is AOA going out of business?

gonzalez78

New member
I was going through the posts on craigslist and noticed that they have all of their display tanks for sale. Guess it did not go well for them.
 
It's a shame Whitney and Ken are great. The more local fish stores the better off the hobby is. It seems that the hobby has turned into a race to the bottom.
 
Well let's be honest here any store that caters just to reef clubs would be out of business in a week. Thats not a slight in reef clubs thats just the reality of the times. To stay in business a LFS needs to cater to a broad range of consumers. If they pigeon hole themselves to specializing in one thing they usually are out of business pretty quick. Treating the goldfish enthusiast as well as the reef enthusiast.
 
A little birdie told me that the owner of fish pro made an offer for everything in their store, and they declined. They also have a large dendro colony that they're trying to get $1,000 for on C'sList. If anyone is confident in fragging it, they should give em a call. Sad to see em go but they never had much on the reef end, and always wanted Caesars prices for what they did have. I think they were geared toward reptiles more than anything. It is sad to see a potentially good business go, when a lot of us are looking for a place that has everything we need, at a reasonable price. Meanwhile Joefish is looking pretty good....
 
I don't know if its me, but that dendro colony needs to quadruple in size for that price. Just saying... Don't want anyone out 1k. Sorry they could not survive.
 
Neptune aquatics specialized and cater to reefers and look at where they are today? I would drive 1.5 hours just to visit their store. Actually I am going to be there today :D. It helped that they are in a more populated area.

You absolutely want to have a broad range of cutomers to make itand increase your foot traffic. But if you are specialized in something then you added another group of customers. but if you don't know how to cater to them then you can forget about it. I've been there a bunch of time since they opened and talk to the owner but I did not walk away feeling confident about them staying in bussiness. I was hoping that they will do well though.
 
Neptune aquatics specialized and cater to reefers and look at where they are today? I would drive 1.5 hours just to visit their store. Actually I am going to be there today :D. It helped that they are in a more populated area.

You absolutely want to have a broad range of cutomers to make itand increase your foot traffic. But if you are specialized in something then you added another group of customers. but if you don't know how to cater to them then you can forget about it. I've been there a bunch of time since they opened and talk to the owner but I did not walk away feeling confident about them staying in bussiness. I was hoping that they will do well though.

Tom, think if i gave you the money you can pick me up an MP10wes? That's if they have them there. I want to go down there but I am afraid I wil want to bring fish and corals home and I still have no place to put them :angryfire:
 
I would love to get my clippers on that Dendrophyllia sp.
Then again it would be nice to have a big colony too. But not for $1000.
 
Having a larger population base helps but not always. LFS's are dropping like flies in the bay area. Over the years Sonoma county has had it's fair share of stores. Sal's Tropical Sea World, Padre Town Aquarium.There was a store further down Piner where Johns Formica shop is now. One over on the corner of Farmers ln and hwy 12 in that shopping center. Super pets, Mikes angelfish on college, Super Pets, the now defunked Northbay Aquatics. There where at least two stores in Marin in the last 15 years. Fish Pros is hanging on by a thread.
And in the bay area:
Tropical Paradise San Leandro
Fish fish and more fish SF
Ocean Treasures SF
Nippon SF
Barrier Reef in Black Hawk
Green Marine in Berkely
Octopus Garden
That's the ones just off the top of my head.
The fish business is brutal
 
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