LFS Support
 

I just wanted to point out that this hobby isn't free and it's important that we support our LFS. There are so many people posting on here looking for products that are available at the store. If you can't afford a few bucks here and there then what are you doing in one of the most money draining hobbies? Stop looking to buy in the USA........after shipping it almost costs you more. Times are tough. Tough for us. Tough for your LFS. Let's not let any more stores close. Any thoughts?

I do have to agree...we all like a good deal, but is the guy that you got that product for cheaper in the US going to know your name, let alone what your tank has going on in it? I bet most reefers that frequent the LFS have a connection with the staff, can call whenever something is going wrong, and enjoy putting money back into the local economy rather than the US economy. On the island there are 2 shops going out of business....2! We don't have that many....so shop there when you can...support someone you know locally in all ways possible. ALSO, the more you shop there, the better deals and more product they may bring in to compete more with the US.:biggrin:

Just my 2 cents!

Well I just popped into J&L and dropped another $140 today:redface::wink:

I think for me, the biggest difference between online vendors and you lfs comes to light when your having tank issues. If you are in dire need of a bucket of salt at 10pm or your pump decides to call it quits, your on line vendor could care less. Once you get to know your lfs you'll find they are the ones willing to help you out in a pinch!!
Prime example, moving this weekend my sump got cracked, before the days end my lfs had a loner sump in my truck and off to the house.
You can't get personal help like that from the Internet!!

im geussing you havent seen the "are still buying from the us?why?" thread. apparently nobody cares

Bottom line is that it is a very expensive hobby, so I will mail order from any store that has reliable service at the lowest price. Some items, I just can't find in Canada so I have to make a BRS order every now and then and I am lucky that Concept is here now as they have pretty much the same prices as J&L but they are local. If something breaks down or I can't wait a few days, then I pay the premium to purchase the items locally, but if I can get it cheaper elsewhere, why would I pay the local store more. It is more on the local store to step up and price match to within reason to that of mail order stores or potentially lose business. You can make just as much selling multiple items at a lower price then one item at a higher price.

The price difference in Calgary was so bad when I initially got into this hobby that I would buy spare heater, pumps, food, etc on J&L's boxing day sale just to make sure I didn't have to hand over my first born if something died on me. Calgary has come along way since then with pricing.

For me, going to the LFS and browsing for fish or corals, or being there when the orders come in, is a privilege I'm willing to pay slightly more for. As it is now, we're running out of places to see real live fish in person. Sure, online prices are a bit cheaper, but I don't want to spend the rest of my time in the hobby ordering fish and corals based on pictures. I want to go to the store, watch the fish eat, watch it swim around and then take it home.
By supporting my local stores, I ensure that I have a store to go to...

+1 one of the reasons i really enjoy this hobby

I 100% agree with you for livestock. CUC are sometimes hit or miss and I have to order online and I really don't care what my snails look like. But I do pay the premium to buy nice livestock and corals and we all have out favorite stores for that.

the problem is if we all try to save a couple of bucks online for drygoods, the fish will end up going away. I have/had a LFS 1km frm my house, they're now closing...

I have no issues buying used equipment or fish from fellow reefers. I don't buy out of the US, and have 2 stores here in edmonton that i visit all the time! I get my food from them, my salt from them, fish and corals from them...
but as for hard goods... if someone is selling something and I know the person, I'll throw him a few bucks before buying new from the store!

Almost all my addiction-related $$ goes to the LFS or local reefers. Once or twice a year I might join a group buy from a Canadian vendor (usually). Almost never order anything from the States myself, unless I tag along with one of my buddies on his group orders (once every two+ years).

I buy local because I too like to see the fish or coral in person. I almost always get the LFS staff to feed the fish before I buy it.

This is the same reason I always use a teller at the bank instead of the ATM. If everyone goes electronic, then lots of real people lose their jobs.

Besides, I seem to know most of the people in this hobby locally and am good friends with a lot of the people working in our LFS. In Greater Vancouver, we are blessed with several good sw stores so I try to give them most of my business if I buy retail.

I dunno,

While I agree that buying local is always a noble idea, it just doesn't always work out to be the best for me. I typically don't fuss if an item is a few bucks more than I can get online and I try to keep the price difference in perspective with the cost of the item; e.g. $20 difference on a Koralia powerhead is too much, but $20 on a Skimmer or LED light system is not a big deal. Similarly, stuff that's a little finicky to ship (like salt or T5 lightbulbs) I almost always buy local. I agree with prioritizing local business... but only to a certain point.

