SANOM CITY - Local ratcatchers and cathunters are expressing disappointment in recent events surrounding their livelihood. Both Sanom City Butchers and the Toonstore, local sources of revenue for aspiring adventurers, are suddenly forced to turn their suppliers away, stating (quote),"I cannot afford the corpse of a rat." Where does this absence of funds leave ratcatchers? One, who wishes her name withheld, reports having to mine for nearly worthless material. / Another, homeless and destitute, has admitted to desperate acts of robbery. Yet another expresses her terror at having to leave the sanctity of the city to find larger and more threatening game. "A lot of them courd easily destroy me only with one hit," she worries. "Must I reall y risk my life to put food in my belly?" Adventurers seeking butcher shops outside of Sanom have fared scardely (that should read scarcely) better. Some have traveled as far as Merenth and to Seaside, with similar results. "The butcher in Seaside Village used to pay verry well for rats," one ratcatcher laments. "Now he's broke, just the same as the rest." Could the lack of funding from butchers portend darker economic times to come? Only time will tell. --Ardea Brightfoot reporting.
Economists today revealed what most already feared -- Shattered World is in the grip of a Great Depression. Plunging armour and weapon prices have slashed the profit margins from most adventurers' forays into the wild, meaning that gold coins are harder to come by today than perhaps ever before. Some suspect the source of the economic malaise can be traced to particular tribes of monsters, which have ceased purchasing equipment from reputable Shattered shops and begun manufacturing their own. The resultant flood of cheap weapons and armour has driven down world prices and cause a strong deflation. The Sage says things will get worse before they get better. "The average profits of item-trading shops have all dropped, but guild alliances and construction costs are as high as ever," he said, letting off a real rip-roarer. "Whoops! Sorry." Others are not so sure. "It's a natural economic correction," said Harry the affectionate, fondling me. "Anyone can see that. Shopkeepers may not make as many coins a day as they used to, but those coins buy a lot more. Nice weather, isn't it?"
Good News for Newbies, Not So Good for Business SANOM CITY-- Good luck selling an axe anywhere in this city. Or anywhere else for that matter. Weaponers and Smiths are reluctantly having to turn away sellers of all sorts, saying, "I won't buy a hand axe. We have too many already!" or "A great axe is worth nothing to me. I won't buy a great axe." The Charity Shop is even full of axes. Newcomers to the city wanting a better weapon than a knife or wanting to chop wood in the Common Market are celebrating, but other adventurers are frustrated. Some experts speculate that this, and a reported inflation rate of a whopping 22%, indicate difficult financial times ahead. What can be done? Some fear that clans of multiple characters may cause the wealth to spread out thinner. Others rationalize that this is the only way one can make a decent wage. Since donating to the Charity Shop is scarcely an option, one might leave an axe lying around by the stack of wood in the Common Market as a charitable gesture (perhaps then local Gypsies may cut their own darn torches...) Most, however, are hoarding weapons in the event of a scarcity in the market.
The law of supply and demand controls the market. Producers create products. But the price of these products depends on the consumers. The law of supply states that, as the price of a product increases, producers will be more willing to produce more of that product. As the price of a product decreases, producers will produce less. Ideally, producers would like to sell many products, all at high prices. A restaurant owner would be very happy to sell thousands of pizzas every day, at high prices. Consumers have a different view. Most consumers would rather buy a great deal of pizza at low prices. The law of demand states that, as prices increase, consumers will demand less. If the price decreases, consumers will demand more. So, the restaurant owner can sell more pizzas by lowering the price. Somewhere between the restaurant owner wanting to sell large numbers of pizzas at high prices, and the consumer wanting to buy large numbers of pizzas at lower prices, an equilibrium is reached. This is the price at which the owner can sell pizzas and make profit and the consumer agrees to pay the owner's asking price.
In a previous article, the laws of supply and demand were supposedly laid down. No disrespect to the auther, but these laws were inaccurate. The article claimed demand is based on price. The law of supply and demand states price is dependent on demand. As demand for a certain product rises, retailers must do something to keep their stock from flying out the windows. Therefore, they must raise the price so that the product does not leave the supplier too quickly. If that happens, then there would be a shortage of stock and people would not have anything to spend money on. The opposite holds true as well. As demand decreases, retailers must lower their prices in order to avoid excess overstock (eg. sales) which could choke out space for other stock in more demand. This does not appear to be happening in the local economy. Retailers are attempting to bring in huge profit from non-essential items. It has in effect shut down Sanom's market. It is in keeping with better business practices to properly match the price to the demand for any object for sale. If the system holds as it does now, business owners will find themselves without a business, as I suspect by the amount of closed shops, has already happened in quite a few cases. Owners Beware! You will drive yourselves out of business if you are not careful!
The Weapon shop economy. Ever since the weaponry shops in Sanom City have been closing the economic status has been dropping like a boulder. Why have the shops been closing down you may ask. Well it seems that adventurers of the city have become overcome by the demons of Sloth and Greed. The adventurers have not been keeping the shop open not because they can't pay but won't pay. They would rather keep the treasures they find for themselves instead of selling or donating them to those who actually need them. An example of this would be if an adventurer found a rare but weak weapon but instead of donating or even selling it to a novice they would rather mount on a wall to show it off to their friends and to mock their enemies with. It just shows that the adventurers are becoming to lazy and greedy to help novices even for a price. But not all the adventurers are this way some are very kind and generous to novices and those in need. In fact one such person took time out of his schedule to help me with some tasks I was having trouble on. Another even generously gave me some of his own hard earned money to me. As for the weapon shops if they do not open back up soon the city will not have enough funds to buy a can of beans and the city shall be overcome by high leveled adventurers who push down on the novices to make sure they can't improve themselves. If you are a generous adventurer please open up the shops so that at least us novices can at least try to gain enough money to buy some basic equipment. P.S. If you are a greedy lazy adventurer after reading this do not come and try to kill me I beg of you.
Recently, it has been noted that citizens are more interested in buying houses than they are in opening shops. This could prove disasterous for the markets, however. With less shops, there is less competition, thus prices and inflation could sky rocket. Perhaps land owners should look at the commercial options in the world. There are several shops that we need many more of. Magic shops are scarce, as are some other basic stores. Also with the lack of restaurants, we have all noticed that prices for food and alchohol have gone up. Following in the wake of the large number of closed stores in Sanom itself, will we soon not be able to find a shop to take our loot?
We have all felt the frusteration of going into a shop and expecting to buy a product, but the shop being closed. There are several such shops in Sanom and shoppers are having to travel great lengths to buy weapons, armour, and so on. Competitive prices and inflation have been putting several shops out of business.**
File last modified: Mon Oct 16 15:27:36 2006