Local Fish Stores
- Thread starter chrisstie
- Start date
sytanek
New member
I think this would serve as just a nice thread to find out the contact info for the stores.
Ben, this thread is pretty up to date, I was referring to the orca website.
I don't think we should rule out a store just because they aren't a current sponsor of the club. Maybe they don't know about orca, or have heard of it, but nobody from orca has asked them to become a sponsor.
Ben, this thread is pretty up to date, I was referring to the orca website.
I don't think we should rule out a store just because they aren't a current sponsor of the club. Maybe they don't know about orca, or have heard of it, but nobody from orca has asked them to become a sponsor.
I dont know, im kinda on craigs side. A store owner I wouldnt think would open a store and not know if there is a reef club in the area. Those are the people that are going to keep you in buisness. I would do whatever it took to make the club happy cause there going to keep coming back. I mean its not like there giving up a lot of money, 10 % on live stock. I would give 10 % up if it ment return customers.
osiris4evr
New member
Just a heads up when i went to Big Al's in tamarac two weeks ago they asked me if i was intrested in signing up for their rewards program i said no because im from orlando and the girl behind the counter laughed and said well there will be one there soon! She went on to explain that Big Al's has began to put a plan to into the works to expand through out the major cities through out Fl (as they are in Canada)with in the next few years. So get ready Orlando well have a Big Al's of our own soon but not soon enough!!!!!!! I've already got my fingers crossed hoping its on my side of town!
cowboyswife
New member
I disagree with this also. Thats a pretty general assumption. What if circumstances dont allow them to help out the club, but theyre customer service and knowledge is off the charts?
cschweitzer
New member
What circumstances would hold them back from helping out our club? Keep in mind, we are in the ORCA forum...
cschweitzer
New member
Helping the club entails a small 10% discount on certain items and possibly a donation for our meetings once a year. That is not much. If your shop cannot afford that, it should not be in business. You see SITC get great publicity here, but she still finds it in herself to sponsor our club. I know the reason I first went to SITC(after Doug sold it) was because Marcye came to the meetings, brought stuff for the raffles, and became a sponsor immediately. I know a lot of people went to her store because of the publicity ORCA gave her. It is different now, because she has made her own name in Orlando(and did it quickly), but she remains a sponsor.
cschweitzer
New member
Name one good store that is not a sponsor that does not have the means or resources to be one and explain why they can't be a sponsor...just one store and I'll concede my point.
reefnfish
New member
Not to beat a dead, dead horse...but...you said that if a store doesn't support ORCA, chances are they won't help out regular customers. On what do you base that assumption? ORCA members are a small percentage of customers in a mainstream store. A typical LFS could have hundreds, maybe thousands of different customers coming in every week. If they didn't take care of them they would go elsewhere. I would (and have).
cschweitzer
New member
I highly doubt in such a specialized hobby that ORCA members make up a small percentage of customers in a LFS store...maybe not at a Walgreens or McDonald's but at a place like SITC, I would say the percentage is much higher than imagined. I don't know what kind of LFS's you know, but I would say most business is probably regular and repeat customers; not hundreds and most likely never thousands of customers every week.
Obviously there are other reefcaretakers besides ORCA members in Orlando, but I would doubt that there are thousands and I would highly doubt that all of them are going to one store...I would be willing to bet that ORCA members are the more avid reefcaretakers, are more often than not the main customers of many of these stores, and in a reefcaretaking(just to make sure we aren't talking about freshwater or mixed, solely marine LFS's) especially, they should be keeping our local club running as we do so many times for them and their stores.
cschweitzer
New member
I'm sorry, a few things I would like to restate. I'm sure a hundred or two customers in a week is possible. I would doubt that thousands ever(unless a multi-purpose LFS or a huge mega-store). I highly doubt that most of the people walking into them are even customers...many parents who have kids that want to "look at the Nemo" more than customers(which is why I love SITC location, lots less window shoppers in her store). I would say there are in the thousands(possibly) of reefers in Orlando, but not many thousands to where many LFS's would have that many customers per week.
