I buy all of my fish from a lfs that's in a very small town. It's almost amazing that it can stay in business. But the help and selection is so great that people drive 20+ miles just to get their stuff there. I am very thankful for it!!
Value your LFS..
- Thread starter snakeskinner
- Start date
a lot of times people give advice THINKING that they are right, they just havent realized they are wrong yet. for example, if they have a good experiance with rinsing out their filter cartridge with tap water, they will tell customers you can do that no problem. they just dont realize taht the clorine kills off all that good bacterea
If you are lucky enough (like me) you will have a lfs (its a Petco even) that is fortunate enough to have experienced staff in the aquatics dept. It did take several guesses on their parts, this forums part and my part but the employees there spent the time to help me. I had deviated to another LFS and that is how I got bad fish. I value their advice.
All LFS's here have some sort of drawback. Either they are greedy b a s t a r d s who carry a 300-400% mark-up on their fish, or they don't know s h i t. 
We have this place near my house, actually a garden center with a small pet area that sells fish, and a few reptiles. For the longest time I was fed up with the service I'd have to go -find- someone, interupt their conversation with the carry out guys and ask them where something was, or to get a fish for me, until they hired this one young lady. She is a wonderful person, she is careful about who is buying what, giving them fair warning if that lizard will grow too big or that fish will be too aggressive, of course she'll lose her job if she pushes a point but people usually listen to her anyways.
And don't tell anyone, but she also gives me the odd discount here and there on fish and plants. Once she threw in extra fish, and didn't even charge me the full price for the number I had asked for.
She convinced them to stock a bird food they were going to stop carrying so I could feed my birds. And she will order in pretty much any fish I am looking for, with no obligation for me to buy them. They'll sell eventually anyway. Perhaps she can get away with this though, because it is just a tiny department in a bigger store, but I had pretty much stopped shopping everywhere else. I only look elsewhere if they don't carry something or if I -know- I can get is cheaper somewhere else.
I think that if the good lfs got our support, and the bad ones didn't then we wouldn't have to order things online and hope it arrives intact.
And don't tell anyone, but she also gives me the odd discount here and there on fish and plants. Once she threw in extra fish, and didn't even charge me the full price for the number I had asked for.
She convinced them to stock a bird food they were going to stop carrying so I could feed my birds. And she will order in pretty much any fish I am looking for, with no obligation for me to buy them. They'll sell eventually anyway. Perhaps she can get away with this though, because it is just a tiny department in a bigger store, but I had pretty much stopped shopping everywhere else. I only look elsewhere if they don't carry something or if I -know- I can get is cheaper somewhere else.
I think that if the good lfs got our support, and the bad ones didn't then we wouldn't have to order things online and hope it arrives intact.
I have found a good lfs just wish they had more supplies with more reasonable prices. I am not sure if there return poliy makes up for the pricing though.
I can't say I've found a good lfs in central wisconsin so any help is appreciated in that regard.
As far as prices on stuff goes that's pretty insane there. I manage a resturaunt and although our prices are marked up 50%+, The cost of the food vs. operating costs adds up to match it. Still resonably priced though. As far as retail sales go though I wouldn't expect to pay more then 20-30%. Problem is Fish stores most likely don't push as much volume of sales, so they increase the prices of the equipment to help buffer cost of operations. Doesn't mean you have to pay it, but at the same time you have to understand why they do it. Honestly if they're selling healthy stock I figure they aren't going to have to sell replacement fish soon after that lol. Still online is usaully the way to go for good prices because operating costs, customer volume, and with a good reputation, sales can be far better then owning a store front. Just think how many of you guys plug bigal's.
Just my 2 pennies
-Neo SIthlord
As far as prices on stuff goes that's pretty insane there. I manage a resturaunt and although our prices are marked up 50%+, The cost of the food vs. operating costs adds up to match it. Still resonably priced though. As far as retail sales go though I wouldn't expect to pay more then 20-30%. Problem is Fish stores most likely don't push as much volume of sales, so they increase the prices of the equipment to help buffer cost of operations. Doesn't mean you have to pay it, but at the same time you have to understand why they do it. Honestly if they're selling healthy stock I figure they aren't going to have to sell replacement fish soon after that lol. Still online is usaully the way to go for good prices because operating costs, customer volume, and with a good reputation, sales can be far better then owning a store front. Just think how many of you guys plug bigal's.
