I would love going to a store that had these practises! Now, getting one in Alberta would be even better!

I am not sure how to answer that question, but guilty for sure...:redface:

Great feedback everyone.... Keep'em coming! Your opinions are valued.

Fair enough, thats a good point. Im not just talking about livestock though, where there was a clear advantage to being in the southern us, Im also talking dry goods. More competitive brings lower prices. Plus WAY more products to choose from.

If you are only comparing stores in vancouver to the rest of Canada, then yes, its amazing. But compare it parts of the US (Florida) and it really is not.

I guess to be fair too though, the other big difference being in Florida and here is being able to go to huge outdoor places to buy Aquacultured LR for $2-3 a lb. As well as corals from 10,000G vats :) Thats just not really an option here because of weather. A lot of these are outdoors.

The environmental angle is noble but if you 're looking to break into the Canadian reef market I would concentrate on online sales. Yeah I know every store has a web page but the only one that seems to put much effort into it is J&L. They'll update their new/noteworthy page once or twice a week. The others I deal with update less than once a month. It's not a criticism of the existing stores. They unload their livegoods without exploiting web possibilities, good for them. But IMO it is a ripe market that will be filled sooner or later.

Your right on with this one! I think in Canada, web sales are very important, even just based on the geography of our large country and how it is populated. There are many small town reefers who have no choice but to buy online and that can be a big market...especially if you cater some of your website and shipping to them.

I personally believe that a new store that offers the best dry goods and livestock is much needed in Vancouver. Some of the existing stores have decent corals but their dry goods selection is not that great. While
there are other stores that have decent selection of dry goods but the livestock is not great. Most the LFS's websites are not very useful as these are not updateded on a regular basis, perhaps the only one is the J$L website.

I would definitely support a new LFS that offers both, great livestock and dry goods. Am not married to any of the existing LFS so why not supporting a new one that cares about the environment.

Cheers

The more I sit here and think about it, I can't believe anyone thinks it would be a bad idea. Anything can always be done better. Plus its great for us! More stores the better, more competitive and better selection hopefully. As YVR says, if there was one store that could "get it all together", I bet it would do VERY well. Sounds like a few people here a very "married" to a few stores though.

I have noticed that one store is like "the good ol' boys club" when certain customers are in. I always find that to be the worst trait a store can have. EVERY customer is as important as each other. I have been in a certain store on more than one occasion where its hard to get help because of this.

Trust me. Even those who say it would be hard to make a go of it as a new coral/sw LFS would be in there during opening day and if the prices & selection are good, they would become regular customers.

The major drawback I see is that there is a finite supply of aquacultured corals & hobbyist-grown frags, so getting enough to keep a store stocked with colourful corals will be a challenge.

Anthony

Sorry that was me.
I tend to get all the staff in trouble.

J