If you had your own Fish Aisle, what would you put in it?

Rocketman

Rocketman

Detroit; proud of it.
Oct 24, 2002
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Detroit, MI
Real Name
Reid
Hey guys, I'm sure a few of you here remember me.

I've been working at Pet Supplies Plus for a year now, (In Rochester Hills, MI) and have just been put in charge of the fish aisle. For a Pet Supply store, we have a huge customer base. We attract a lot of serious fish keepers and I could name you at least 10 regular customers whom I....know by name. We are trying to become a store that appeals even more to these customers and carry some Marine products. For example, we've brought in Ebo-Jagur heaters and Seachem products, etc....

My question - If this was your Aisle, what would you bring in? What products can you only get online that you wish you could get at the store?
 
Larger cans of blood worms and such would be nice, all they stock around here are the smaller cans and I have to get several at a time so I dont have to go to the fish store every week.

High quality tank tools in general, not the cheep'o plastic tongs and grabbers.

Longer gravel vac tubes for deeper tanks.

*steps off the soap box* :D
 
Basically the things I'm listing are things that I can only find at one good LFS locally or on big als:
A lot more of the reasonably priced do it yourself stuff like bulk sponges, Marinland reverse flow kits ( they work for far more than just powerheads)
a complete line of testing supplies and ferts Nitrate kits are hard to find so are GH and KH kits many places. a lot of the ferts beyond the basics are hard to find. I had to order my Flourish exell from big Als because I couldn't find it locally.
more selection in aquarium gravel especially the natural gravels that seem to be foreign to the LFS's.
I know there is only so much space but more driftwood less plastic in the decor department.

Lastly if you don't have it yet stock the oceanvisions self adhesive backgrounds, they are awesome.
 
If I could control my LFSs... they would have more selection of driftwood in all sizes, from small twigs to huge centerpieces. I've had to live with putting smaller pieces of driftwood together to form some of my aquascaping in my plant tank... it looked so ugly, that I purposely covered it in plants so that no one could see. It would be nice to have something "pre-made" by nature for people who suck at designing stuff :p.
A wide selection of food, everything from the cheapo stuff, to the expensive premium stuff.... dry to frozen, etc. A large range of sizes would be nice too... everything from a little bottle, to a big jug.
Every testing kit imaginable would be nice... not just for FW people, but SW as well. Once again, ranging from the cheapo stuff, to the premium stuff (its nice using cheapo stuff to monitor a cycle).
A wide selection of filters would be nice as well... and I mean wide. Everything from sponge filters, UGFs, power filters, canisters, FBFs, etc. etc. Many of the stores here only carry one or two brands of filters... rather than a wide range. The only store that carries a wide range here is Big Al's. I'd like to be able to compare filters side by side. Having them run on an empty tank side by side would also make it easier to compare the filters while they are running.
Bulk materials is good as well... like sponges which were mentioned before, poly fibre, gravel, rocks, etc. However, these items need to be kept low in terms of prices.... one of the points of having a LFS is so that your customers don't have to go everywhere to find stuff... quite honestly, if all I had to do was pay an extra 5 bucks for slate, I'd buy it from the LFS rather than go to a landscaping place... in the end, its cheaper for me, because I don't need to use more gas. For some reason, LFSs don't understand that charging 30 bucks for a little bag of gravel is insane... but thats just me (can't you just tell this ticks me off? ;) ).
CO2 equipement would be nice as well. I know and heard of people who don't want to bother buying equipement from welding shops, etc. and would rather buy an all in one unit from a LFS... sadly, not many LFSs sell good CO2 equipement... the best I've seen from most stores is that commercialized DIY product Hagen makes.

Thats all I can come up with for now... however, do realize that even though these are the things we want, sometimes it just isn't possible to please everyone... the bottom line is, design your aisle so that it makes people happy, but at the same time, makes your boss happy (aka. makes money). Stocking some items just isn't feasible sometimes. You can't really help anyone if your aisle losses money, and your boss decides that you're incapable of handling your position.

