Using an appearance mod like High Poly NPC Overhaul - JK's Skyrim will overwrite the NPC records you change completely. There are no bash tags in this mod so Wrye Bash will not fix this by default. You need to either manually patch the two affected NPCs or add these Bash tags to the mod:
Without this mod it feels too easy to exploit. I know i could ignore the chests, but if they're there i'm gonna be tempted. So i prefer this mod. In saying that, it doesn't play well with some city overhauls. Most of the time its fine (from limited testing), but it doesn't play well with Cities of the North - Morthal however, combined with JK's Skyrim it moves the blacksmithing area somewhat, leaving remnants of the old setup in the new. No fault of this mod, but a patch would be needed if anyone's considering both.
JK's skyrim adds several merchants and vendors to the cities/villages it covers, and in almost every single one the merchant chest, containing the entire inventory of the store, is accessible right next to the merchant as if it were a normal chest. I think maybe the creator didn't understand that this chest is supposed to be inaccessible, because having access to it lets you loot everything for sale and also loot the stores money supply, and would also restock every 2 days. This mod just moves them below the ground so they arent accessible, like almost every other merchant chest.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Merchant_Chests for clarity
Ah thanks to clarify for me. Its been busy lately I haven't got the chance to see JK's Skyrim, but this clarification helps me a lot to avoid game breaking in some time I had the chance to play the game. Thanks a bunch :D
TL; DR (or straight answer to your question)... the chests are part of the decoration, and look like a logical part of each scene. Like one guy's chest is part of the area behind his counter, and a set of chests in Whiterun looks like a shipment drop-off point, complete with sturdy locking bars and everything. Under some conditions that is more immersive, but under most other conditions, it just makes it too easy to get gold. (EDIT: Hey, someone else answered, and more concisely too, in the time it took me to write the rest of this, good on them. )
More in-depth answer, that kind of just prattles on, but I think is still a touch interesting, so I left it in, if you wanted to read it... I only played a little bit of JK's Skyrim. But one example I can think of, is the Rorikstead general store. If you go through the door on your left, and around to the back of the counter you come in at. There's a well-thought-out assortment of things on the shelf. And a prominent chest sitting on a table or something back there. I don't remember whether it "needs a key" or even if it is a high-end lock. It's been a while, and I was chaotic neutral that playthrough, but you can just gank everything the guy has in stock, and it refreshes every time your merchants get restocked.
That, and in Whiterun (behind a good, strong, locked set of bars) there's a set of chests that I can tell (by how they are stocked, and restocking patterns) are merchant chests; but I can't tell for which merchant, because there are two of them, and there aren't two general merchants (based on the type of loot) in Whiterun, and neither of them seem to affect Belethor's stock.
On the one hand, it's super immersive that you can find the "stock-room" at night, and clear out the shop. The Whiterun example actually looks like the drop-off where a store somewhere receives their shipments and picks them up from. On the other hand, if you are playing straight up thief, it can make the game really too easy, because the funds for the merchant are also in them, and restock.
My current character is more chaotic good... Tries to do good for everyone they can, but will break all sorts of rules to accomplish this. With Ordinator perks though, it eventually gets to the point where they can learn an enchantment without destroying the item in the process, and have no problem breaking in to the shop stock, to borrow anything enchanted, go somewhere to learn the enchantments, and come back to return the items borrowed. But they still need to avoid getting caught the whole time, so the shop owners, "never know it was missing". But that last bit is for RP purposes only. Otherwise, I (me, player, not the character) would probably gank all the gold every time too, it's just so tempting early in the adventures. LOL
thanks for bringing those 2 east empire company chests in whiterun to my attention, i didnt know about them before. I can understand that they wanted to add some loot for thieves but these chests are worth 5,000-10,000 gold and refill every 2 days... its just insane and breaks the game. I really like JK's skyrim for aesthetically enhancing the cities and expanding on their lore like, especially the ruins of winterhold which is my favorite, but I really despise these gameplay changes because clearly they didnt understand how merchant chests work, or if they did its downright idiotic to leave them accessible. Not to mention you can advance your speech to 100 in a matter of minutes by buying their entire inventory and just looting back your money from the merchant chest and repeating that. anyway thanks for bringing up that these were in whiterun too, know I feel like I have to go check the other cities for these shenanigans too.
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{{BASH:Invent.Add,Invent.Change,Invent.Remove,NPC.DefaultOutfit}}
It also appears that you can convert this mod to a ESL without issue.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Merchant_Chests for clarity
More in-depth answer, that kind of just prattles on, but I think is still a touch interesting, so I left it in, if you wanted to read it... I only played a little bit of JK's Skyrim. But one example I can think of, is the Rorikstead general store. If you go through the door on your left, and around to the back of the counter you come in at. There's a well-thought-out assortment of things on the shelf. And a prominent chest sitting on a table or something back there. I don't remember whether it "needs a key" or even if it is a high-end lock. It's been a while, and I was chaotic neutral that playthrough, but you can just gank everything the guy has in stock, and it refreshes every time your merchants get restocked.
That, and in Whiterun (behind a good, strong, locked set of bars) there's a set of chests that I can tell (by how they are stocked, and restocking patterns) are merchant chests; but I can't tell for which merchant, because there are two of them, and there aren't two general merchants (based on the type of loot) in Whiterun, and neither of them seem to affect Belethor's stock.
On the one hand, it's super immersive that you can find the "stock-room" at night, and clear out the shop. The Whiterun example actually looks like the drop-off where a store somewhere receives their shipments and picks them up from. On the other hand, if you are playing straight up thief, it can make the game really too easy, because the funds for the merchant are also in them, and restock.
My current character is more chaotic good... Tries to do good for everyone they can, but will break all sorts of rules to accomplish this. With Ordinator perks though, it eventually gets to the point where they can learn an enchantment without destroying the item in the process, and have no problem breaking in to the shop stock, to borrow anything enchanted, go somewhere to learn the enchantments, and come back to return the items borrowed. But they still need to avoid getting caught the whole time, so the shop owners, "never know it was missing". But that last bit is for RP purposes only. Otherwise, I (me, player, not the character) would probably gank all the gold every time too, it's just so tempting early in the adventures. LOL