Pet chains like Petsmart and Petco don't make much of a profit on any of their live animals. After you pay for bedding, food, caretakers, supposedly a vet (yeah right), and count in losses, those animals are just taking up room. But they keep people coming back, and they make pets widely available so pet supplies are in high demand. And the supplies are where they make profit, methinks.
Yeah, same with most pet stores. Animals aren't marked up much, and aquariums are hardly marked up at all. The dry goods (except for aquariums) are where most of the profit is made. So, if you want to tick off a pet shop, buy a big aquarium and a bunch of fish and order everything else online
