Petco is acquiring Drs. Foster and Smith

[RedStangGA]

Hopefully we won't lose these things...


High quality, even their regular stock
selection of fish
customer service
14 day guarantee
Diver's Den

That's my biggest fear right there. If it does go away, hopefully someone else steps up and fills the void.

 

[evolved]

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I don't see only doom and gloom here...

I would imagine Petco's biggest interest is in the online pet supply sales and the live fish part is of little importance in comparison. It wouldn't make much sense to change anything about the LA or LADD ends of things including personnel.

Agree.

Coming from the perspective of working for a company where the nameplate on the building has changed about 3 times in the last 20 years, what hasn't ever changed is the product and the people inside. Same business, just a different name. Sure, there's changes which happen, but for the most part it's just different corporate metrics, benefits, policies, etc.

There could be positives here to fall out too. If Petco lets LA/DD continue to conduct it's operation as current, LA/DD could actually have more working capital to leverage with.

Time will tell here, but it's not necessarily the black cloud you might think.

 

[HPark]

Positive vibes to Kevin and the DD crew. Love their store and hope they continue to deliver high quality livestock!

 

[pktech]

Which also brings up another question for me: Do livestock suppliers stay the same? I forgot who currently provide Petco w/ online sales & it's not QM, but QM supplies livestock to the stores (at least my store) ...

 

[Dmorty217]

Acquired business is almost always affected, despite reassuring rhetoric at the time of acquisition. Not in the interest of Petco to destroy the business, though (plus doesn't Petco online source from Quality Marine just like LA) so perhaps a Chicken Little reaction is premature. I'd expect, at the very least, a somewhat more rigid interpretation of the refund policy.

Petco.com gets thier fish from Tropical Fish International/CIS Holdings. Both are located in Southern California

 

[Dmorty217]

Here is Kevin Kohen's quote from one of the many threads that he has posted refuting that Petco online gets their livestock from QM. Petco also uses A&M Aquatic Wholesale for livestock.:



"Drs. Foster and Smith has no financial stake in Quality Marine; we choose to purchase a large percentage of the animals we offer from QM, as in my opinion, they are hands down the best importer/wholesaler in the entire country. I first started dealing with Quality Marine back in the mid 80's working in a brick and motor retail aquarium store.

CIS is a stand-alone importer/wholesale operation, located in California, and is not affiliated with Drs. Foster and Smith, or Quality Marine in any way. CIS handles the fulfillment for Petco's online livestock initiative ...

Happy fishkeeping!
Kevin Kohen "

Ah yes I prompted this response from Kevin awhile back

 

[pktech]

Acquired business is almost always affected, despite reassuring rhetoric at the time of acquisition. Not in the interest of Petco to destroy the business, though (plus doesn't Petco online source from Quality Marine just like LA) so perhaps a Chicken Little reaction is premature. I'd expect, at the very least, a somewhat more rigid interpretation of the refund policy.

Petco.com as of now has a 14 day guarantee on their livestock & offers the same refund back to original form of purchase or store credit. It was the only reason I bought a fish from them, lol ... still doing well after 2 months (knock on wood)

 

[BrianD]

If nothing else, the hobby has been lucky to have DFS/LA. I don't think I have ever seen a company as revered by its customer base.

 

[d-man]

I'm sure Kevin could open his own if he wanted and have a massive following

 

[Maximus]

I just wonder how financially sound DFS/LA was before the take over?

 

[Dmorty217]

I just wonder how financially sound DFS/LA was before the take over?

Sound yes, highly profitable... Probably not. Tough to make a lot of money selling fish no matter where you get them from, too many outside variables go along with it.

 

[BrianD]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2458917

 

[WayneL333]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2458917

Well that's great news. It sounds like Kevin may have even more resources at his disposal to continue what he's already accomplished at LA. Well...let's at least hope so. Only time will tell...

 

[HPark]

Awesome news! Good luck, Kevin!

 

[jnc914]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2458917

Panic attacks averted, thank you for the post :dance:

 

[Deinonych]

Not good, but I'm going where Kevin goes, that's all it matters.

This.

 

[indyjaco]

At first I was worried when I read this. Maybe Petco will bankroll Kevin an operation to do more wide scale captive breeding done here in the States.

 

[ca1ore]

Petco.com gets thier fish from Tropical Fish International/CIS Holdings. Both are located in Southern California

Ah, ok.

 

[SDguy]

I always wondered why Petco online got their fish from a different location than my local Petco's, which definitely get their fish from QM.

 

[humaguy]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2458917

this...
as long as kevin is involved, I am a loyal customer...