Upper-level buyers
The customers whose budgets make a week.
The wealthiest tier of customer, drawn by valuable merchandise and signs rather than by volume. They pay the margins that make a bad week survivable.
Upper-level buyers are the reason a shop stocks a display case rather than a shelf: reputation and display value decide whether they visit at all.
Upper-level money is patient money. These customers do not fill a shop with volume; they buy the one item that justifies the display case and the signage above it, and they pay a price that a queue of ordinary buyers never would.
The catch is the same as it is everywhere on the station: the person in front of you is assessing you while you assess them. Selling them something genuine is a good day; selling them something relabelled is a good day until it is not.
Counter protocol
- Attract them with what the shop shows, not with what it discounts.
- They are the natural buyers for counterfeit goods sold as genuine.
- If they never appear, the problem is the shop front rather than the stock.
Related stock
Where this comes from
Elite buyers can be sold counterfeit goods at a premium.
“Profit from the arrogant elite by selling them counterfeit goods”
Attracting the right customers is a matter of balancing supply and demand.
“Balance supply and demand by attracting the right customers”
Community playthroughs describe the upper levels as the rich district and its customers as a distinct buyer tier.
“The upper levels are the rich.”
Caption as spoken (verbatim)
The upper levels are the rich.
Tier 1 is the developer or publisher speaking, tier 2 is a large structured reference, tier 3 is player-made material. Anything a player measured rather than read is labelled as community-reported on this page.