how far would you drive for a quality pet shop?

[theemon]

see im not just going to have a "pet shop" im thinking from multiple different angles.

fish
drygoods
small animals
dog/cat grooming
bait--worms, minnows for fishing and goldfish/feeder guppies for tanks
an online website, selling everything that i sell that can be shipped
and IF theres any interest in maintaining customers tanks (for a hefty charge) that could maybe be a money source too
and possibly more.

personally i think dog and cat food will atleast pay the rent

 

[Taysius]

I'd order online over burning up a half tank of gas driving around, but that's just me.

When we go, we make a nice trip out of it. Get some nice dinner, visit other shops of interest and just enjoy the time together out of the house.

 

[furfinsfeathers]

In addition to how far will they go, I think you need to look at how often, how much will they spend, and what features in a pet store are most important to them.

The most important features to me are clean, healthy, and consistently carry our regularly purchased items. We don't buy many trendy items or rare species.

There's a wonderful fish and reptile store about 90 miles from me. It's small, but VERY well kept and some more unusual varieties of fish. I don't drive there just for the store, but when we drive to that area, I try to work in a stop there. I think I've spent $50 total in 3 trips in 9 months, most of which was a gallon of Amquel Plus, which I had not seen locally and they had cheaper than I'd ordered it for.

I personally would not be likely to buy a cat or dog at a pet store. I prefer to adopt from a shelter or if I were looking for a purebred pet and paying the price for one, I'd want one from a carefully chosen breeder. Petsmart and Petco here both have cat display cages from animal shelters and Petco posts ads for rescue groups. 2 of our 3 cats came from this kind of display and the 3 was a young rescue. It's my understanding that pet stores tend to make more from sale of supplies than sale of pets? Would you consider a partnership with a shelter or rescue?

 

[user_name]

I'm only buying online or within a mile or two, as the last time I went to a longer distance pet store I spent 30 bucks on fish that ended up dying a week or two later. Don't forget the food that they refused to touch (puffers do not eat pellet food, especially when you buy a giant bag to try and save money)

To be honest, I really can't see myself going too far out off my way to get fish stuff when I can order online. I DO suppourt my LFS store though, even though their prices are a little crazy.

 

[chefjamesscott]

It all depends on what kind of driving it is. I've been in 3 accidents, as a result I no longer have collision coverage on my vehicle...and being an import, the slightest fender bender will set me back hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Call me an old granny, but I stick to back roads and don't go on the interstate. So it all depends, I would go 60 miles if it were open highway (going south for me) or 30 miles to a college town with hair raising traffic (going north).

Check out the excellent business section on Wet Web Media, it will help you understand what starting an LFS entails. Riskier than a restaurant, in many ways.

I can give testimony as to the risk with a restaurant :hypnotized: +:thud:=:hi:

Depends with your store on a variety of subjects.

What kind of store?

What kind of fish?

etc...

A couple of things that would be very much against a store front is the availability of both hardware and live stock on the net.

I would suggest taking a bit of time to study what the stores in your sphere of business you are looking to encompass carry on a regular basis. As well as seeing what they will special order in for people.

I have a few ideas for you that I will share in another post just want to see what ya got in mind.

As for distance. I have gone so far as to drive a 12 hour drive to get 4 fish. As have many of the people I know in town that is how much a dead zone regina is for good quality fish, yet, it also shows what a hot spot it is for a store provided you can corner the market on fish most chains can not or will not carry.

I would easily drive a hour-2 for a top notch store.

chef

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

I would gladly drive 3+ hours to get to a fish store that was stocking something I wanted to see, and have done just that. Haha!

That being said, I would HIGHLY recommend doing a TON of research first! Starting a business and opening a storefront are two BIG moves that are very very risky, and you may not see profits for years. With the internet now playing such a big part in people's shopping, what used to be hot sellers may not be anymore. I just can't see the local fish stores beating the big box stores in prices on a lot of the retail goods, and if you're doing fish, you have to have the staples of fishkeeping as well as rarer, well-kept fish that are still popular but would be attractive to the intermediate fishkeeper and up.
Honestly, I would think that you should start smaller - breeding and selling your fish online to gauge interest in species seems to be a good way to at least get a handle of what sells well, how to advertise, and more.

 

[Cerianthus]

im asking this for a reason. see im considering opening a petshop. i relize mom and pop businesses fail. i relize i live in a small town. but i also see within a 20 mile radius we have 3 lfs, all are very poor quality in all aspects. within this 20 miles theres approx. 90,000 people, but only 6,000 in the town im thinking about. and theres a million other conserns, point is i need to know how far the adverage fish enthusiast would travel.

If seriously interested, I strongly recomend retail exp from such mom & pop stores. Perhaps you can establishyour own plans/make improvements from both positives & negatives sides of such retailers. More you know (less mistakes) will save more $ when starting such lfs. Thru such experiences, you should be able to obtain good suppliers worldwide, perhaps nationwide. It's not just what you know but who you know as well to do well!

Although driven to/thru many states to obtain certain fishes in my youth but I was seriously hypnotized by fishes back then. Good Luck!

 

[Big Mike]

I drive 20+ just to hit PS and PC. I would def drive farther for a good shop.

 

[ponderingky]

I've driven over 4 hours to meet another breeder to get fish from him - does that count? :crazy: I would drive an hour or more IF I knew I could trust the quality of fish stock on a consistent basis.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I'm not sure how many miles away it is but That Fish Place takes about 45 minutes for me to drive to it.