More Awesome Than You!

I have all expansions and I built a huge mall with a "food court" using the four BV food stands. All was well until I told the business owner to go home. He drove a custom car (one of Fresh Prince's) to the lot. The owner is behaving as if there are still people on the lot (waving, shouting) and won't get in the car. The only folks on the lot as far as I can tell are the "local chef" NPCs in the food stands. Would they cause this "someone is still here so I can't go home" behavior?

Probably.

Any ideas on how I can keep the stands and still run the lot as a business? They are so much more convenient than running a restaurant. If I delete the chefs (not even sure I can, but I'm assuming) will they spawn back?

Or, better yet, is there a hack that allows an owner to leave with folks still on the lot?

Yes. If you strike them down, they will come back and pick up all their stuff.

Then I shall attempt to smite them with my magic blue arrow of smitefulness. Thanks!

You might want to try nuking off-world loiterers with the Lot Debugger before you nuke the chefs.  Sometimes visitors get stuck just off-world, and the owner won't leave the lot because s/he thinks they're still there.  Make sure you don't have Debug Mode on, then use Force Error... Off-World on the Lot Debugger.

Nuking loiterers is a button under Nuke, not Force Errors.

I usually just hit Force Error... On All to cover all my bases.  Last time I had an off-world loiterer, that got rid of him.

OK, funny story, well maybe just to me, but anyway...
1) move_objects on/deleted the chefs and they spawned back almost immediately.
2) moved the chefs to the sidewalk...and they calmly walked back into their stalls through the mall front doors. No gate in those stalls, but they just walked in a beeline back to their stoves.
Kind of freaky really in this big empty mall...somehow Overlook Hotel freaky. Anyway...
2) force error/deleted the chefs. They did not re-spawn.
...well not funny so much as interesting. Regardless, none of this did any good. The owner kept up his waving and whistling throughout. I reset him and tried again to leave after each try, but no dice.

So, I guess I'll exit without saving and see if I can download the Debugger. Should I turn disable my "allmenus" cheat before using the Debugger? Seems like it might cause problems. http://www.jd-movies.com/allmenus.php
 (http://www.jd-movies.com/allmenus.php)

I suggest you just get rid of the stalls, they were never meant to function on an ownable business lot.

Tried that before I exited this last time and no change. I may reload from save and try to delete them before I try "go home" again. They were there before he bought the place, so I don't know if it will make any difference. Seems them just being there has done something. I'll keep you posted.

I have a functioning business with the food stands.

Never had this problem.

I'm thinking it's not the stands either. More likely it has to do with Paladin's Customer Limit Adjuster¹. I was using it in debug mode and kept deleting people as errors kept popping up.

So anyway, I stood in the street, and yelling, "Outlander!" at the top of my lungs, nuked off-world loiterers with the Debugger and that did the trick. Mister Whipple was able to return to his adoring family after days and days away.

Oh, and by the way...
Just a bit disturbed that the Mod God said this. Even though we proved (and parrot already knew) that the stalls do work on business lots, I would have thought you would see such a game limitation as a challenge, but then I don't know you, J.M.

¹http://208.109.175.73/Sims_2_Customer_Limit_Adjuster.htm (http://208.109.175.73/Sims_2_Customer_Limit_Adjuster.htm)

When in doubt, Force Error... On All.  It has saved my sanity more times than I care to count.

You're lucky if they work, then, because I've found them to be a tad unreliable.