Whenever I was in a foul mood, my mother would say, “Don’t be a Grumpy Greta.” I figure Mom should Greta for her alliterative name because Dad was altogether too fond of Greta Garbo. Oddly enough, according to ancestry.com, Dad and Greta Garbo were 2nd cousins twice removed. Who knew? Well, I am a Grumpy Greta this morning and it is all because of creator profiles. Actually it is one creator’s profile, but since the problem is so common, I will not name the store or creator. After all, if there are literally dozens who do this, why point to only one?

This is where the store owner’s profile pick takes me. Please note this is not a store. This is a house. It is a lovely house, but it’s not made by the creator. I checked. It’s a LAQ house by Mallory Cowan. I did not go inside because I don’t go in other people’s house uninvited. That is not quite 100% true. I did teleport into someone’s house before being booted. That happened when I followed this same creators SLURL from Marketplace. So to recap, the Marketplace store link goes to someone else’s house where there is a 10 second security orb ready to toss you out and the profile store link goes to the creator’s home. No store at all. There is another store listed in the profile, but that is for resale of breedables, not what I was looking for either. The store does not show in Search – perhaps the creator cannot afford the 30 lindens to pay for listing in search because no one can find the store to buy anything.

Store Owners, your profile is your business card. It is often the first impression you give your customers. The very least it should provide is where we can buy your products. I wrote a tutorial on what I think store owners should put in their profile.

While we’re on the subject of profiles, I understand that sometimes it is vital to your peace of mind and amour propre to have “⊱ Daddy’s naughty lil bitch ⊰” in your profile. Fine, but how about after your store information?

That quote comes from a store owner profile that does not mention the name of her store once. She provides a marketplace link in the web page tab of her profile. She has 10 picks and not one refers to her store. Mostly they create a negative impression with deliberately abrasive braggadocio. There are statements like “i dont care what you think of me… i dont think of you at all..” This leads me to think that if I ever had a customer service issue, I would not get a good response. So, with literally thousands of options in Second Life, this creator took herself off my list.

I know I can buy on Marketplace but I do prefer to buy in the stores. I like the experience of shopping. I hate that Marketplace is replacing stores and reducing the wide variety of sims that used to house them. Every purchase from Marketplace feels like one more sim disappearing from the grid so I usually only buy on Marketplace for gifts. I use it more as a brochure for finding things that I want to go buy from the store itself.

Well, there’s one place that I know how to find. That’s Collabor88 and this month, as every month, there is a lot to admire and spend your lindens on. For this outfit, I am wearing three things from January’s Collabor88. Skin from Glam Affair, earrings from Yummy and a blouse from The Secret Store. Speaking of those Yummy earrings. I do wish she put her store name in the item names. It makes finding things so much easier months from now. Gosh, I am grumpy this morning!

Store info at Blogging Second Life
****SHOPPING LIST******
Poses: Marukin
Skin: -Glam Affair – Mokatana – Europa 03 D @ Collabor88
Eyes: [UMEBOSHI] Eon eyes Duo Green (med)
Lashes: Lelutka
Mani/Pedi: SLink Mesh Hands & Feet with Kosh mani applier
Hair: *Dura-Boys&Girls*46(Mocha)
Clothing: One Bad Pixel ::1bp:: Damask Jeans M Blue
The Secret Store – Mary Pleated Shirt – Baby Blue – M
Shoes: Ingenue :: Paola Flats (Slink Add-On) :: Sky
Jewelry: Yummy Pearl Wisp Earrings – Silver @ Collabor88
Location: Private home