riiiiiight! these stores are retailers! not farmers or wholesalers!
Here's my thing......if you are in the business of growing out corals, then you should have a farm like SITC....and those pieces should be in said farm. If I walk into your retail store, you should sell me what I want to buy. period! and if it isn't for sale, then it shouldn't be in your retail store.
Here's the deal! If I wake up on a Saturday morning with nothing to do.....and maybe the lady is over her mom's with the kid. I will jump in the truck and do some window shopping. If I come in your store and ask how much something is........BET that I have at least a few hundred dollars in my pocket that I'm not scared to spend on a new coral.....so long as it's a nice one....or two...or three....or five.
If you tell me that they are not for sale, or that you are "growing it out" so you can give it to more people, I will leave your store. I probably won't spend a dime. I most certainly won't go home and mark my calander of when to drive back and see if the coral has grown enough to cut up. If it's something real nice, I'll likely call a store or two to see if they have something similar, OR....even more likely.....google it, and have it shipped to my house the following tuesday.
Now, not only have you lost a sale that you aren't going to get back.....but I probably won't go back to your store again because I will figure that anything that I might like will probably be "on hold", or not for sale.
If you want to aquaculture and save the reef and that kind of thing, that's great! I commend you! But have a farm then! or at least have a tank that is separate for farming.
I don't buy the "this way more people can have it" or "so that we save the reef" crap at all! If you are a retail store, your job is to sell stuff to consumers! There are plenty of places that wholesale maricultured corals, and wholesale aquacultures corals. If you want everyone to have a piece and want to save the reef, order from a place that aquacultures and order more than one!
if you can't keep enough of the corals that people want in your tanks, then you need to look for different suppliers. If you only want to deal with the folks you are using now, then that is fine....but don't hide behind that some for everyone crap! If I can find the kind of stuff that is in my tank with little trouble....while only being a hobbyist, then you should have no trouble at all because it is your full time business! I don't see World Wide Corals having problems with keeping ultra grade corals in stock 100% of the time. I doubt that their suppliers and wholesalers only sell to them
Don't get me wrong! there are some GOOD stores in the area, but there are a couple places that just make you wonder how they even keep the doors open!
