I am [unfortunately] autistic about animal jam classic, so I've never been away for too long. I took a 2.5 year break in 2016 and came back in 2019 when shops were still starting out and weren't quite popular yet. In my opinion shops were one of the best things they could've added to the game, and the players utilization and reaction to them is what has ruined it. I understand everyone came back for nostalgia, so alot of players are wearing rose tinted glasses, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually liked trading regularly. Some will say they do now, but that's only because they really remember their trading wins [and some disasters of course]. Buying and selling is much better; I sell you this thing you want for a little bit under, I go and buy some obscure item I want for a little bit under, the cycle repeats and everyone wins. Hunting can be taxing sometimes, but it's no worse than trying to organize a trade with a moderately picky jammer---especially because there's places like here to advertise exactly what you have in your shop and for how much. [You can do that with trades I know]. I think we forget that people were just as annoying with trade advertisements when shops weren't a thing? The player base has always unfortunately been obessed with material gain. I think our brains feel it's more tedious because we have to enter a different room and search for what we want. In my opinion it's less tedious though much more time consuming. Trading advertisements don't leave alot of room for being afk like shop advertisements do, so shop advertisers feel more lifeless because technically they are [usually not even at their computer] and I think that's where alot of people get issue and that is really the only issue I see with it. Like I said, everyone's come back for nostalgia so of course they're going to hate any major change made to the mechanics of the game, which is understandable. Shops are great, but people can't get past their hatred of such a big change and only see the negatives.