Just my 2 pennies
-Neo SIthlord
I work retail we average about 20 percent but some things are 400 percent you wouldn't know because the price is good but its there.
I mountain bike and run into this type of thing with local bike shops too. People complain that the bikes shops are "ripping them off" because their prices are so much higher than the online guys.
Online retailers sell at such a high volume that they pay less for their products than your LFS. Sometimes, by a lot. They also have the opportunity to by other stores closeouts at discounted rates which allows them to sell at stupid prices.
I recently had the opportunity to buy some products from Hagen at their wholesale prices. I bought a Fluval 204 from them at their wholesale price and then looked it up on Foster's and Smith. F&S had the filter for $3 LESS than the wholesale price putting it at less than half of what any retailer here was selling it for.
Before you hack apart your LFS on their prices think a little about their situation. Brick and mortar shops and online retailers are apples and oranges.
That being said, the cash tree in my backyard hasn't bloomed in quite some time so I stick to using the online guys for big purchases and buy everything else locally.
Tom
Online retailers sell at such a high volume that they pay less for their products than your LFS. Sometimes, by a lot. They also have the opportunity to by other stores closeouts at discounted rates which allows them to sell at stupid prices.
I recently had the opportunity to buy some products from Hagen at their wholesale prices. I bought a Fluval 204 from them at their wholesale price and then looked it up on Foster's and Smith. F&S had the filter for $3 LESS than the wholesale price putting it at less than half of what any retailer here was selling it for.
Before you hack apart your LFS on their prices think a little about their situation. Brick and mortar shops and online retailers are apples and oranges.
That being said, the cash tree in my backyard hasn't bloomed in quite some time so I stick to using the online guys for big purchases and buy everything else locally.
Tom
Theres a LFS in southern california, I wont name names, or say the exact city, but it use to be the best. Full of knowledgble people and fantastic prices.
Then about 6 years ago they moved into a larger store front and I dropped out of the hobby.
But when I got back into it this year that was the first place I went to, finding the same owner but all new uneducated employees, I bought a tank (that was $70 higher than the competition I soon found out) and some liverock (twice the price of liverock at of LFS, I soon found out) and their fish and equipment were double the prices anywhere else.
The owner said, "****, I havn't seen you in years" (because i got out of the hobby) AND HE WONT SEE ME AGAIN!
I just hate being gouged in prices. Liverock for $9.99/lb when the same liverock elsewhere goes for $4.99 to $5.99/lb
Snails at $9.99 where they go elsewhere at $3.99
Theres a new pet store that opened up a couple months ago in my immediate area that have great prices, and knowledgble people, though they were a bit quick on setting up their saltwater tanks, but they are paying for it now by having to do massive water changes on a daily basis to keep everything in check until everything is stable. But still, their prices are great and they can always answer my questions and are about 95% correct to what I find on the internet when I ask the same questions.
So I definately value my new LFS/pet store.
Now if they would just get a **** dog groomer in there I'd be full serviced
Then about 6 years ago they moved into a larger store front and I dropped out of the hobby.
But when I got back into it this year that was the first place I went to, finding the same owner but all new uneducated employees, I bought a tank (that was $70 higher than the competition I soon found out) and some liverock (twice the price of liverock at of LFS, I soon found out) and their fish and equipment were double the prices anywhere else.
The owner said, "****, I havn't seen you in years" (because i got out of the hobby) AND HE WONT SEE ME AGAIN!
I just hate being gouged in prices. Liverock for $9.99/lb when the same liverock elsewhere goes for $4.99 to $5.99/lb
Snails at $9.99 where they go elsewhere at $3.99
Theres a new pet store that opened up a couple months ago in my immediate area that have great prices, and knowledgble people, though they were a bit quick on setting up their saltwater tanks, but they are paying for it now by having to do massive water changes on a daily basis to keep everything in check until everything is stable. But still, their prices are great and they can always answer my questions and are about 95% correct to what I find on the internet when I ask the same questions.
So I definately value my new LFS/pet store.
Now if they would just get a **** dog groomer in there I'd be full serviced
