peoples thoughts and opinions on calgary lfs???
 

hey guys just looking for some ideas on what you guys feel like calgary needs in a lfs and what some of the problems you think some of the stores have??

please leave names out of this thread , i want everyones opinions on what you want to find when you go to a lfs , what some of the problems you encounter or some of the dislikes... i want to know what the people in calgary want in a lfs?? who knows maybe lfs are watching and taking this in;)

i welcome your thoughts and opinions :)

I'd like to see them here tbh. I hate no knowing when stock comes in. I miss the personal attention received from one store in particular. That said, the stores we do have are obviously successful and do not need the additional promotions as all stores receive comments both good and bad.

Dangerous thread... I personally have come to expect nothing and hope for the best although our lfs is getting better . But again our lfs is a multi pet store (not a big chain store) and doesn't have the.... How do I say .... Incentive to focus on just fish alone... But he does try and recently set up a new system. The only thing I would hope for is more of the staff to research and have more knowledge. Not for me as such but newbies coming in. I can't say much for other provinces/ cities other than I'm jealous of the options and availability you guys have over us in Regina. We usually have to tack on a ton of shipping charges to get anything awe inspiring coral wise.

That is all lol good luck with the topic


Sent from my porcelain aquarium

Webpage! Only one LFS in Calgary got an webpage and updates regularly about the new arrivals! That would save a lot of time and disappointment of going to LFS and finding nothing new; particularly for people like me who have to use public transport and lets be honest, Calgary's transit have lots and lots of scope of improvement.

i noticed that as well:)

Problem I see with a website is that if I announce everything new in each week, you're not likely to drop in if I don't have what you want. I'd announce new shipments, but you need to come in to see what's arrived. And buy some food, and putty, and frag plugs. Oh, and you need a new heater while you're here... :)

No, no heaters. NEVER new heaters. I'll stick with my 17 year old green Ebo Jager....

Well ya, me too, just as an example :)

not gonna lie one for me is being cramped, clutter and dirt......its one thing to work in a small space its another to make that space practically non functional....i hate having to wait in line for someone else to watch stuff when i looking to pass by....


thats mine lol

why not im on a roll...



price!!!!


i hate not knowing the darn prices of stuff..

i hate even more when a price is just thrown off the top of someones head...and more than likely is different the next day lol

seriously...mark the prices!!

not at all....informational!! :biggrin:

+1!!!

It also kind of embarrassing to ask price of each livestock one by one and its even more embarrassing when the price is way out of the league of the wallet and one have to say "oh well I will pass". Its always better its have the price posted on so that one can silently pass along with something like "oh well, maybe next month!".

Like once I had to hear "man, you are cheap" when I kept on asking price and kept passing on :P

I miss having a store that wasn't a 45+ minute drive from the south side of the city.

I grew up lugging buckets in my family's LFS in Halifax for 10 years before getting into marine ornamental aquaculture production/sales/export/management in Florida/Puerto Rico. I'm no longer in the fish business, but rather enjoy it now as a local hobbyist. Nice thing about Calgary (for hobbyists) is that there are a lot of choices in marine LFS... more so in terms of store to people population ratio than most other cities.

Without naming names:

One LFS I like because their prices are the best around, and fortunately, I don't really rely on LFS for guidance... some of their advice is quite unbalanced. Their prices are so low that it's hard to find fish left for sale there because everyone buys them up and keeps them on hold in their tanks until they're ready to go, so you're going in and drooling over someone else's paid fish. They are also willing to frag their big pieces. On top of that, they are friendly.

Another one, has some nice displays to look at, good variety of fish, but I don't always trust their livestock health. Also, their price is a bit high on livestock and non-sale hardware. There's no question that this big box store has a strategy of getting hobbyists from their 2 gallon gold fish bowl phase all the way through to the infancy of their marine keeping phase, and leave the experienced hobbyist with their dry goods specials or really hard to find marine fish (to be quarantined DIY).

Another one has livestock that's not always the best prices nor best health, but hardware is consistent with what I know is MSRP instead of stretching for a bigger margins. Sometimes sales here gives good deals on dry goods. Another all-rounded shop targeting hobbyists from fish bowls through to moderate experience reef keeping phase.

Another one is a good in between... livestock prices are reasonable, the guy is friendly, I feel good giving him my business even though it's not the cheapest around. Even though at first he didn't know I was experienced, his advice has always been consistent, solid, and fair. For example, he wouldn't try to convince me that I NEED all kinds of different additives for a reef tank. This shop's strategy is obviously to do different from big box stores with whom he cannot compete with, so he has no freshwater, no tanks for sale, only marine fish & corals, some basic hard goods... picking up moderate to experienced hobbyists nut at reasonable prices... does not bother with entry level marine livestock (softies/leathers/condylactis/flame scallops etc... for example).

Another one has really really nice stuff at prices that I know are really really exorbitant (coming from the marine livestock wholesale/export/retail business, I am still on wholesale supplier lists). His stuff is nice because they stay around for a while. I don't mind buying some items that are reasonably priced (compared to fair market value and local big box stores, given a small premium in price for good health), but there are stuff I don't even bother asking the price tag on... in truth, most days I don't even bother stopping here unless I am hunting for something that the other guys don't have in stock at the moment. PS-the guy is consistently very grumpy. Not sure this guy is a better businessman than hobbyist... as you have to be in the service business if you are retail. Reminds me of professors who are strong scientists but shouldn't be teachers.

