well one way to accomplish it is to use main categories as store names, then the subcategories of each would be the stores categories, then the 2nd level would be either subcategories or products. example:
CATEGORY #1 = MyStore
SUBCATEGORY = CLOTHES
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Womens Clothes
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Mens Clothes
SUBCATEGORY = SHOES
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Tennis shoes
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Golf SHoes
SUBCATEGORY = HATS
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Wide-brim Hats
SUB-SUBCATEGORY = Baseball Hats
CATEGORY #2 = AnotherStore
SUBCATEGORY1 = DOG FOOD
SUB-SUBCATEGORY1 = Wet Dog Food
SUB-SUBCATEGORY2 = Dry Dog Food
SUBCATEGORY2 = CAT FOOD
SUB-SUBCATEGORY1 = Wet Cat Food
SUB-SUBCATEGORY2 = Dry Cat Food
SUB-SUBCATEGORY3 = Live Cat Food
SUBCATEGORY3 = BIRD SEED
SUB-SUBCATEGORY1 = Sunflower Seed
SUB-SUBCATEGORY2 = Hemp Seed
In the above example you would handle all payments at one central location. Method 2 would involve you setting up seperate zencart installations, each their own folder off of the root directory of your server. You would then enter the info for each store in their respective zencart installs, then you would make one more zencart to be the main store, here you could use the blank sidebox module to be the categories box. Then you would set up the stores as in the above example, except when people view products, they never leave your storefront, and when they check out, each store owner would get their portion of the order. This would take a little effort on the part of a decent programmer, a few hours if they are already familiar with the workings of zencart. The same thing could probably be accomplished with just multiple databases too. Again you would need a programmer...