HTH
-Richer
 
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Originally posted by Richer
Thats all I can come up with for now... however, do realize that even though these are the things we want, sometimes it just isn't possible to please everyone... the bottom line is, design your aisle so that it makes people happy, but at the same time, makes your boss happy (aka. makes money). Stocking some items just isn't feasible sometimes. You can't really help anyone if your aisle losses money, and your boss decides that you're incapable of handling your position.

HTH
-Richer
Click to expand...

That is some of the best advice you can get. Retail is cut throat. Just remember that you can't stock everything. Inventory=outstanding $$. You need to have a good balance of inventory that will turn over. There were some great suggestions from the members here but we aren't shopping in your store. Do a quick survey from the 10 customers that you know by name. These are the people you need to please the most. Good luck! Sounds like a good opportunity for you!
 
Thanks a lot! I printed out everyone's suggestions and am taking them to work right now! Keep 'em coming.

I didn't have a chance to read everyone's post fully, (I will in a few minutes) but I did just bring in Flourish Excel, (as well as Flourish, Flourish Nitrogen, and Flourish Iron,) as well as Flourite. We have New Life Sprectrum, (5 types, maybe more soon.) And I am hoping to bring in at least some Ehiem Media, (if not the filters.) Just brought in a Marineland Protein Skimmer, (actually, that was my manager, who is having problems with losing his authority.) Am hoping to bring in some Coralife and Metal Halide bulbs soon as well. Anything else? Again, thanks A TON for the help, I'm quiet overwhelmed.
 
is your pets supplies plus a large store? the one i go to is tiny and they have a very small selection. i owuld go with as many hikari products as possible. at least stock the freeze dried stuff. my psp is the only store in the city with liquifry and hikari fancy guppy. and psp has the cheapest 10gal tanks (cant beat 7.48!)

when the sign says "a family owned store" i assumed that meant it wasnt a chain...oh well...
 
Our's is fairly small but we can fit what we need, we are a little pushed for tank selection however.

A few questions: Freeze Dried San Fransisco Brand? Or something else?

Fluidized Bed Filters? What kind of gravel, (Aragonite, Flourite, Laterite even...what else?)

Also, right now we carry the Seachem Flourish line as well as the Flourish Tabs and Flourite, (- Flourish Phosphorous.) Should we carry Kent? What about other Seachem Products.
 
I manage a restaurant, so some of my thoughts might be off a bit. I do work in a LFS deep cleaning tanks and the PVC lines every other week, I do end up helping a lot of the customers and have talked a lot of them into switching to different brands because we carry it and they don’t have to go across town.

I think it would be best to go all out on ether the Kent or the Flourish and not try to carry every thing they have. I would go with the Kent and try to get almost there whole line in and keep just the basics off the Flourish. I know the Kent cost a little more but they have all the fresh water and salt water stuff. If they are using the Flourish line and they see you have everything they need of the Kent I bet they will switch over as they need the stuff.

As for the filters I think that I think you should have the main stuff like the 350 Magnums, AquClear, Wisper or what ever they sell as now, and the lines that everyone is used to seeing. With the filter mead I would try to carry a large verity and get the larger packs of some of the stuff. I hate having to get a single sponge for my AquClear (off to PetSmart for the cheaper 3 packs.

Just remember when you need something for your tank that has about $$$ worth of stuff getting ready to die and you need something that’s $10 but you need it now, that’s what they want. I have heard about when you have SW and you need something to keep it from a crash they will pay a **** load for something that they can’t find form the stores in town. By the way, I’m not into SW so I get lost quick on that end.

I hope this might help a bit.
 
That's interesting, nailed.

The Aisle is already set up, (the store is 14 years old) and so we already have frozen food, Magnums, Whispers, Aquaclear's, Fluvals, etc. I'm just trying to weed out the stuff that doesn't sell and put in some new stuff that I hadn't thought of before.

I've brought in those custom filter pads, thanks for that idea. Any thoughts on fluidized beds or freeze dried foods, anyone?
 
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