¶ Introduction
One of the most lucrative ways of making money is by going to stores and robbing them. To do this you just need to aim a weapon at the clerk of the store and wait until they are done giving you all the money from their counter.
¶ How to rob a store ?
¶ Solo
Robbing a store alone is pretty easy : all you need to do is to go inside a store and point any loaded firearm you have at the shop clerk who will be manning the cash desk.
If you do this without ammo inside your gun, the robbery will automatically fail, and not only will it call the cops and give you a wanted level for “attempted robbery”, but the shop clerk (and the guards if there are some) will start shooting at you.
Once you start robbing a store, an “intimidation” bar will appear at the bottom-right of your screen : to fill this bar you will have to either keep pointing your weapon at the shop clerk, or shoot around him / the store to raise the intimidation and keep it steady until the robbery is over. The robbery will fail if the intimidation bar is empty.
You will see the money you have stolen just above the intimidation bar. You will receive the amount shown when the robbery ends (even if the robbery ends due to you failing the robbery).
Once the robbery is over, you will receive a wanted level with the crime “Armed Robbery” or “Attempted Robbery” depending on if you failed or succeeded at it.
If there is a guard around the store or you fire a weapon without a silencer while doing the robbery, the cops will be called and you'll get the “armed robbery” felony even if the robbery isn't over yet.
If a cop gets close to a robbery while you're doing it, even if there wasn't any call for the robbery, they will be notified and you'll receive an “armed robbery” felony.
Cops are able to shoot you down because it's a violent felony.
¶ Robbing a store with multiple players
To rob a store with your friends or some other players, all players should aim at the same clerk (there can be multiple of clerks but aiming at the same clerk is the only way for it to work).
To join an on-going robbery all players should get a weapon out, this will add them to the robbery.
All loot will be split into equal parts between players, and the health of your robbery partners will be displayed below the cash status to keep track of the team's health.
¶ Safe cracking
Inside some stores, there will be a safe 
that contains additional money to the cash register money (≈ x1.5 the cash register money), but in order to be able to get the money from the safe, there needs to be at least 2 players in the robbery : one keeping the shop clerk intimidated, while the other goes to the safe to crack it. They can do this by going to the yellow circle besides the safe and pressing B : there is a chance to fail at cracking the safe which will result in no money being taken from the safe.
Once the safe cracking starts, the safe cracking player will get stuck in an animation : they won't be able to move until either the safe cracking is failed, they cancel the safe crack or they empty the safe once cracked successfully, so make sure that there's no cops or guards around that can shoot you down (or make sure that your teammates keep you covered).
¶ Reasons why you can't rob
Sometimes it's not possible to rob a store because of multiple diverse reasons :
- The store has been robbed by somebody less than 5 minutes ago.
- You already robbed this store before, without robbing a different store after that (can't rob the same store twice in a row).
- The shop clerk has been killed / is not spawned.
¶ Types of stores
There are 7 kind of stores that can currently be robbed around the map, with each having different difficulties and rewards.
All outside, these are quick and easy to rob but give very little money.
- Time to rob : ≈ 30 seconds
- Cash register : $25,000 - $40,000
- No safe
Food stores are pretty quick to rob and give decent money when robbing alone but with the drawback of having no safe at the back of the store, so not much money is earned when robbing with multiple players.
- Time to rob : ≈ 30 seconds
- Cash register : $40,000 - $60,000
- No safe
& 
These stores give decent money but take longer to rob than food stores and have no safes.
- Time to rob : ≈ 1-2 minutes
- Cash register : $40,000 - $60,000
- No safe
These shops give a decent amount of money with the cash register, but can also have a safe with money at the back of the shop (≈40% chance) which can give additional money when robbing with multiple players.
- Time to rob : ≈ 1-2 minutes
- Cash register : $30,000 - $60,000
- Safe : ≈ $100,000
- Total : $130,000 - $160,000
Convenience stores are the most common and best store to rob :
- Time to rob : ≈ 1-2 minutes
- Cash register : $50,000 - $75,000
- Safe : $75,000 - $150,000
- Total : $125,000 - $225,000
Some convenience stores in the city can have one guard protecting the shop, but these shops also give a bit more money compared to the non-guarded stores.
