It's not that weird of an idea at all!
In fact, I figure it would be a great way to have a bunch of merchant characters of different professions and walks of life able to ICly explain why they all have their shops in one place. Plus, rather than having to fit whatever "theme" of the location is (like a tavern or bakery or what-have-you) or OOCly explain that their shop is actually in a wildly different location (what I did with Chachan's smithy for a while before actually landing a house for it), they're free to run whatever shop they desire.
It'd definitely be useful for those players who want to have their characters run their own shops but (understandably) can't really have their own location due to the housing limitations. And maybe even promote some inter-shop interactions since they'd all be in close proximity to each other ICly! Maybe get a price war or two going if a couple of the shops sell similar things.
There's a lot of potential here.
In fact, I figure it would be a great way to have a bunch of merchant characters of different professions and walks of life able to ICly explain why they all have their shops in one place. Plus, rather than having to fit whatever "theme" of the location is (like a tavern or bakery or what-have-you) or OOCly explain that their shop is actually in a wildly different location (what I did with Chachan's smithy for a while before actually landing a house for it), they're free to run whatever shop they desire.
It'd definitely be useful for those players who want to have their characters run their own shops but (understandably) can't really have their own location due to the housing limitations. And maybe even promote some inter-shop interactions since they'd all be in close proximity to each other ICly! Maybe get a price war or two going if a couple of the shops sell similar things.
There's a lot of potential here.
~