More Awesome Than You!

I placed the pet store and sent my sim there. I didn't make any changes to the way Maxis had the store set-up. How are you supposed to buy anything in the store?  Are you supposed to alter the lot and place the items on the OFB shelves?  What if you don't have OFB - kinda makes the store pointless, doesn't it? I can click on "buy collar" but everything else - bowls, bird cage, etc., will give me the option to fill the bowl or feed the critter but not to buy it (the exception being the cat and dog on display).

Any one else able to buy anything in the store without changing it from the way Maxis set-up the lot?

You're not supposed to be able to buy the other things from the store, you buy them in Buy Mode. They are just there for decoration or so your pets can eat while you're on the lot, unless you have OFB and want a playable Sim to own the lot and set them as for sale.

I ran the planetary pet store as an ownable, so didn't notice. Why would you need to buy the pet items, and not the pets themselves, given that they're available in buy mode? If you don't have OFB, then you should *GET* it. Off the Intarweb, if you're cheap.

I have OFB. I noticed it when I was looking for a way to get pets on uni lots. I know we're not supposed to be able to have pets at Uni, but of course, being that all simmiecal's suck, I was looking for a way to try and get around that. Stuff wasn't showing up in the buy catalog and I couldn't adopt over the phone so I thought I would send the YA to the pet store to see if he could buy one. While trying that (of course it didn't work) it dawned on me that lot hadn't really been set-up as a store. Even though I could buy items from the catalog, I prefer to make sim-owned business and make my sims go shopping for whatever it is they need.

So, the only way to buy a bird or a rat is with OFB/ownable store? ???

No, you just go to regular buy mode and buy it like any other object.

No.
Sorry for the confusion.

When I usually play the game (and not like right now where I'm testing things in a vanilla version), I have sims go to community lots or sim owner businesses to buy items that they could normally buy in the catalog. I was looking for a way to try and get around the ban of animals at uni, so I sent my sim to the community pet store. I knew that I could have an adult adopt from the pet store but didn't know if the game would be smart enough to ban a YA from buying a pet. While I was at the lot trying to adopt a pet, it occured to me that I couldn't actually buy any of the items even though it was set-up to look like a store. I was just wondering if something was changed from Pets that was supposed to allow you to be able to buy things without placing them on the shelves on community lots or if you still had to use the OFB shelves. Seems kinda silly to have a community pet "store" where the only thing you can buy is cats, dogs and collars - considering you can get cats and dogs at home - why would you go to a community lot just to buy a collar?

You can buy the collars there and (I think) the actual animals.In fact, as far as I can tell you cannot buy a collar without going to the store. Grrrrr.

I thought they had the height of gall to expect my sim to restock their fishtanks, though!

Check out the "buy pet collars at home" hack on MTS2 (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=198030).  I've tried it and it works fine.

Karen

Because collars are important if your pet runs away?

You don't have to put things on OFB shelves to sell them. You just have to mark things for sale, which means someone has to own the community lot. It doesn't make any difference whether objects are on display shelves or not, they just have to be marked for sale. As for the limited number of things you can buy from it as an unowned lot, that's similar to many other community lots. It's a place to take your dog for a bath instead of buying a bathtub when everyone else is using showers.

Yes, it seems the petshops are designed to be owned community lots rather than a place your sims might actually visit to buy a pet, which is vaguely disappointing as I'm not that into running shops. Kaylynn took her daughter to Pepe's Pets to get her a womrat, but all she could do was watch and play with them. They had to come home and order the cage from the catalogue. Complete waste of time. I can't see why they don't at least let you buy empty cages.

I put my pet stores in the downtown lot, so I sent a girl to buy a dog and it had a sales person and all.  She was able to get a pet.   
No way am I going to put mine on the OFB lot,  my sims don't own any businesses and they never will.   I tried that part of the game once and I hated it.  lol