My wal-mart does a better job than the LFS in the area.... Have not lost a purchase from there...
Wal Mart Fish department??
- Thread starter BigFishKeeper
- Start date
My wal-mart does a better job than the LFS in the area.... Have not lost a purchase from there...
It all depends upon the region. All of the WM in this area are removing the tanks when it comes time to remodel. Of course most of the stores around here have larger chain petstore within a 1/2 mile of it.
It all depends upon the area. In small towns with little competition (anymore) WM will carry fish still. In larger cities with lots of competition they are phasing them out. It all depends on how much money they make carrying them.
It all depends upon the area. In small towns with little competition (anymore) WM will carry fish still. In larger cities with lots of competition they are phasing them out. It all depends on how much money they make carrying them.
My sister has worked at walmart for around 6-7 years now and has been moved to 2-3 different locations as a manager, Walmart has regular stores and super stores, so they carry different product.. And my feelings on walmart are that it is the same as any fish store.. It's all relevant to who tends the fish.. When my sister was managing some of the departments at the walmart up the road I would buy fish because I knew my sister was on top of the quality. Some managers do not see the proffit and don't put the effort into the fish section even if they have one.. But don't let opinions stop you from looking.. you might find a real gem of a walmart that has someone doing marine biology and works part time while he/she goes to school.. I run into this alot at the petsmart and big als in my area.
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Walmarts here don't sell any fishes (Winnipeg, Canada)... I have checked around the city as a way to drive around and to enjoy the unseasonal weather (no snow until late November, usually appears during Halloween)...
About six months ago they put in a new Walmart near my house that sells fish. Well, it has several tanks full of fish but they are about as healthy as the fish over in the frozen food department.
Walmarts in abundance 'round here, seven within 15 minute drive. Gettin' to be like Starbucks. There is no rhyme or reason to the presence or absence of fish in our stores. The ones that have the lowest prices on hardware and tanks used to all sell fish but now only one of them does. Of the remaining that no longer sell fish two are super centers and one that never sold fish has some of the best hardware prices.
They don't carry much that I need or use but for odds and ends they are always there when I do need them. One word of caution though about pricing. If you weren't aware of it already, not every Walmart has the same price on each item, and no they will not price match against each other (been there tried that).
Although we never used to buy any livestock there to speak of it was a great place to look for mis-identified varieties. Picked up a few new varieties of cory there that they had listed as armored catfish. Same with some plecos.
Also, when they pull those Mars tank displays out a lot of them end up at retail display/equipment liquidators where they go for big cheap. They're actually pretty cool and have a giant biowheel on their sumps. A bud up in Philly, where a couple of these were being warehoused, bought three of them for $25 a piece. If you can't pick them up at the warehouse yourself however I wouldn't advise bidding on them 'cuz the freight, packing and shipping will kill your good deal. I think the reason they go so cheap is that they weigh so **** much, and the fact that most of the people that are bidding on those sites are looking for shelves and gondolas and more mainstream retail display fixturing, not a quarter ton of fish display.
For better or for worse its as others have said, a lot depends on the personnel. The store near us that still has fish has a group of folks that all seem to at least care and try to take good care of the fish.
Stopped in a Pet Smart last winter (we've got a bunch of them too) scoutin' mis-identified fish and noticed that a whole section of their Mars display units was at only 60 degrees. The tropical fish were not feelin' too tropical and were in obvious distress, many were already dead. When I mentioned it to the kid working the dept. he acknowledged that the sump heater had failed a couple of days earlier. When I asked him why he didn't just grab a couple of the 250w. heaters only arms reach away he said that the store manager wouldn't give them permission to do that.
We bought a bunch of dwarf gouramis that we didn't even want just to try and save some of them. The rest were just left to die. Needless to say we don't even enter that store any more.
They don't carry much that I need or use but for odds and ends they are always there when I do need them. One word of caution though about pricing. If you weren't aware of it already, not every Walmart has the same price on each item, and no they will not price match against each other (been there tried that).
Although we never used to buy any livestock there to speak of it was a great place to look for mis-identified varieties. Picked up a few new varieties of cory there that they had listed as armored catfish. Same with some plecos.
Also, when they pull those Mars tank displays out a lot of them end up at retail display/equipment liquidators where they go for big cheap. They're actually pretty cool and have a giant biowheel on their sumps. A bud up in Philly, where a couple of these were being warehoused, bought three of them for $25 a piece. If you can't pick them up at the warehouse yourself however I wouldn't advise bidding on them 'cuz the freight, packing and shipping will kill your good deal. I think the reason they go so cheap is that they weigh so **** much, and the fact that most of the people that are bidding on those sites are looking for shelves and gondolas and more mainstream retail display fixturing, not a quarter ton of fish display.
For better or for worse its as others have said, a lot depends on the personnel. The store near us that still has fish has a group of folks that all seem to at least care and try to take good care of the fish.
Stopped in a Pet Smart last winter (we've got a bunch of them too) scoutin' mis-identified fish and noticed that a whole section of their Mars display units was at only 60 degrees. The tropical fish were not feelin' too tropical and were in obvious distress, many were already dead. When I mentioned it to the kid working the dept. he acknowledged that the sump heater had failed a couple of days earlier. When I asked him why he didn't just grab a couple of the 250w. heaters only arms reach away he said that the store manager wouldn't give them permission to do that.
We bought a bunch of dwarf gouramis that we didn't even want just to try and save some of them. The rest were just left to die. Needless to say we don't even enter that store any more.
