I read posts on several sites regarding Retail store sizes, inventory, quality, so on and so on. Over the course of many years I have seen some great stores come and go. I read some posts about how great a local store is but an online or out of state store has better prices or better availability. We as buyers have the power to "grow" outstanding retail stores for our area. Buy locally! Most stores can get anything. If it's requested by a few people it gets stocked, if it's sold enough, the stores purchases in bulk and prices come down. If enough bulk orders are placed the retailers can then usually buy directly from the manufacturers, Prices go down again. If we are buying everything locally then our stores will naturally grow. Today we have some great businesses around, That pet place, something fishy, beyond the reef, knockout aquatics, reef n ponds, fintastic, and a few other ones I'm sure. Point is if we want great stores, "WE" have to grow them. This is my opinion! I would love to hear similar or different views. But I would like to keep the discussion about local vs online or 'out of state'.
Retail stores
- Thread starter Suki
- Start date
psusocr
Active member
I agree , and i def. support my local stores, however i do find that sometimes trading frags with other reefers is unbeatable cmpared to what the local stores are forced to mark their corals up to make a profit. of course this isnt true in ALL cases but most. Also Liveaquaria with their WYSIWYG fsh and corals and ESPECIALLY their quarantine procedures from divers den( or at least what they tell you they are doing) is also unbeatable along with a 14 day gaurantee!!! If local stores gave me a 14 day gaurantee i would be all over it. (and have alot more fish)
rickyfins
New member
I agree. Also Buy "Locally online" when you can't get in to the store you want to purchase something. It is rare that I purchase something from out of state unless it is only available through another source that isn't close.
Don't forget that bigbox stores do have their way of hurting LFS sales. Different hours, cheaper prices on some things, and buying power from a big box does hurt every smaller store to some degree.
I try to stay out of the big box stores all together, but especially for anything aquarium related. With all the death, neglect, and the overall general feeling none of them care, it is almost like making a deal with the devil when you have an emergency and need some carbon or salt quick.
Don't forget that bigbox stores do have their way of hurting LFS sales. Different hours, cheaper prices on some things, and buying power from a big box does hurt every smaller store to some degree.
I try to stay out of the big box stores all together, but especially for anything aquarium related. With all the death, neglect, and the overall general feeling none of them care, it is almost like making a deal with the devil when you have an emergency and need some carbon or salt quick.
working in a family IT firm I totally agree buy local whenever you can, great support for all.
PSU.... one LFS that recently opened up about 6 months ago he has taken the 14 day approach was just talking with him the other day and he said if anything dies for any reason, store credit or replacement of item no ?'s ask. He looked at it as if one customer has one bad experience could lead to much more than just that one customer not coming back. He didn't give me an exact amount of days but sounds as he would have no problem with that amount of time.
also nothing wrong with trading frags again a win win situation as I look at it, you grow the frags out go frag that out when it gets large enough most LFS will give you store credit that you can use in there store so keeps the circle going....
PSU.... one LFS that recently opened up about 6 months ago he has taken the 14 day approach was just talking with him the other day and he said if anything dies for any reason, store credit or replacement of item no ?'s ask. He looked at it as if one customer has one bad experience could lead to much more than just that one customer not coming back. He didn't give me an exact amount of days but sounds as he would have no problem with that amount of time.
also nothing wrong with trading frags again a win win situation as I look at it, you grow the frags out go frag that out when it gets large enough most LFS will give you store credit that you can use in there store so keeps the circle going....
coralnut99
New member
When you step back a bit and take a look at the LFS that fail, there's usually some good reasons. In most cases you'll find that people didn't spend money there for good reasons. Dirty tanks, awful livestock, no livestock, rude & unknowledgable staff, no selection of drygoods, and then there's the old 900% markup philosophy. If you take one more step back, you'll notice that there are actually stores (the ones I frequent) whose prices meet or beat on line prices for livestock and drygoods. They've proved that you can actually run a retail business with volume-based pricing and real service. I would bet that lots that have failed didn't subscribe to these theories.
buy local
buy local
viper, i think you and i are thinking of the same LFS. He is really great at helping when things go wrong in my tank as well as if something happens to the live stock, which over the 6 months hes been open, only one of the fish i bought from there hasnt made it.The fish was in my possesion for 23 days and he was still able to give me store credit
in the end it al comes down to personal preferance. you get to know the workers/owners of the local shops. and your going to go the place you feel better about. i have visited most of the places around here and the store that i mentioned in above experiance is the one i decisided to stick with. it will be better in the long run becuase i fee comfortable dealing with him and trust the live stock.
everone will have a diffrent opinion, but instead of jumping on the "online wagon" maybe try asking if the LFS you like can match prices???? So we can keep the locals running and cut out the gamble with shipping! :spin3:
buy local
viper, i think you and i are thinking of the same LFS. He is really great at helping when things go wrong in my tank as well as if something happens to the live stock, which over the 6 months hes been open, only one of the fish i bought from there hasnt made it.The fish was in my possesion for 23 days and he was still able to give me store credit
in the end it al comes down to personal preferance. you get to know the workers/owners of the local shops. and your going to go the place you feel better about. i have visited most of the places around here and the store that i mentioned in above experiance is the one i decisided to stick with. it will be better in the long run becuase i fee comfortable dealing with him and trust the live stock.
everone will have a diffrent opinion, but instead of jumping on the "online wagon" maybe try asking if the LFS you like can match prices???? So we can keep the locals running and cut out the gamble with shipping! :spin3:
