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
Oh, another thing I don't like about walmart is they(at least the one here...) have fish, aquariums, medications, and everything but no test kits. so people's fish are dying of ammonia poisoning and then they can sell them ich medication then they all die so they wash their tank out and buy more fish, etc etc etc.
ours has a gr8 selection of care prodcts, I saw test kits, prime, and melafix, automatic feeders,water conditioners and a nice assortment of foods from various companies. I hate their coloured gravel though.......flourescent green and pink? YUKKKKK!
I got some 5-test dip sticks at Wal-Mart last week that seem to work ok. Normally I buy my supplies at PetsMart and my live animals at an LFS, but when I bought my puffers last week (yeah Puffers!), I bought all of my supplies at my LFS to do a nice thing for them. I checked the prices at PetsMart the day before, and they weren't too much more at the LFS. I had the tank, gravel and plants, but I bought salt and a new driftwood ornament and the fish ($15 apiece for the F8 puffers!), and frozen food and things like that. I'm sure they appreciated it. I figured I'd support a really good pet store. They are very knowledgable and have tons of stuff for both FW and SW tanks. And, technically, BW tanks too.
water conditoner at my LFS runs 7.99 plus tax, at walmart its 6.98 plus tax canadian. Same size bottle.
I think walmart has faster turnover of these supplies and therefore fresher product. Perhaps. I know some products have a long shelf life while others less. Read the labels for expiry dates as you would for milk or yogurt etc., before you buy. Just a thought.
I was at Pet Supplies Plus and a Petco in Pittsburgh yesterday. At the PSP I counted no fewer than fifteen dead rotting fish. Just about the same at Petco, a little less. It is like that every time I stop by there. I won't buy from anyone but my LFS guy on the other side of rown anymore. I know fish die, but at least he cleans them out right away. Plus I hate the idea of buying from a seventeen year old kid who touts the company line.
so I wanted to see what all the hub-bub was about. I was ready to stock my tank as the cycle was complete, I was ready to add fish. I go to Walmart because they had dime sized goldies that I was eyeing, and I need another test kit. I got there, spent about 10 minutes looking for test kits, and like Chico's WM, there weren't any. There was pH-Up, and pH-down, Amquel, all that but no kits.... ok, let me look at the fish. Well, their health wasn't anywhere near what they were a week or two before but I stayed there.... waiting, and waiting. I left about 20 minutes later, nothing in tow. I go to Petsmart, I figure I can pick up some supplies for sure there plus maybe a backing for the tank. The tanks looked ok, no floaters, I thought I was in business, well, half hour later after watching the "fish-girl" chat with her girlfriends, she walks over to me as I'm standing next to the tank by her podium. "Can I help you she says?", I look her square in the eye, drop the products from my hand to her podium and say a brisk "NOPE"..... off I go to the LFS, like I shoulda all along..... by this time, I'm steamed but well taken care of from the place I shoulda went in the first place but didn't because it wasn't on my way home from work.
The one thing we buy at our local WalMart is shrimp pellets - their price is $4.73 and the cheapest one we have found at any other pet store is $16.00 for the same size! Can't beat that price!
I just got back from a round robin excursion to the local Wal*Mart stores and the 4 LFS's.
I ended up getting a Python from Wally World for $29.97 None of the four LFS's even had them! I looked around while I was in there - the one by my house has plenty of fake plants, bulbs for real plants, aquariums and just about anything you could want - except fish. They had 1 bag of gravel that was natural color... I bought that.
Only one of the three Wally stores had fish, nobody had plants. The fish looked rough... I went to the LFS and paid 7 bucks each for three pretty good sized swords. (I had to do something - the aquarium just looked too bare with the small plants in there, and I was not about to go back to fakes.)
I got my test strips from Wally World too - they were just under 1/2 the price that the LFS wanted for them.
The LFS has other animals, and I'm sorry, but $499 for a Cocka-poo is a pretty healthy profit margin. Hello, it's a mixed breed... We paid way less than that for a thoroughbred with a great pedigree.
I prefer to go to the LFS - sometimes you can find one with somebody who actually knows what they are talking about. You can forget that at Wal*Mart.
i really wish i could support my lfs more, they are a really nice, clean, well run store with very helpful and knowledgeable staff. but on a student budget and living off of my summer job, if i can get 12 cichlids for $40 by going to walmart or for $100 going to the lfs... i really have no choice. maybe someday i can afford to do the right thing and buy from lfs...
