This is just my position on an LFS selling plumbing supplies:
I would
NEVER pay LFS prices for plumbing fittings and supplies. Home Depot's prices are already ridiculous compared to wholesale prices from a plumbing wholesaler so I don't see it being worth while for an LFS (plus HD has a pathetic selection - don't shop there for fittings either). For example, last week I made a rack in my tank to support my SPS frags while I cooked my LR. I grabbed 10' of sch40 1/2" PVC, 8 x 1/2" sch40 PVC 90's, 8 x 1/2" sch40 PVC T's, and a 1-1/4" sch80 PVC 90 (for the output of my MCE600 so it would be gray in color) and it cost me all of $7. No LFS can afford to purchase wholesale plumbing supplies, display them and sell them at anywhere near those prices at a mark-up that justified the space they'd take up in the store in a bunch of bins sorted by size. That shopping list would have cost me around $30 or more at a LFS. If I walked into an LFS and saw them selling those fittings at that price I'd be a bit angry - not intentionally but just miffed that anyone would try to sell me something at 500% more than I should be paying for it.
Maybe some people can appreciate the convenience of getting those things at an LFS at a premium mark-up but I compare it to going to Safeway and buying a blender - they're not an appliance store and they should stick to what they do best.
An LFS is a great place to buy specialty plumbing supplies like Locline fittings but not your basic PVC fittings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap
1. Euro-reef nano-skimmer
2. Plumbing supplies: John guest fittings, also some of the harder to find pvc plumbing parts, whatever the pieces are you would need to hook up a calcium reactor to a return pump output, the parts for making a durso, parts for gate modding a skimmer, ball valves, unions etc. I have spent hours looking at home depot and plumbing stores for various parts, if you had a big bin of the commonly needed plumbing parts that would bring people into your store and they would buy something else while they were there.
3. Plug-in GFI's
|