Mortimer Goth has always been a fan-favourite among Sims fans, but little did you know that he is a budding entrepreneur who has always dreamed about starting his own retail business. With The Sims 4 Get to Work, it is time for Mortimer to make his dream a reality!

Only a phone call away, he decided to buy the empty lot in the new retail district Magnolia Promenade! This new neighbourhood comes with 4 lots that are perfect for Sims to open their own businesses or, if you wish, they can even live there.

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Mortimer envisioned a store which was a bakery, a clothing boutique and technology store, all-in-one! Once clothing mannequins, bakery stands and the technological goods were added to the store, Mortimer was almost ready to open! The till allows your Sims to control their business and has the following features:

  • Set Store Prices
  • Transfer Retail Funds
  • Sell Store
  • Open Store
  • Manage Employees -> Hire/Manage
  • Purchase Advertising
  • Employee Uniforms

Before he used the till to open his store, he wanted to hire his first employee. As businesses grow, Sims can hire more employees and give them roles within the store. Mortimer hired one of the Caliente sisters, designed a uniform and gave her the role of ringing up customers. Unlike The Sims 2 Open for Business, customers will not go into a shop and just swipe up objects. Instead your Sims will need to greet them, discuss the product and become involved with the sale process if they want to earn some Simoleons!

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He also needed some baked goods to place on the bakery stands. With the new bakery skill, Mortimer shown off his non-existant culinary skills and created some basic breadsticks, pre-made brownies and sugar cookies to sell. With a lot of practice, Mortimer will be able to bake all sorts of delicious sweets and savouries for Sims to enjoy! But maybe he should find someone else to bake for now…

Mortimer then moved onto creating the clothing section of his store. As he is a self-proclaimed fashion expert, Mortimer was able to create any outfit on the mannequins. He could even choose one of the six poses for the mannequin (active, business, confident, flirty, playful and neutral). If you don’t want to spend time designing every clothing mannequin, you can randomly generate outfits by selecting a clothing category.

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Finally, it was time to open for business! Mortimer used the till to open the store and Nina arrived shortly after. As he transferred funds to the business from his household, Mortimer was able to invest in some long-term TV advertising to get the word out that his business was open! This attracted other Sims to the business who came to browse his range of baked goodies, clothing and technology! Advertising can be short or long term and can be done online or on TV, with prices varying depending on what your Sim decides to do.

Mortimer assigned Nina Caliente the role of ringing up customers while he worked at greeting them, interacting with them and discussing the products they were looking at in order to sell them. This led to satisfied customers items on the shop floor already needed to be restocked – we can’t have bare mannequins now, can we? While Nina continued to ring up customers and take their hard-earned Simoleons, Mortimer was able to restock goods that he set for sale (practically anything in build/buy can be sold).

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In The Sims 4 Get to Work, a photography skill has been introduced and allows your Sims to take photos, hang them on the wall and even sell them. Mortimer spotted this business opportunity and built his own photoshoot studio out the back to begin selling pictures of other Sims! Unfortunately he had a low photography skill and as a result he could only take a small photo, but he could apply a variety of filters! As Sims skill up they are able to take medium and large pictures, change the orientation and are less likely to have errors. Sadly, due to Mortimer’s low photography skill, some of his photos were covered by his finger, were blurry and Nina is pretty certain there’s a gnome in one of them!

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Mortimer’s business was off to a fantastic start; Sims loved the products he sold and he was making plenty of Simoleons to transfer back to his household funds! The Sims 4 Get to Work let’s you to create your own unique businesses and sell practically anything, allowing you to get creative. With familiar Open for Business gameplay, deep business management tools and plenty of new features, owning a retail business in The Sims 4 is an exciting experience. The possibilities are endless and you never know what will happen next!

The Sims 4 Get to Work Expansion Pack is available on March 31st (NA)/April 2nd (UK) on PC and Mac. Get to Work allows you to control your Sims at work with 3 all-new active careers, create your own retail business and even explore the alien world Sixam! This preview was written after a 3 hour hands-on event at EA UK on the 13th March 2015.