Hi, for all the commercial stands (counters) we can build I have a few questions :

1) When is the best time to build them ?

2) Which setlments locations are best for them ?

3) Which ones are good and others useless ?

4) Are they for doing business with outsiders or with setlers too ?

5) How do you fill them up ?

6) How do you know its doing business ?

Having all the questions and answers, we can then turn this into an official FAQ

1) When is the best time to build them ? -When you can afford to spend caps and materials on them as well as assign them

2) Which setlments locations are best for them ? -the ones with high populations

3) Which ones are good and others useless ? -they all have a particular use. I like starting with a general trader first so I can buy junk items which I may need to build with instead of having to go back out and scavenge.

4) Are they for doing business with outsiders or with setlers too ? -Idk I never see any traffic but they do earn money /caps based on the population so I guess technically yes. Look in workbench in Misc. for the caps you earn a cut of each day.

5) How do you fill them up ? -they come pre-stocked

6) How do you know its doing business ? -You get a cut of profit each day, you see the guy show up for work and stand behind the counter each day...

As an extra bit - I built my first "Bar" and decided I wanted to decorate it up by adding in an area well lit with lights, tables, chairs etc.. The game day ended and the sun started going down. I had assigned a settler to man the Bar. What I didn't expect is that the whole community would show up. They started using the chairs and tables eating bowls of what-ever the heck and hanging out in groups. This was a cool feature and made decorating the Bar setup a fun experience.

When? Depends on your needs.

The settlements you visit most often.

Weapon and armor can be useful ... particularly weapon as they sell ammo. All of them allow you to sell stuff and sometimes you can buy something with a component you are short on.

I think they make a profit and put bottle caps into the local workbench.

You don't have to fill them up .. they should be stocked as soon as you build them, but only during business hours. If you build one at night, the dude you assign to it will show up at 7 a.m. but won't have an inventory until 8.

Talk to the guy you assigned to it and see he'll trade.

Where?

Sanctuary.

When?

Whenever you have a decent Water Farm going.

Best?

Weapons and Clinic.

Why?

For hard to find Ammo and cheap removal of Rads, along with a steady supply of Stimpacks, Radex and Radaway.

Which should you build?

ALL OF THEM. They are how you turn your Purified Water into Caps.

Just don't expect the Stands themselves to generate any real revenue. It's all about having someplace to turn Purified Water into much more valuable things.

The bar/food vendor is a good start for caps, trader is good for general junk. Like someone said, at the end of the day the community congregates at the food stand and sit around drinking and eating. I put my community bell there, and some lighting to snazzy it up.

Note: why have the bell? Because with cloned settlers, it makes it easier to allocate people to jobs, and to find that 'missing' companion when you need them, and don't want to search ten wrecked houses.

That is a great feature, isn't it. When I first noticed it, I sat back in my chair and just watched for a while. Kudos gamesas.

Now, when I build a bar I also put chairs and tables.

I wish I could build the patio chairs. I think they look better outside than all the buildable chairs.

They are unlocked by a magazine. I can build them. No clue where I got the magazine.

The magazine Picket Fences is the one that adds new build features I will not say where to get them as we need to avoid spoilers here. You can on your own google "picket fences - fallout4" and get a list if you wish.

That is really good to know, thank you.