Lfs'

[travelinman1969]

I travel alot for my job, all over the USA and sometimes overseas, and I enjoy going to LFS to see the different species and see how LFS are taking care of their fish. Most stores are really nice and take care of their fish better than the big stores, but lately I have been getting discouraged. I'm in Provo, Utah now and looked up some stores in the yellow pages. 2 out of 3 are out of business. I've been seeing this the last year and it's pi**in' me off. :argh Is this happening everywhere? How are LFS fairing elswhere. If this is the trend it is certainly disturbing. I don't want to have to rely on the big stores for all my fish and supplies. :shake:

[dethjam316]

problem is---the petsmart and petcos of the world sell (usually) lesser quality fish, and thus they're cheaper...but more so: they sell things in considerably greater amounts so they can drop the prices. lfs just can't compete...if they drop their prices to compete with 'petuniverse/wal-store,' they risk losing any chance at profit. you can't maintain your business on quality livestock alone a lot of the time, unfortunately. i mean...raise your hand if you buy all your hardware at your lfs? i certainly don't...i can buy it at petsmart for 3/4 the price...or online for 1/2 the price. i would love to support the mom and pop stores of the world, but...i'm poor, too.

[travelinman1969]

I agree that you can buy stuff cheaper online or the big stores. I try to buy as much as I can from my LFS knowing my money is going to a good cause and that I will get high quality fish, and great service at the same time. Call it charity if you will, unfortunatly I can't use it as a tax writeoff. But point being is that if everyone keeps buying online pretty soon there will be no other selections but the big boys. Corporate america is really gettin crazy. Never thought I'd see the day when Big corps. take over the fish hobby. :rant:

[andruboz]

i find the small stores that survive are staying in business thanks to service contracts for doctors, dentists, professional type offices. its darn hard to pay rent, insurance, utilities, wages, taxes, suppliers, etc etc when you compete with walmart with the novices and big als with the experienced fish keepers. the only fish seller in my mom's town was a toystore with a little fish room in the back and they just went out of business also.

my town [50,000 people?] supports 3 lfs. one has service contracts and is also a dive shop. one is a lfs/pet store. and the third specializes in mail order africans cichlids. without their other business ventures none would survive solely as a fish store.
i feel very fortunate to have this much choice.

[Grandmastr]

actually i find my lfs have better quality and alot cheaper fish than big chain stores(walmart,petsmart,petco), the hardware is about the same price between the big stores and my lfs

i always see at least a few dozen people at my lfs, so i know they are doin good business and is no bigger than a normal 1 story house.

[travelinman1969]

Where is that at? That is rare anymore. So it seems.

[dwf73]

Move to asia! Everything is local run, and the quality is outstanding (once you find the right spots, of course). A little more inconvenient than driving to walmart though. I actaully never knew that people bought from large chains like that until I joined this forum. I have yet to go to one. Are the people who work there knowledgable at least?

[blitzen25bm]

we have tons of LFS and only a few chain stores. most of the LFS, well the bigger ones they all have their specialties. and alot of them has been around since i was a kid; though some are gone now. i guess it depends on where you live, its probably because im in a big city.

[PumaWard]

I have two LFS's in my area and I don't know about the other fish but they sell neons cheaper than the petsmart upstate. My LFS's seem to be doing pretty well, but I think it might be due to the fact that wally-world doesn't carry fish and there are no petsmarts or petcos within a 15min drive. I know at least one tries to keep healthy fish (they do large water changes once a week, etc) but they have problems getting healthy fish from their wholesaler.

[O-man21]

The lfs I go too just moved into a bigger shore about six months ago. It's better located, and they have really good filter systems on the tanks and a nice selection (150 tanks). They've grown in the last year, they have great quality fish and a nice selection of products and hardware. While, yes, I admit, it usually about $.50-1.00 more then petsmart/petco/wal-mart, it's much better quality and I want to keep supporting them.:D


Adam's Aquatics if anyone lives in Des Moines Iowa.

[SwedishFish]

Luckily where i Live the are a 3 lfs and big on ( walmart) .
I have a petland, Pets N things, and Village Petshop there was one other but it went out of business. Then there is walmart always having terrible tanks.....

[sumoschro]

I agree with grandmastr. Up here in the portland area there are some nice small Lfs with high quality, low price fish. I got my 2 black Kuihlii loaches for 2.50 a piece there, and a 4 for 2$ deal on silvertips, which all are still alive and healthy in my tank still.

I think smaller pet stores go out of business because they dont sell as many filters/aquariums and other things like that as the big stores do comparatively. I find my petco and petsmart are actually more expensive :confused:

[dethjam316]

but its not the fish that *matter* to the lfs in terms of profit. situation i observed in my lfs last week: some kid wants a fish, but only has a bowl. he wants a tiger barb, the lfs guy says, you can only put bettas in those bowls, that fish won't work (oh the responsibility!). so the mom buys a $2 tiger barb...and, because the guy wouldn't sell her the tiger barb without it, a whole $50 10g tank setup with filter, heater, and accessories.

less than 4% of that purchase was the fish alone! the same setup they sell at petsmart for $40. and that's not even a good example. i've seen emperor 400 filters for like $80+ in local stores, $65 in petsmart, and $40 online. woh.

[Must4ng s4lly]

What I am finding in Houston is that most LFS with the exception of two are keeping filthy dieased fish and tanks!! Three of the worst stores here are owned by people who sit behind the counter all day and never move. Tanks are diseased and filthy! I check out these sotres on a regular basis to see if they improve and they dont' Just sitting behind the counter.....watching tv

You know who has the most disease free tanks and healthiest fish???? Petsmart! I really make every effort to support the LFS in my area that are goodBut I can see why people are shopping at Petsmart. it's not just about price!

[sumoschro]

I agree that petsmart is OK, but compared to the smaller Lfs in my area they are nothing. It is Petco where i get disgusted......half of their tanks are infected with ich or something else.