At some point during your Avalon career you may find yourself in charge of running and maintaining a shop. When you own a shop, you will have to set prices on items and set them up for sale. The process for doing this is relatively simple: Every shop has a store room in which all items for sale are held, and any gold earned is stored. These storerooms tend to be kept behind sturdy, locked doors to thwart potential robbers. To put an item up for sale you should find out its unique item code (using the INFO command), and then set up its sale value by typing SALEVALUE <item plus item code> <amount>. See HELP SALEVALUE for detailed command info. If you do not include an item code, the shop will price all items of a specific kind at the specified amount - thus it is possible to change the price of an individual cloak, or on all of the cloaks in your shop. The amount should be the value in gold coins you wish to place on the item.
Once you have set up the item's sale value, you simply drop it on the floor of your storeroom and it will automatically be offered for sale to anybody who enters the shop and types GOODS. As a safeguard to avoid revealing the extent of a shop's stockpiles, GOODS will show a maximum number as 'available' in the for-sale listing. This should not be interprted to mean the shop won't attempt to sell all the items you have available; it is simply a security measure. Shops are obtained primarily from the financial leaders of your city. They control the economy and taxation and can fashion keys for you. All shops have a log kept up-to-date by its diligent staff. The shop log can be viewed only by its owner using the SHOPACTIONS command. It can be wiped using the SHOPACTIONS CLEAR command, or comments can be added by typing SHOPACTION followed by the message you wish to have logged.
Protecting your shop from Thieves will soon become extremely important to you. Protection can be gained via a number of methods. A sphere shaped rune of warding placed in the store room of your shop will stop some non-human forms from entering your stop and stealing your goods. A pyramid shaped rune of diffusion will stop seeing stones or spiritual gates from being opened into your store room (through which thieves might pass). A key shaped tomb rune, activated daily, will ensure that the doors will be locked beyond the competence of any Thief. However, a rune stave just outside your store room, automatically activating a tomb rune to lock your store- room door as soon as any customer enters your shop will be the most effective protection. Alternatively, you may wish to speak to the leaders of your city about arranging for the city to protect the lock upon your shop - for they can order its protection, for a small fee each month, which no thief can pick.
See also HELP SHOPS, HELP MARKET, HELP SMITHY, and CITY HELP SHOP if you have access.