Nightclubs are pretty hard to rob because they have 4-5 guards that spawn inside the club, locally for each player but they give the best amount of money at both the cash desk and the safe. However, they take the longest time to rob.
Here are the 4 nightclubs available to rob :
- Keinemusik (Cayo Perico) :
- Time to rob : ≈ 2 minutes & 30 seconds
- 4 guards
- 1 shop clerk
- Cash register : $80,000 - $110,000
- Safe : unknown amount (lower than tequi-la-la)
- Tequi-la-la (West Vinewood) :
- Time to rob : ≈ 2 minutes & 30 seconds
- 5 guards (1 outside, 3 on the ground floor, 1 at the first floor)
- 3 shop clerks (1 at the front entrance, 1 at the main bar, 1 at the 1st floor bar)
- Cash register : $90,000 - $115,000
- Safe : $150,000 - $200,000
- Total : $240,000 - $315,000
- Bahamas-Mamas (Del Perro) :
- Time to rob : ≈ 2 minutes & 30 seconds
- 5 guards (1 outside, 4 inside)
- 2 shop clerks (1 on each side of the nightclub)
- Cash register : $100,000 - $125,000
- Safe : $150,000 - $210,000
- Total : $250,000 - $335,000
- Vanilla Unicorn (Davis) :
- Time to rob : ≈ 2 minutes & 30 seconds
- 6 guards (1 at the entrance, 5 inside)
- 2 shop clerks (1 at the main entrance, 1 at the bar)
- Cash register : $150,000 - $220,000
- Safe : $300,000 - $530,000
- Total : $450,000 - $750,000
There are 3 hardware stores that can be robbed on the map : 2 of them have guards protecting them and a safe inside whist the other doesn't have an interior, safe or guard.
They give the same amount of money as a convenience store for the cash register but have way more money inside the safe because of additional protection from guards.
Here are the 3 hardware stores available to rob :
- Mega Mall (Davis) :
- 4 guards and a dog
- Cash register : $50,000 - $70,000
- Safe : $100,000 - $200,000
- Total : $150,000 - $270,000
- YouTool (Grand Senora Desert) :
- 3 guards
- Cash register : $50,000 - $70,000
- Safe : $100,000 - $200,000
- Total : $150,000 - $270,000
- Bay Hardware (Paleto Bay) :
- No guard
- Cash register : $50,000 - $70,000
- No safe
Guards spawn locally for each player, so they must take down their guard before or during the robbery
¶ Tips & Tricks
- Try to rob with multiple players : not only does it give you more money when you crack the safe even after splitting the loot, it also gives you additional protection against guards, cops or other players trying to steal your robbery by killing you.
- Always restock before robbing : for most stores you can buy essential items (armor, medkits, ammo) : It's not a bad idea to refill your inventory with these items as they can help you a lot in fights that can occur from doing robberies (especially guarded stores)
- Kill the guards before robbing : the best way to do a robbery quickly and with the least amount of damage is to coordinate with your teammates to take down the guards as fast as possible : doing so will not only make it easier to focus on the safe / cash register, but this will also prevent any surprises from arising when fighting cops or when you are trying to run away after being done with the robbery.
Store clerks will always kneel down if you engage with guards : but that doesn't mean you cannot do the robbery, as all you need to do is aim at the general position they were standing at and wait for them to stand up again with their hands up. - Keep an eye on the entrances : with the exception of Nightclubs & Hardware store, all stores only have one entrance : the best way to survive while doing a robbery if cops come to try to stop you is to fall back to cover, while also keeping the store clerk in check.
- Block entrances: For Nightclubs & Hardware stores, it's best to “block” one entrance with a vehicle (and maybe use that vehicle as getaway too) and keep watch on the other entrance (to avoid being assaulted by two sides)
- Use silenced weapons for unguarded stores : shooting around the store clerks makes the intimidation gauge go up faster, speeding up the robbery. But if you shoot without a silencer equipped on your weapon, cops will be called to your location : always have a secondary weapon with a silencer, preferably with lots of bullets (an assault rifle with a drum mag is perfect for this)