I knew the mark-ups were high, but...

L

Linariel

AC Members
Apr 3, 2007
166
0
16
Michigan
My work gets purple firefish for $13.99. They sell for $39.99.

Sigh.

Most every fish is sold at three times the price we pay for it, except for a few things. Green mandarins are $2.50 for us, they sell for $19.99.

It's just depressing! I wish a bunch of local hobbyists could get together and order in bulk! I wonder if you could do that with a wholesale license?
 
Yeah but are you factoring in what it is costing them to ship the live animals into what the markup is.. I don't work in a pet store but I know when I'm looking online I have to factor that into whether it is even worth shipping anything vs looking for it locally. So far I haven't found anything online that is worth shipping. You also need to consider what it costs them to keep qualified personnel around (hoping they have that type of employee).. Wages aren't cheap either. :)

If there is something I want that is hard to find, I might consider it, but as of this point I will continue to buy locally.
 
Oh yeah, I understand all that as I've worked retail for a long time. I wasn't trying to say that they are screwing us or anything. I just wish that we could order this stuff wholesale as individuals. Imagine the money we could save! Most of these things I would never purchase from a store because I can't afford them, so they wouldn't lose any money from something I wouldn't have bought.

But we only pay like a $10 delivery fee per order. They are delivered from a distributor that is very close. I was thinking about it, and if we are buying these animals so cheap, how much is the *distributor* paying for them? I wonder what their markup is?

I'm curious because it seems there is not much money to be made in the collection of these animals. The collectors must be selling hundreds of thousands just to pay the bills.
 
They feed them, maintain the tanks and risk having fish die before a customer purchases them.
Also I hear people do direct group ordering on their own. Check around.
 
I'm honestly not trying to debate the pricing, I work there so I know they don't make millions or anything. I was just lusting over the cheap fish.

Thanks, I didn't know if that was an actuality. I will look into it.
 
I have a small business and to order wholesale you have to buy in bulk. Some clubs do this as someone else mentioned. Mine sometimes orders salt that way for instance and one of the stores that sponsors us only charges a small amount to process the order.
 
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