Hot Spot Review – The Shops At Crush Row

A shopper's dream world.

I am extremely happy to present to you…..*drum roll*….the shops at Crush Row. This is an amazing area that I stumbled upon while helping out a new resident/friend of mine. We were browsing through Tuli (which I’ve reviewed and given two thumbs up (-: ) and were approached by a lady named Elysium Eilde. Elysium was kind enough to give my friend a newbie package from her store, Elymode. I followed that to Crush Row and found myself in a virtual shopper’s dream land. Let me say a few words about Elymode specifically, and then I’ll give an overview of Crush Row.

Elymode is a lovely store, offering ladies’ clothing. The thing I love about this store is that you can mix and match the pieces to create several different outfits. The colors and lines of the clothing fit together so well. At the entrance to the store, you will find a box specially for avatars 30 days or younger. This is to help newcomers to Second Life. You can see a picture of this box, as well as its contents, below. If you’re older than 30 days, don’t fret. All items in the newbie box are available to purchase in her store. :-)

Elymode Newcomer Box

Notice how the clothes are form-fitting in the perfect places to show off your shape.

Excuse the image quality. Working on a better one.

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Now let’s get on with the rest of Crush Row. :-D

Crush Row offers some of the top designers of SL, featuring clothing, accessories, poses, and more. Below is a list of some of my favorites in no particular order.

• Atomic
• Crash Couture
• Malt
• adam n eve
• AOHARU
• Exodi
• Punch Drunk
• League
• Sn@tch
• axel

The first time I went shopping here, I didn’t know what way to turn. It was like I was completely surrounded by things saying “Buy me!” Now, the only thing that isn’t a total plus for Crush Row is that the prices are average. They aren’t huge bargains…however, they aren’t sky high either. And if you’re willing to pay a few L$ for quality items, you won’t be disappointed with purchases here. A good thing about this area is that most shops do offer freebies or dollarbies (or gifts if you click their subscrib-o-matics). I took my friend and she made out like a bandit on these items.

Here are a couple outfits I bought at Crush Row.

My newest outfit.

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Top: [Atomic] I <3 Noobs Shoulder Tee Gray (You can get the shirt in several different colors and they also have a regular tee version which suits guys well.)  L$ 100

Bottoms: League Booty Shorts – Dark Blue  L$ 120

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Every girl needs her LBD.

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League Scoop! Dress – Black  L$ 345

How To: Linden Dollars (Bring home those hard earned L$)

If you aren't into the "hard earned" style, take the easy route and buy your L$.

One of the key components of Second Life is its very real virtual economy. It’s a bit of a mind trip if you think about it. The economy joins together two worlds. It’s a portal between real and virtual lives. In this post, I’ll focus on the virtual side, though. Mostly because if I go into too much depth about the real side, I’ll sink into a deep depression over the debt I’ve accumulated through buying those L$. :P

Anyway, here we go. The staple that holds the world of Second Life together is none other than: the Linden Dollar. There are a few different ways to increase your L$ balance. The basics would be buying them using real world currency, getting a job in Second Life, camping (or similar activities), and selling items you create.

To buy L$, you don’t have to have a premium account, but you do need payment info on file. It can’t be too hard to set this up, because I somehow managed to do it. :) You can try an ATM similar to the one pictured to the left here, or you can simply click on your L$ balance and this will give you the purchase menu. I always opted for clicking on my balance. It seems like the simplest way to me. For $2.50 (USD), you can get approximately L$570. I strongly suggest setting up a PayPal account before you try to buy L$, though. It will make the process much easier.

If you don’t want to use your real world money to provide for your virtual needs, you can get a virtual job. Keep in mind that you will have responsibilities just as you would with any job. There are several career paths available. Really, the only limit is your imagination. If you’re just starting out, you’ll probably have to go the dancer or escort† route. Most other jobs require experience of some sort and employers generally won’t accept applications from people under 30 days old. But once you get your foot in the door, you can move on to things like model, host/ess, PR, personal assistant, writer, event/club/sim manager, photographer, security, etc. If you have skills in a particular field, you could even build, design clothes or script and offer these services to clients. To look for a job, just open search and go to the classifieds. (More on jobs coming soon.)

Now, if you build or create things in your spare time, you might consider opening a shop or selling on XStreetSL. Opening a shop in-world will require some investment (for rent, advertising, etc.) while an account at XSL is totally free. You create the items, you set the price, and you sit back and watch the L$ roll in.

If you’re new to SL and you’re still iffy about investing the real money it would take to buy L$ or the time it would take to hold a job, camping might be an option. You will not get rich by camping. Basically, people want traffic to their land. (More people to come and see what they offer.) So they ask you to come sit (or dance) at their shop or club. If you stay for a predetermined about of time, they throw a few L$ your way. Generally, you get a couple dollars for every 10 minutes you spend there. It can be boring, or it can be fun. If there are other campers, you might be able to strike up a conversation and make a few new friends.

†If you’re going to have a job in the “adult industry” please make sure you have the required…naughty bits. They’re all over the place, really, so shouldn’t be hard to find. :P