Another one I hear is great but has not been open since I got back into the hobby and having moved to Calgary, a niche high end livestock place offering reasonable prices by having low overhead... perhaps too low overhead of an area lacking a security system?

Another one I hear is interesting but have yet to visit.

in my experience dealing with independent LFS accounts throughout the US, my advice is:

You have to be aware of who you're playing with and against. Who you're playing with are your customers... are they people in the neighbourhood (like your local Petland)? or are they people that seek and find you (then, what do most of them seek? $300 corals or $50 corals?)? Who you're playing against are big box stores, online operators, home fraggers/farmers. Choose a strategy to compete with big box stores/online shops/hobbyist fragging (you can't do it on hard goods, you don't have floor space for tanks). That will leave you to choose between high quality quarantined livestock or high volume sales based on price.
-online forums and hobbyist producers can go either way, for you or against you. Accordingly, most try to stay out of this game. Consider a program to absorb their production for store credits. That said, you should have an attractive offer in trade and not take advantage of their position of limited outlet... or they will find their own outlet online. By the time that their production product no longer fetches sales for your store, same will apply should they try to sell online (eg. red montipora, GSP), which then is time that the producer has to smarten up and produce something else.
-give better service and advice than the big box stores, as they strive for lower operational costs to offset their higher overhead, they tend to have higher staff turnovers. This limits their knowledge build and consistency in advice, but not their friendliness (if applicable).
-try different wholesaler/suppliers. Get better survival rates and different stock than your competitors. All LFSs know this, nothing new here.

i know AI in edmonton a few years ago offered to do deliverys on some things, maybe an idea like that could be tweaked:P

Decent stock all the time with good variety ( i have 1 1/2 hr drive to any store ) prices clearly marked, list of available stock that can be ordered WITH prices, websites that are updated regularly & fast response to email inquires.

It could be 1 1/2 hrs. :razz:

+1 !!!!

I live in evergreen..... why are all the LFS stores located in the north!???

The store I use to work at in Calgary didn't mark their prices on the tanks due to the sheer variety of animals in each tank (you wouldn't be able to see the livestock through the wall of grease pen), but everyone had a VERY firm grasp on livestock value. Prices didn't change from hour to hour, day to day like one would imagine.

which brings me to the next point of dedicated systems , i personally want to see sps with sps zoos with zoos and corals of the same species etc housed together, not scattered in 15 different locations in the store, to me thats clutter.....if creating a reef is the goal then do a display only .

sometimes i feel like im shopping in the $5 bin of movies at walmart....i never find a movie i like and settle for a cheap laugh i had years ago lol :P

A small stick at the bottom of the tank with fish name & price would be helpful, I don't really like the whole writing on the tank but it's better then nothing. Prices do change on a regular basis from what I have seen & once when I was at a shop I asked a price of something I really liked & while I was still looking at other stock I heard the store employee tell someone else a different lower price on the exact same thing.

Tougher than you think. You gotta remember that when LFS gets shipments, they're generally NOT at a convenient hour like 2-5 PM. They're usually around 11-3 AM and at that point, you REALLY don't want to be sitting around all night rearranging stuffs.

what about hours of operation i hate going to a place on a weekday(say thursday) and their closed or go all the way to a store at 12 just to realize they dont open untill 2...that just recently happened lol ;)

hey a jobs a job lol

no one wants to be doing anything that late but sometimes you got to bite the bullet and put in the late nights early mornings , its def not an easy thing to do but if informing your customers of its products is imortant to your business then the extra hours are worth it.

i mean alot of business get late night deliveries ,alot also do inventory and stock at night.

and its not like the next day everything in the store was sold and there was no time to put names and prices down.

there are about a dozen stores i can think of that do mark their livestock reguarily, just takes some organizing:)

im pro prices lol

i mean i doubt walmart would get very far if they loaded their shelves with mystery price products lol

I disagree! But I like sleeping, lol. Besides, who needs prices when helpful employees are around to quote them to you? Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez man!

i wish there is no lfs at all so I can count my money and have more time to do stuff :-D

but then i have to find another hobby.

X2.

In addition to that . . . Open tanks and exposed plumbing at the perfect height for curious toddlers and preschoolers to get into trouble. Combine that with the cramped conditions and poor sight lines, and it is a disaster waiting to happen.

In Edmonton we have three stores that announce there shimpents dates what they got and upcoming arrivals. There always busy and sold out if you wait.
All three are sponsors on here and do quite well

And places that are a hour drive on the other side of town would get me in at all if I didn't know their or part of their inventory

they could call it the "bonzia sale tank" !! :twised::lol:

1. My favourite LFS in town is nice because it has great livestock and tanks. However, I find it terrible for stocking equipment like pumps, lights, skimmers, reactors, controllers, etc.