cowboyswife
New member
There is a small LFS a block from my house, and they arent a sponsor, but they have good customer service.
saleen00814
In Memoriam
A store can be a good store without having to owe orca members 10% but it is a nice thing...
cschweitzer
New member
Why do they not have the means to be a sponsor. I'm not saying that they don't have good service, but you said that there are some stores that don't have the means to be a sponsor. This is when I asked for an example...They can't make a 10% discount for you when you walk in? they don't make enough on there livestock already? That is what I meant when I said that if they cannot find the means to be a sponsor, they should not be able to keep their doors open...it is so little of them to give that if they are not making enough profit to do so, the business is not doing well. It comes down to desire, not means. If they desire not to be a sponsor of our club, they obviously desire us not to mention their store(good or bad)...If they desire us to mention their store, why not give the members to whom we are talking about your store an incentive to come in?
I don't even know the last time I even had to use ORCA membership discount at SITC, because she already has such great deals and she makes them even better than listed already. Many times she'll ring it up at discounted price, still take 10% off for ORCA discount, even with me telling her not to take it off because she has already given me such a good deal. Regardless she still takes it off...
When I said not worth a dimes worth of my time...I meant it. I have not been to a LFS in Orlando that was not a sponsor...at least not in the last year(I went to Petland a long time ago, but that was when I was new). Maybe I misstated saying that they won't treat their customers well, but I fully support ORCA. In this, you are either with me or against me. If an LFS honestly does not know about ORCA, it is understandable(although ORCA memebers going to that LFS should definitely tell them about the club); but if you've made a concious decision not to be a sponsor, you will not get my business. Maybe I hold ORCA, its members, definitely its board members(who work so hard to keep this club running and ask nothing in return except support), and its sponsors in too high of regard. But I always will...this will not change. Do I buy things from non-sponsors? Yes. I buy online, I buy off ebay, I buy from RC members, I buy from local members. I'm not trying to say only buy from ORCA sponsors, but if you have the choice, it would be nice to show support for the sponsors and the club(especially if you participate in the club outside of RC). The sponsors are the reason we can keep our club going the way we do...
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Wow this has really gone way further then I expected. The thing is we have a site with info about the stores that support us. We try to get the members to go there cause they DO support us and give discounts. They give to us so we will advertise for them. So all the other stores people are talking about and advertising for arent doing anything for us. Im not sayin and im sure Craig isnt sayin there bad stores and dont know what there doing, but it would be nice for them to give a little to us in return we talk about them on our web forums.
chrisstie
Premium Member
I just made this to be a helpful thread to answer the people who may come to this board from out of state or even locally who don't nkow where "x" store is and would like to find out what is available to browse .. didn't mean to promote, not promote, good, bad, monkies, chihuahuas, or anything else that i never intended in this disclaimer 
cschweitzer
New member
Perfectly stated!! Thank you...I tend to ramble sometimes
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cschweitzer
New member
No problem chrisstie, I don't mind people knowing the stores out there. I just thought it should be mentioned that our sponsors are the ones we should be advertising or prompting people to go to, not someone that we are giving free info about that won't so much as lift a finger to even keep ORCA business cards in their store.
Many of the non-sponsor LFS's do this purposefully because they think the club will negatively affect business(with the frag auction every month, I don't necessarily blame them), but it sure hasn't hurt SITC, OB, AS, TFB(different name now...what is it?), etc. They seem to be doing just fine, if not better than most. they also seem to have better quality and standars than many of the others in the area.
Many of the non-sponsor LFS's do this purposefully because they think the club will negatively affect business(with the frag auction every month, I don't necessarily blame them), but it sure hasn't hurt SITC, OB, AS, TFB(different name now...what is it?), etc. They seem to be doing just fine, if not better than most. they also seem to have better quality and standars than many of the others in the area.
