My LFS

My LFS sucks. I spent 20 minutes there one day, looked around the whole store, not just the back tank room, and never saw a single person besides my son and my infant daughter the whole time I was there. No one came out of a back room to greet us and ask about my set up or if I was looking for anything in particular or if I needed any help. Nothing. Also, they carried "painted" fish which I figure a small, fish only store should just plain know better.

We have another small pet store that carries fish as well. The people are friendly and helpful but they know next to nothing about fish. They can't even tell you how big something gets. Their selection of fish is lousy and generally consisting of only the most common types of aquarium fish and they have quite a few floaters in their tanks. Forget about buying supplies or accesories there. My Hagen Master Test Kit from Big Al's was $39.99 and at this LPS it was $99.99. That's not mark up; that's robbery.

The only other place in town to buy fish is, you guessed it, Wal-Mart. Oddly enough, while the people there know squat about fish, at least they admit it. Their tanks are clean and they seem to have fewer dead fish than the second place I mentioned. Also, they tend to have a better selection than the second place I mentioned as well. I was there today to pick up a 10 gallon for a QT tank and looked at fish and supplies while I was there. It seems no one can compete with Big Al's for prices on supplies, really. Anyway, quality varies from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart. Heck, recently a guy posted here at AC who was a Wal-Mart employee who took care of the fish and was looking for advice on how to treat ich in their goldfish tanks.

Anyway, those are my LFSs. I use the bottom two and will never go back to the fish-only store. If there is one thing which I truly believe, having worked retail for years before I finished college, customer service is of the utmost importance, especially when you're the little guy and more expensive than the big box stores. I go to Wal-Mart, I don't expect great customer service. If I go to a 1100 square foot Mom & Pop with no other customers but me, I better be waited on.
 
I bought all my fish at the petsmart here,and only one died because it was picked on too much,it was a sevrum.
The mom and pop joints here are way over priced.
 
Where I did live it was either the pet grooming place or walmart. The walmart had better selection and was the only place to sell white cloud minnows. They are still going strong 3 years later along with the cories I bought. But generally I felt a littel slimy buying my fish from people that had no clue. It was the paint section lady that did the fish.

Of course they didn't try to sell me any ph up or down crap which is good, just water conditioner. The Pets Unlimited I know go to seems to want to push that proper ph stuff everytime I walk in the door.
 
sux about the bad lfs experiences. the place i go is wonderful, awesome selection, more than enough help, usually two guys (father and son no less) running around the floor, and a guy at the counter. It was the only place i could find a blue ram, i paid like 12 bucks for it. their supplies are just a bit pricey but i will gladly pay if it helps keep them in business.
 
pab said:
sux about the bad lfs experiences. the place i go is wonderful, awesome selection, more than enough help, usually two guys (father and son no less) running around the floor, and a guy at the counter. It was the only place i could find a blue ram, i paid like 12 bucks for it. their supplies are just a bit pricey but i will gladly pay if it helps keep them in business.
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Oh, we used to have a wonderful pet store here. Was a mom and pop outfit, literally. They carried some beautiful fish too. I bought an African Butterfly Fish from them and an angel that was almost powder blue. I also picked up a lot of snake supplies rfom them as well, mice, several all-glass aquarium brand "criter cages" for my new stand that held 20 long tanks... One day though, the mom got cancer and subsequently died. Pop stayed in and brought his then middle-aged daughter in to help. They stayed open a couple of years after that, but I think Pop missed Mom in the end and probably saw her in every animal every minute he was there. Bound to be tough. One thing is certain, our town is worse off without them, in my opinion.
 
Yeah, I don't dig on going to PetCo, Petsmart, Walmart or any of them. If you need to save on items order them online for real cheap! big al's or animalworldnework.com have great prices on supplies. Better than Petco that is for sure! By a lot too!
Fish from retailers like that aren't typically healthy like the ones at a good LFS. But then again, the decding factor in healthy fish is the keeper more often than not. So if your chain store has someone knowledgable, and really cares about the fish he sells, you can do well there too I suppose! I know when i go to my LFS (we have a few here but one stands out) I rarely ever see a dead fish in a tank, and if I do, it will usually not sell a fish out of that tank. But when i go to the big boys (in my experience) they offer weak fish and mediocre advice.
 
My lfs also has a club called the FISH OF THE MONTH CLUB in which if you are a member of that club they will give you a peaceful fish every month.
 
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