The Red & Purple Mini Mall
Location : Just North-East of the Yew Cemetery, first clearing in the woods. Atlantic Shard, Trammel, Yew.
Contact : See the house board in mall for contact info.
Website for Shop: Atlantic Commerce
Description : Independent Vendor Mall & Village
Owner: Lady Frany Flame
Q - Please give me a history on the Red and Purple Mini Mall.
A - The R&PMM was originally started in the summer of 2001, on the road from Brit, near the Cove Swamp. This first location was using a friend’s house, do to the high price of housing at that time. Not too long after 9/11, the staff froze housing decay driving prices way out of reach for newer players and it took a little time to save up for the small marble shop that stood west of the desert of compassion for a whopping 6 million gold at that time. It was March of 2002 the mall was moved the first time, and very soon after the R&P was very popular with the shopping public thanks to the various goods offered by several different vendor masters. Packing a lot of bang into a tiny house.
We stayed in that location for 13 months, seeing over 32 thousand visitors, and surviving 3 invasions. At that time, the new modern housing system came along and with the new vendor system, we were forced to look at a maximum of 10 vendors where we had over 20 in the small house. Downgrading operations was not an option. It took time to find just the right new house to better serve our community.
At the new and current location, we could easily double available vendor space, along with adding space for a full set of public dye tubs, training dummies, a small public rune library, a peaceful garden, and several other minor improvements for public enjoyment. At this time of Luna, it was decided the fate of the R&PMM was to better serve the public and stay in Tram, away from the high prices of Luna where we currently have over 72k visitors and growing, with over 6 years in the same location… the mall will not relocate again.
Q - Clearly this mall has stood the test of time. But going back to the beginning, what made you decide to run a vendor mall in Sosaria?
A – At the time I started needing vendor space of my own, it was very hard to get space in bigger malls. Most big malls were in full towers or castles, and some of those malls demanded guild membership. Other malls were run by only the owner of the house, selling few goods. I had to make gold in a bad way to support my combat characters. Once I got a foothold in a super mall… it was clear I was meeting far more newer players needing vendor space then anyone could find, so I thought the next logical step was to find some space to open up a mall of my own… with the goal of helping everyone I could, not just myself. Malls can be a lot of work on the owner and we are lucky to find fellow merchants that have a love of running vendors. That’s as true then as it is today, even if it's harder to keep full vendors inside the mall now. It's far more then selling arrows and bolts out of 1 vendor in the back room of someone else’s mall. Those arrows I sold then are what the mall is built on today… why I picked the fletcher’s sign you’ll see on my buildings.
Q - What makes this establishment unique compared to others?
A - It may sound silly, but the first thing anyone will notice to the “Red & Purple” Mini Mall is the name itself. Way back then, no one was using colors for a marketing tool. Before I even opened up the first mall for people to share, I had 1 room in a castle and all the vendors were a cheerful Red & Purple to set them apart from everyone else’s vendors in that castle. Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a lot of malls using colors as a name, and some even call themselves whatever “Mini Mall”, but just having fun with the decorations and knickknacks we have available, I strive to keep the mall fun and interesting… ever changing no matter if it's normal gardening or seasonal. I also expanded the color theme to putting up banners and other decorations… people will know the long standing signature through the test of time. Even those players that return after years of absence remember the Red & Purple, relocated… redecorated, or redesigned. I strive to keep our establishment for “the people” of our shard. For everyone.
Q - Tell me some of the events you host here? (if any)
A - I believe it's been the last 4 Christmases now… we’ve hosted a Santa event in the mall’s rooftop garden. I love to see fun things happen in our game and at the time, there was no real Christmas spirit going on in our shard. I may have had too many cookies that day and got the crazy idea to decorate the mall like any other real mall would be for the season… and even have a jolly fat guy in a beard sitting on a throne visiting with all the kiddies. It was an overwhelming success! People really got into it. At that time, the garden was a little different with water and a bridge… cute, but not good for hosting events, so I redesigned it so it can be fully transformed with out disturbing the vendors. The idea was to have the ability to host more events, but the Christmas event seams to be what people like… so we hope to do it again next Christmas as well.
Q - The Red & Purple Mini Mall is just one of the buildings in that area that you’ve opened for public use. Can you give me a little information about the others?
A – Originally, when the new mall building was purchased, I had hoped the whole clearing would be different malls and establishments, owned by other people. Unfortunately, it never really came to pass. A few years later, a friend obtained a medium sized plot and asked me to design a cute little storage house for him… thus giving birth to the “First Church of Candy of the Red & Purple Mini Mall”. He has since retired from game play, however the church still stands. I totally love our custom house system and paying with decorations. I figured I would just have fun and make a smaller house that was something worth looking at. With the new Event Moderators being back in-game weddings… this church is open for anyone wishing to have their wedding. Just drop a note on the board.
It also took me several years to obtain the classic full tower that sat just south of the mall… where I ripped it down and replaced it with a larger custom plot. This being my own house, I’ve always collected rares and weird items and put most of them in a dungeon museum that’s also open to the public in the new house. The house, itself, is kind of a work in progress as I’m so busy doing other things, but it's all for fun. A museum of messes and oddities. Unfortunately, it's hard to find reliable rare sellers, so I don’t have very many big ticket items… but you never know what will be on display next.
Thank you Lady Frany...with your help we have salvaged this interview done by Muriel of Tokuno perhaps better known as Amy of the Daily Bugle who sadly disappeared before it was posted. At last we can share more of her talent. She is missed.