Aquatic World, Oconomowoc, WI closing? Good deals maybe?

Ocean In A Box

Ocean In A Box

Member
In a thread I posted looking for a tank, someone suggested checking out Aquatic World in Oconomowoc. I called them this afternoon.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=11748366#post11748366

FYI


Asked about a fish tank & could they order it. They said no. When I asked why not, they said b/c they might be closing soon and aren't ordering more things. I thought it was weird if someone would commit and/or pay in advance and just wait for the tank to come in, what would be the big deal. But then I asked if they were indeed open on Monday the way their phone answering service said they were, in case I wanted to come in and look at existing tanks they have. She said, you better call first before coming, we might not even be open or we may be open on different days, etc unplanned, etc, etc.

Sounds like these guys are just about to go under. If they are, maybe the prices will be slashed in order to move inventory before closing!?

Just thought I'd post in case anyone was interested in the WI area...

Matt

Aquatic World
W359N5740 Brown St
Oconomowoc, WI 53066
(262) 567-9293
 
That will be the second time they went outta business in the past year.. maybe 2

Im sure nobody is gonna take it over now.
 
That building is huge. Not sure what they pay for rent, taxes, heat, cooling, but that also has to be huge. I don't see how anyone can keep that place going just selling fish, aquarium & diving equipment.
 
It is a very bad location. Although they were great to deal with, I bought a beautiful tank stand for my 180 from them last Feb.

Wonder if they are liquidating yet....I could use some lights.
 
Ocean In A Box, I believe I told you about that place because you were looking for a 60 cube I believe? The maker of the tank is Great Lakes Aquariums and they have a website here:

http://www.greatlakesaquariums.com

Might want to give them a call and see if they can point you to another local supplier of there tanks if you can't find one at Aquatic World. The phone # AW gave me for GLA is 810-978-1033 but the is a different # listed GLA website. Good luck!
 
Talking years ago to some of the wholesales people they thought that a majority of there profets came from the diving equipment rental sales and lessons. However the prior owners were complaining (5 years ago) that heating costs were starting to kill them in the winter months and that there summer sales may not be enough to still keep them afloat unless fish sales increased.

Dennis


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11753610#post11753610 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gem Tang Rider
That building is huge. Not sure what they pay for rent, taxes, heat, cooling, but that also has to be huge. I don't see how anyone can keep that place going just selling fish, aquarium & diving equipment.
Click to expand...
 
No there was a place years ago on 3rd between North and Center. Really fantastic deals but you would not want to go there after dark. Inside you wondereded what what keeping the building up.

Dennis



<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11767631#post11767631 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aquadog11
Don't get more getto than that pet shop
Click to expand...
 
klasiksb -

Thanks...
Yes, all/anyone, I am looking for a 24x24 footprint cube (~60g depending on height) ...anyone have one or know of something/someone...pls pm/email me. Thanks! Matt
 
The original owner had to sell out because one of his managers stole something like 120,000 from him in a little over a year. Apparently, that person was responsible for paying the bills, which made it easy. The original owner had to sell out to help cover attorney fees, if I remember correctly.

The new owner has great intentions, but the facility is far too large to support what they are trying to sell now, not to mention a bad location. Previous to the current owner, they also sold a large supply of standard pet goods. It was a lot more like a pet world warehouse back then, since they were selling a lot more dog food, cat food, bird supplies, as well as dog/cat toys, which helped cover profits (or lack thereof) from other areas.

Sad to see any business go down, but like other's are saying, I don't think anyone will take that place and put it up as a pet store again.
 
You can always go with Oceanic. Yopu can basicly pick your own height and they will custom build it for you. Jus see any dealer that presently handles Oceanic. They can custom quote you on any size tank with Oceanics software package.

Dennis


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11779324#post11779324 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ocean In A Box
klasiksb -

Thanks...
Yes, all/anyone, I am looking for a 24x24 footprint cube (~60g depending on height) ...anyone have one or know of something/someone...pls pm/email me. Thanks! Matt
Click to expand...
 
It will be interesting to see if A.W. "reopens" again with the original owner Jim as the "new" owner. That place has "gone out of business" and reopened so many times I have lost count and somehow it always seems to open up with Jim running the show.

Its a bummer that the latest guy (Mike) could not make a go of it. He had the saltwater tanks looking the best I have seen for a long time.
 
I think a big thing is that people including myself do not realize the true overhead costs when they get into this business. Then the larger the place, the poorer the insulation the higher some of those overhead cost go.

I considered a new building shortly aqfter going into business. It became aparrent to me that first winter that heating tanks and cages is something that made the better insulation of a new building well worth the higher rental costs.

In an interesting business report it showed that dry goods sales have shifted to 65% online stores, and 25% to large chain stores. This leaves only about 10% to the smaller stores. going back 20 years these small stores had 95% of those sales.

So it is more and more moving to that small guy having to make it on somply livestock sales. Then the live stock is the biggest overhead item as well. So in order to stay afloat it is a matter of having volum sales.

It is easier to sell 100 neons a week at $0.50 each than it is to sell one $50.00 salt water fish a week. Besides that the overhead on the 100 neons is less, and the mark up is higher. So unless we have 2,000 to 10,000 reefers in the Milwaukee area it will always be a battle to get a good Shop that is well stocked with reef livestock.

Dennis
 
Makes me wonder if Jim owns the building. Then after the last renters closed down he reopens it untill he finds a new renter?

Dennis

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11793921#post11793921 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Limpit
It will be interesting to see if A.W. "reopens" again with the original owner Jim as the "new" owner. That place has "gone out of business" and reopened so many times I have lost count and somehow it always seems to open up with Jim running the show.

Its a bummer that the latest guy (Mike) could not make a go of it. He had the saltwater tanks looking the best I have seen for a long time.
Click to expand...
 
Man aquaticworld had great prices on tanks. I had bought almost all my tanks from them up till several years ago. I even bought tanks from them when they were right in the town of Oconomowoc.


Marineland on villard. I lived a few blocks from there off of silverspring when I was a kid. It was a pretty good area then, now I would not go near there...


Dave
 
Think the only way to know for sure is to call to see when/if they're going to be open on any given day. I may be in the area this week and if I have time plan on stopping by. I'll update this thread if I do.
 
Jim owns the building and the acrylic tank store along with the video rental store. Mike owned the business AW but had to close because he started defaulting on some of his bills. For the record, Jim was also the previous owner of AW and I never heard the story of 120k worth of embezelment. If he took that big of a hit I don't think he would still be around, so I don't think there is much truth to that. I think he just wised up and realized it wasn't worth the low profit margin and headaches associated with running that store so he decided to lease it instead. If this was located in a different area and had better wholesale connections AW would have thrived IMO. Ultimately I think he will lease the building out to some manufacturing are distrubution company.
 
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