General store

The General store is a type of shop placed in many locations in RuneScape. Unlike a specialty shop, it accepts all tradeable items with the exception of coins. The general store is identified on the map by a pot icon (Old icon as of 8 May 2007 - ). The General Store also plays a key role in the prices of items being purchased and sold in the Grand Exchange

Staples
Each general store carries a few commonly used, inexpensive items. The following is the most conventional inventory for a general store: Most general stores available in the free-to-play map area also carry the following: Other common items for the general store include:
 * Empty pot
 * Jug
 * Shears
 * Bucket
 * Bowl
 * Cake tin
 * Tinderbox
 * Chisel
 * Hammer
 * Newcomer map
 * Security book
 * Rope
 * Knife
 * Vial of water
 * Pestle and mortar
 * Candle
 * Unlit torch
 * Cooked meat
 * Bronze pickaxe
 * Bronze hatchet
 * Iron hatchet
 * Papyrus

Anything goes
In addition to regular stock, players may sell any tradeable item to a store. Before the Personalised Shops update of 2 September 2009, the general store in each town would often have a stock of items commonly produced by players in that area. Before the December 2007 update bargains could sometimes be found from players unaware of typically higher street prices, or in too much of a hurry to find a buyer - the sale price is now linked to the Grand Exchange price.

When selling to a general store, the price when it has no stock of that item is two-thirds of the specialty shop price at normal stock. The price or coins a player receives is reduced as the inventory of stock increases until a lower limit is reached.

Unnoting items
General stores can also be used to unnote items, which particularly comes in handy when you are in an area far from a bank. To do this, sell as many of the items as you want unnoted to the shop then buy them back under Player stock. You will lose a varying amount of coins doing this depending on the item. This does not work for all items, only ones that the shop can buy.

Owners
In most general stores there are Shop keepers and Shop assistants. When you right click on one of them you can choose either talk to (for a longer way to get in), or trade (to go straight to the market).

If you sell to Arnold in the Piscatoris fishing colony, he will pay about 1/3 more than a normal shop.

Update
The Shop Improvement update was introduced on 2 October 2007. Shop stock was split up in two parts, the main stock which contains infinite amounts of basic items, and the player stock which contains all those items players have sold to it.

Before this update, real world traders used to find an item with a high grand exchange value and low store value and sell it to the store. The other player would then buy it, and sell it to the grand exchange for a higher price.

The update of 2 September 2009 removed the infinite amounts and replaced it with another system where the amount of items each store possessed was different for each player. Many complaints are posted on the forums regarding this every day.