What is happening to LFS's?

[AlexR]

Maybe it's just in my area.
Had a pet store close by which was bought by a new owner who is just doing salt water.
I was excited to have one close by and not need to drive an hour for a coral friendly LFS.

Went there today for the first time. First I called them a few days ago to ask them if they had any pincushion urchins. They were awesome on the phone and said they can have one in stock for me in 2 days and for just $5. I was all in!!

Went to the store today. They had the urchin I asked for but decided to mark up the price to $10. Whatever... $5 is not a big deal. But still not cool to do that.
Was looking at buying a nice looking zoa frag. I asked how much since they didn't put prices on the glass. The guy wanted $40 a polyp!!! A polyp... The frag has maybe 5-6 polyps. So he basically wanted $250-$300 for a small zoa frag.
He tried explaining he only deals with premium corals. Including his premium green Star polyp frags [emoji23].

Unfortunately I don't see his greedy business being successful. Is this a normal thing for new LFS's that deal mainly with saltwater?

Good thing I can drive an hour to Jacksonville and get corals from bio-reef. Which are amazing and cut frags for you on the spot. And they don't try to charge you like your a dummy.

 

[Crooked Reef]

No issues around me, but coral prices have gone up in the last ten years. I have multiple stores near me that specialize in saltwater though so they may keep eachother in check with competition.

 

[Orsamax]

I live in a pretty small town (about 100,000). We have one store (other than PETSMART, which varies in quality, but this one does not have good SW quality at all) and it is trashy as can be. Dirty store. The tanks and the livestock, however, are all good and healthy. The guy sells frags for less than I would have to spend buying the same frags from people on my local forum. I think he keeps the lights on through tank services and just makes a small bit off of the frags. I guess it just varies on who the store thinks their customers are.

 

[dkeller_nc]

Since you've noted that you've been out of this game for a while, you're in for quite a shock. There is a reefing subculture that deals in "collector corals". In my view, it's an extension of comic book culture, as all of the corals have really stupid names. There are a good number of dealers in this subculture, and you can look them up online. Most of the prices will be very surprising (and not in a good way) for these named corals.

Because this is one way to actually make a profit and support a brick 'n mortar business in this day and age, a lot of LFS have adopted this model.

There are some ways around this, one of which is buying colonies from a place like Live Aquaria. But unfortunately, you're getting into this at exactly the wrong time. Both Indonesia and Fiji where 90% of the maricultured and/or wild colonies came from have banned coral exports since early 2018. It isn't clear whether they will ever resume those exports. Which means that for the meantime, Australia is the only source for wild and/or maricultured stony corals, and Vietnam for zoas and other softies.

The bottom line is that it will be a lot more expensive to fill a tank with corals than it was even 2 years ago.

 

[PCguy21]

My local fish stores they all have jerks working in them.. One i never go too, i went too one time it was a new store offering 10% off if you mention their craigslist ad.. I went in and i told the guy i only wanted to spend maybe $40 on coral but if i find something that really catchs my eye i might change my mind.

I asked him how much so and so coral was and he says too much for you... And i was like how in the F !! do you know what i can afford ? I simply said what im willing to spend today but that doesnt mean i cant afford anything more.. that was rude in fact i could buy his entire business out if i wanted.. How does he know how much i can spend.

Then when i wanted the 10% off he wouldnt give it to me so i walked out.. what a jerk.

The one store i do like i always go too, has a similar attitude, they have a gorgeous peice of rock covered in like 6 types of corals, lovely peice.. my mom wants that rock and she said how much and they said it was pending sale.. i come back and its still there a month later, 2 months later still there.. I asked how much it was and they said they will sell it for $200, i said ill think about it.. I come back in 2 weeks later and now the story is they are waiting for the "right" offer.

Which means the rock was never pending they just assumed my mom wasnt serious about the rock, and judged her thinking she couldnt afford it.. same with me.. LOL that little store i could buy 20 of them.. I hate store who judge you and act like that.

set a god damn price and sell it, instead of lying to people thats how you lose customers

 

[Uncle99]

The fact is that LFS can ask any price for anything, but we, the consumer should know better. I can't think of any Zoa I would pay 40 a polyp.

My LFS has a rainbow Acan, very nice but in Nov 2018, price was 800.00
In Jan 2019 it was 600, today it's 300.

As Indo for now is out of the game, LFS are claiming their suppliers for Austrailian have significantly increased their prices....this is simply untrue.....if we, don't pay these stupid prices, they will be forced to lower them.

 

[d0ughb0y]

As long as there are reefers who spend money like they are going out of style (and there is no shortage of it), prices will only continue to go up.