. Was pretty good for me at that time. Not so many people

some of the things on display I was quite impressed with.  Some not so much. But is more my preferences influencing this than anything else

[kali Wylder]

I joined the SL19B group and got in before the official opening.  Didn't really experience much lag, I tend to wear just an invisible avatar mask and use that show friends only mode which helps quite a bit then I fly through the regions. 

Since I've recently been working on cleaning up my inventory I was picky about picking up the freebies.  I searched for the gifts from vendors I know and love and looked for pictures of the gifts ( and passed if it wasn't something I wanted) when it was a vendor I'm not familiar with.  If no pic then I'd look around at what was for sale and if it wasn't my style I passed. 

I took time outs to unpack as I hopped and shopped and made a Meh folder to toss things in that I didn't really care for. There's about 20 items in the Meh folder.  I will most likely delete that folder when I'm done.  I lean towards being a pack rat so making the folder is a useful step for me.  This is progress for me since I have folders from events going back to 2017 of stuff I never looked at again after the event.

[LittleMe Jewell]

 

1 hour ago, Lysistrata Szapira said:

A few other stores offer gift credits or cards that will pay for 1.5 items at their regular store prices. I also find that a bit ridiculous.  I'd be perfectly fine with the amount of a single item available in the store (if the vast majority of items are say 299L each (random number, not picking a specific store), why offer a gift credit of 400L when there's nothing in the store for 99 or 100L? Just offer a 300L card. The 1L left over is irrelevant).  Most of these cards have expiry dates for that amount, so it's not like I can save up my credits for additional items.  At least one didn't put an expiry date on their store credit, so kudos to that store.   I get it. It's more likely it's just a ploy to get us to spend that extra 100L to get a second item.

Exactly as you mentioned -- they are hoping that the extra will entice you to go ahead and buy another item.

Edited June 22, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Ceka Cianci]

I used to think gifts at events were something stores would put out to give you an idea of how good their stuff was and try to draw you to their stores to gain more permanent customers.. Many would put their best foot forward in their gifts..

Maybe it was just my imagination.. They seem so gimmicky now and a way to snip a quick buck..

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

They seem so gimmicky now

Been that way for years now -- at least with many stores.  

There are actually some that really do give you something that represents what they make, but most of those stores you probably already know about and shop at anyway.  Many of the gimmicky gifts are from new stores and said gift is giving me no incentive to check them out.