2. My second favourite is nice because the prices on everything are quite reasonable. However, they do not tend to have a large selection of livestock (fish and/or corals). They do seem to have a decent selection of hardware though and misc dry goods though.

3. My third favourite store has a nicely balanced selection of livestock and dry goods but is the most expensive of the three stores. Price could be better but hey, if I want that scoly or need that pump ill buy it.

4. As for the rest of the traditional stores, I will visit them for their MASSIVE selection of dried goods and for their convenient, consistent and predictable store hours. Again, prices are on the high side but hey, if I need a bucket of salt or a heater at 8:45pm on a week day I know where to go.

5. There are some "non-traditional" stores in the city and they are great on the wallet but not so great for impulse shoppers like me. LOL. With these stores you have to plan out and schedule your visit. This is fine but some of us have chaotic schedules that change hourly. Sometimes my visits to the LFS happens during a miraculous hour that suddenly appears in my weekend when the rest of my family decides they want to take a nap. Or the opposite can happen. I can plan to go visit a store at a particular time only to have that time taken away from me at the last minute. Anyway, I digress..

I'll just finish off by saying that my former favourite LFS (before it shut down) in my opinion and while not perfect, had the best combination of factors that makes a great LFS for me.




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Sent from the future on my iPhone 10 using Tapatalk

100% agree. I know of one store in Calgary that in particular is really bad for that. It really ****es me off! Especially when he tells one person he doesn't know that it's an $80 coral and 10min's later tells someone he knows it's $40 for the same coral. I know people who are frequent buyers and are close to the owners get discounts and ok fine, but usually the owner will give 10-20% off, not come up with a totally different price all together! To consistently quote totally different prices to different people (that sometimes are almost half the price or less of what he quoted one person to the next) is frustrating and annoying and IMO no way to run a business. Prices should be shown (and yes sometimes depending on how much shipment prices cost the prices will change) but regardless they should be written on the tanks for everyone to see and not be some sort of secret.

This is what irritates me the most. If you work at a buddy relationship with the stores, they will offer you better pricing. This is not fair as I don't always have time. I'd like to walk in and see pricing. Store owners and staff can be busy with others and I would like to be able to price out my interests on my own.

I do think we have a great selection of stores here run by great people and appreciate their time when I do stop in. I wish more offered more frags, it's hard to buy an $80 coral only to have it not work out in your tank, a smaller piece at lower cost is easier to cope with.

I'm not sure that it's the 'buddies' that get the better prices, I have tested several different stores for consistencies on their price quotes. What I like to do often, just like everyone else, is ask, 'how much is that?' and I often don't buy because either the price point isn't a great deal, or I don't really want it that bad, or I'm not on my way home. Anyway, I ask several different staff, sometimes a week or two go by in between I re-test the price of something... if it's still around maybe the shopkeeper wants it out his door. The finding has been pretty consistent.

Having said that, there is room to negotiate. What you can negotiate and get for how much depends. There are 3 variables to negotiating according to Herb Cohen: time, information, power.

Time--who ever has more time wins. For example, you know a fish has been in the store for quite some time, you like it, but only want it if it's a good deal. Week after week, it's still there and each time you ask about it but are prepared to walk away from the deal if the price isn't right. In time, shopkeeper will think about his price vs ongoing maintenance & risk of fish getting sick. Conversely, a fish at a good price that you don't buy but someone else will buy in a heartbeat... you don't have time, buy it if it's a fair price.

Info--know the fair market value of goods... otherwise you'll be taken advantage of. Know what you're buying and its frequency of availability or likelihood of coming up again for sale, know where to get stuff used/fragged online...

Power--shopkeeper is in position to offer things, get you things, give you advice, provide you with a friendly ongoing place of getting cool stuff, keep him happy and don't blow this relationship. Conversely, you are in position to choose another offer, to bring your money, to drop $X today if the deal is right vs $Y if not, to tell your friends, to choose to come back, to walk away and wait for a better deal etc.

i can say without a doubt they do their prices better for people they know then new comers to their store...they all do but the big box ones.

imo price should be a solid thing decided when the item was put up for sale)

having worked in a LFS for a decade...

"people they know" should be replaced with "customers with strong prospects of continued spending power"

so it's not really unfair, but it's volume-adjusted pricing.

If the people they know became reluctant to make further purchases and have reached their point of diminishing returns (tank full, not up sizing or getting another tank, have everything they need, just comes in and tries to beat down prices on the few things they need)... then I suspect the degree of discounts offered will likely change.

Asked the gent in one local shop how much a single head of ricordia cost. $80! I said "Oh," turned around, and walked out. I won't be back. I don't need a "buddy discount." I just want to be treated fairly and not exploited.

If he had stretched the cost a little bit I may still have shopped in his store, as it was very pretty. Not $80 pretty, though.

Personally I shop at two stores. I have given these stores 95% of my bussinuss and never asked for a discount but have bartered with them. I ussually get a fair price and even discount for multiple purchases. This is what kept me coming back along with great staff. Even though I don't buy fish anymore I check in regularly to see what frags or hardware is avalible.

I've seen ultra rica at 90$. It could have been a fair price but u could always barter

Big box ones do too ;) But only on the livestock.