That said, I get a little weary of listening to the constant mantra of "If you don't buy your dry goods from your LFS at a premium price than you won't have any fish and coral to buy from us". I don't buy that for a second, I would bet heavily that 90% of the profit comes from livestock and small stuff like food and lightbulbs. If an LFS owner decides to spend the money and bring in a ton of dry-goods and then prices them so uncompetitively that people buy elsewhere... that's a bad business decision, not a failure on the part of the consumer to "be supportive".

The other argument, that was floated at the start of this thread (and that I have heard several times when discussing cheaper ways to do things) that "It's the worlds biggest money sucking hobby and if you can't afford to buy new you shouldn't be in it" is unbelievably elitist, ridiculous, and shallow minded. It's like saying if you can't afford $1.50 a litre you have no business owning a car because you're obviously too poor to deserve an automobile. This IS a money sucking hobby which makes it that much more important to be price conscious. Even if you're filthy rich, you probably didn't get that way by throwing money around without a care. Not saying you have to be out to squeeze the last nickel out of an LFS, but you shouldn't be obligated to overpay too much either.

it is i talked to a lfs about a price difference between stores and they told me they received a fish at 13 and sold for 30

I guess, to qualify my statements, none of my LFS's really try to gouge on prices. Many/most prices are in line with J&L plus shipping with the convenience of shopping in person.
I agree that if my LFS was charging 40% more for salt, I wouldn't be shopping there either :)
I don't own a fish store, but the assumption that they make there money on livestock, I think, is wrong. You have shipping costs of water, it's heavy. You need salt in the water, equipment to manage the water, tanks to put the water in. you have to feed and light the livestock, so food, bulbs, etc come into play. Things die, that has to be absorbed by the remaining stock. It takes more staff time to take care of the livestock vs. dusting the drygoods.

At the end of the year, I don't think it's a huge profit margin.

I don't think any business in the pet industry delivers a huge margin unless you do get to the size of J&L.

Here's. My beef with local.....they don't frag its stupid , so a large chalice or acan colony comes in they want 300 and wont frag, so I'm stuck buying something the size of a dinner plate and forced to cut it myself....gets tiresome.

And the selection lately blows all the stores order in the same stiff from the same supplier's, notmuch is catching my eye in stores lately:)

If it wasn't like this I would spend more in these stores:(

I buy all my stuff from local Alberta shops now. Almost all of them are willing to ship to me on their own time and that really helps, being in a remote location such as Bonnyville.

The one time I bought from a US company I had issues - and I got dinged hard with shipping to send the item back. It wasn't worth it.

The one time I had an issue with a piece of equipment I purchased from a local vendor he was very helpful and even sent me a replacement part before I sent him the defective one. If I had decided to buy said equipment for $50 less from the states it would have cost more to ship the parts back and forth in this case and wouldn't have been worth it.

Big ticket items I do try to buy gently used but I've learned my lesson with going that route too.

There's pos and negs to each side.

Not suggesting they make a huge profit margin. I have a world of respect for those who run their own business and I do NOT begrudge them a profit or a living. I am positive though, that the bulk of their mark-up comes from livestock as opposed to drygoods.

I am in complete agreement that it takes a lot of time and money to maintain livestock... but if you look at the floor plan of any LFS it's 90% livestock and 10% drygoods (and of that 10% the majority is every-day stuff like filter socks, fish food, lightbulbs, etc.) This tells me that they see livestock as most the most profitable item as a function of $/sqft of retail space so they make sure livestock gets the room it needs to maximize profit. Just like best-buy is almost half big-screen tv's... that's where they make their money.

This is an important point too, for those of us who are an hour or more drive from a quality LFS, a mail order from a shop like J&L or progressive Reef is often faster than finding the time and spending the gas to drive all the way in to a larger center.

that's more a product selection process. If I'm looking for AI lights and my fish store only sells Radions, I'm going to order wherever I can get the best deal on what I want to buy. Same for coral. If they get crap in, I'm not going to buy it just because it's local :)

True it is I guess for me I shop where's there's coral selection, lately I can't shop local and its one size fits all, it sucks to go to the fishstore and see a awesome acan colony but can't fit it or afford it....the last two times I asked someone to frag something o was pretty much told goodlyck lol

Now with said I wont buy glue online to save $3, and I would def buy everything local if the selection was there. I frequent most of the stores a couple tomes a week:)