Stores loose money on Boxing Day sales?
 

if not, sure be nice to see these prices all the time.

agreed!!!

It's not so much the cost of the fish, corals and supplies that is expensive but the crazy cost of transportation that hurts the bottom line. For instance, a few hundred dollars worth of livestock can easily be over $1000 in shipping, transhipping fees, etc.

They lose money on one or 2 products which are "door crashers" and then they rape you on everything else.

Trust me, I sold home theatre equipment for 5 years.

The tv is at cost or just below cost. But the cables, hd box, warranty, etc have a lot of markup

Same thing with fish stuff. Most people that bought 30 dollar boxes of salt probably ended up spending on other things that had markup for sure

Shipping is expensive on livestock because its time sensitive. But dry goods are way cheaper to ship

I think typical dry goods on a day to day basis have at least a 50% to 60% markup... as for corals and fish, it's probably 50% ( before shipping).

Stuff like groceries at the big box markets could be as low as 2% but they have huge volumes.

msjboy

I think it's more like 30% on dry goods and 50% on livestock

Any business running on that margin will not be in business for long, commercial overhead is costly, the sales you see this time of year are typical for business looking to unload excess inventory from Christmas, anyone that has ever worked retail will tell you Jan and Feb are usually pretty lean months. That being said it is nice to score a deal or two for those who have any money left after Cashmas.

Absolutely! I'd figure another 0 on the end of those figures. Some higher end stuff is marked up less, 10 or 20%, but some dry goods are marked up 100% or more. Livestock can be up to 300% or more. figure costs of shipping, covering losses in shipping, supplying the environment to keep it, staff to maintain it, food, the shelf and fridge space to keep the food in, water, etc. It all adds up..
Salt for example is sold at close to cost, mostly because the market has driven it to that. So if the store doubles or triples the cost of the fish to go in that salt, I'm ok with that, as without profit, there wouldn't be a store to shop at.
As for the original question, yes, some stores lose some money on some items.

^ +1 Dry goods are alot easier to sell at cost or below as said, cause they mark up everything else anywhere from 10% or more to cover costs, Like brad said fish can be marked up as much as 300% I sold 1 1/2" Cichlid fry to a LFS once for 2.50 a piece and they sold them for 16.95 at the same size. but they have to do this to pay staff and power bills are enormous in Fish stores