Biggby Coffee of Big Rapids (Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff)
File included as-is, as depicted above.
PS4 / XBox One users
Please check the Sims 4 Gallery. This lot should be available, just as shown above.
PC Users, sans Oughties Big Rapids Living
Don’t have / want the entire Oughties Big Rapids Living fanmade stuff pack, but would really love to send Sims to a remake of the real-life Biggby Coffee? Then you’re in luck!
Liberated from the strip that it’s a part of in real life (for in-game logistical reasons,) this building is otherwise as close as the game engine’s limitations would allow to a scale replica of the real-life coffee shop. It has been given decorum consistent with how the shop looked more or less from 2007 – 2010, in keeping with the fanmade stuff pack’s theme of being set during my old college days.
The real shop has since repainted its interior; but this is the classic interior look recaptured.
History
Since May of 2008, locals and students at Ferris State alike have been able to depend on the consistently-well-ranked Biggby store to serve all their latte, hot chocolate, and coffee needs. The atmosphere and attitude of workers at this store has ranked consistently high throughout most of that history, earning the store a 4.7 / 5 – star rating on Facebook.
It has considerable Dozerfleet history too.
– In Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers, Vinny’s treasured Biggby mug came from this very store. (Hence why Kim has to replace it after she uses it to weaken Slaisionnach, whose weakness is ceramic.)
Vinny / Volkonir defends very little of his history in Big Rapids jealously, but he does care a great deal about his Biggby mug. That’s because Biggby was one of the only places that was consistently friendly toward him, in either humanoid Cortascian or Toy Volkonir modes.
He acquired the mug in August of 2008, when he finally left Big Rapids for good after laying low with any locals that would help him get back on his feet after the toy spell was broken. He was able to eat there with friends since it opened, and grew very fond of it. His spell was broken around late February / early March of 2008, by Cassie Helm (originally set to be played by Bethany Hasse.)
Granted, he is shown in the second-to-last chapter of his PR crossover eating at Mancino’s with the 2017 Power Rangers instead. But his fondest memories are still of Biggby. His only real enemies in town…are a certain barber shop I won’t name (which in real life, has since gone out of business.)
– In the remake webcomic of Blood Over Water, set in the fall semester of 2009, nearly everyone at Sleet Mountain (villainous stand-in for Ice Mountain of Stanwood) or Ferris has been to Biggby at least once. (It was never mentioned in the original miniseries, shot at Ferris by the TVPR 389 class that same semester.)
– In Sorbet, Hadley Mint must defend the Biggby store from the zombie hordes, as she tries to solve whatever mystery will break her free from the time loop, and stop her from having to wake up in her room in North Bond and fight the same zombie apocalypse over and over again.
– In Centipede + 49, the 49 Elites bemoan the fate of most of Big Rapids under Affadidah’s regime’s influence. But they find it remarkable that the Biggby store is the least damaged place. However, they have to somehow cause a sufficient diversion to allow Ciem to sneak into North Bond and disable the 1-gigaton nuclear bomb located in Hadley’s old room (as fate would have it), so they don’t have time to worry so much about coffee shop nostalgia. (Saving most of Lower Michigan from being wiped off the map is much more important!)
– In October of 2009 in real life, Biggby’s lobby was used as a substitute for the Scarface Beverages shop in Dirbine, Indiana (real life Evansville), in the Classic Gerosha continuity (Earth-G5), for what would’ve been Ciem 2 (some panels of that included.) Real photos had Sims from Sims 2 Roger-Rabbited on top of them, to emphasize that Ciem 2 took visual beauty and detail in frames much more seriously than the first Ciem Sims 2 webcomic ever did.
This is because Starbucks at the time had a very strong anti-photography sentiment. To the point that some shots in Blood Over Water had to be re-filmed, to remove visual references to Starbucks. Scarface Beverages was a gangster-themed parody of Starbucks, thrown into Ciem 2 in order to take a pot shot at Starbucks over their anti-photography policy. Biggby’s staff…was entirely okay with the idea.
Since then, the yellow-orange, warm, inviting wall Candi is seen ordering drinks alongside when talking to Stacy has been repainted a Christmas red color. I’m sure there have been other changes to this building gradually over the years. Last I checked, the fireplace is still there in real life. However, the environment is more “sweet,” and less overwhelmingly “warm” now, compared to how it was in the late 2000s.
Gameplay
Routing: This lot contains fewer tables and chairs than the real life store, as Sims had a devil of a time navigating a more accurate version of the floor layout.
Lot type: Cafe
Lot size: 30×20
File size: 153 KB
Furnished lot value: $74,498
Unfurnished lot value: $22,008
Bedrooms: 0
Bathrooms: 1 (unisex)
Traits: None assigned
This pack’s lots and objects also allow you to re-create with better accuracy:
Mancino’s Pizza and Grinders of Big Rapids
Boost Mobile of Big Rapids (part of the same strip as Mancino’s)
Szot’s Bar and Grill
Rapids Suds and Dry
North Bond Hall (see upload for more information on that)
Hillcrest Oakwood Apartments Building H
To say nothing of including remake mockups of several residential homes from the area as they looked in 2007-2010, courtesy of Realtor.com.
Lot Size: 30×20
Lot Price (furnished): 74498
Lot Price (unfurnished): 22008
Additional Credits:
Special thanks to Joshua Boyd’s 360 view camera, Google Maps, and the Biggby of Big Rapids Facebook page for giving me frames of reference and history points to verify my own anecdotes with.
The greater Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff Pack also thanks Re/Max, Realtor.com, and Big Rapids City Hall for their kind cooperation in helping stitch together this timeframe.
Special thanks to the Sims 4 Studio crew, for their tool which made custom objects in the pack possible, including the Biggby signs that are optional for inclusion on this lot.
