I just have this to add to the conversation...
I live in 3 different shops and usually run them all at the same time. I hide because living in a shop can be very , very boring. I can't skill fast enough for it to be worth the amount of time it takes to green back up.
I came back to Sim... er EAland for the custom content feature and I'm having a BLAST with it. When I'm running my shops I'm usually in graphics programs making more (I just learned how to make Custom Sculptures and that's a lot of detail work). Add to that the following facts...
1. I play in European times and thus I suspect there are a lot less people around then later on when I'm asleep.
2. Day after day, hour after hour I make sure that I greet people as soon as I see them. I am often ignored, but even if someone does say Hi back or TY that's the extent of the conversation. As I'm broke from uploading CC I couldn't buy them anything they wanted even if they asked anyways lol
3. I have a husband, a job, 3 children, a big house, and some pets thrown into the mix lol If I'm afk dealing with them , I should hope people would understand that's more important than watching someone enter my lot, buy a vase of flowers and leave again.
4. You can NOT cheat by using an option they gave us in game. If they didn't want to give us an option of hiding and not losing our green, it wouldn't be in game.
5. Using another program to keep your sims online past the time out IS cheating.
So if I add all the above points together, no one ever will be able to make me feel guilty or wrong for hiding in my own shop. =)