[terryp01]

Okay y'all (that's Texas for all of you). I think we all have a tendency to look and negotiate for the lowest price on anything we are trying to buy.

Hopefully, what we are able to determine is that the lowest price must mean something is being given up to meet that price. I have seen some items priced lower than wholesale. Of course, we all understand leader products and once they get you in the store you just have to have that 100.00 fish which they make about 75.00 on it.

I am sure you all have heard the news about DOT COMS going out of business right and left. This is because of poor management and no mark/profit. Remember PETS.COM that bought Flying Fish.com? Pets filed bankruptcy but Flying fish continued to operate as a successful business.

I only ask that if you go to your LFS and ask them questions that you at least buy something from them every once in a while. I purchase all of my food (frozen) from the LFS and recommend her on my website. There is no way an LFS can compete with the mass marketers on the web such as Jeff's Exotic Fish, Flying Fish, etc since they have store rental, employee costs, shipping, etc. Some of the onlines (oh yes they do) have a relationship with the wholesalers and pull the items from the stock and ship it.

The typical mark-up is about 200% for fish/corals online and about 300-400% in the store. You want that five day guarantee you are going to pay for it.

Remember, if all of us always shopped and bought the lowest price we could find, quality would suffer and most of us would be unemployed.

I saw an posting on one of the bulletin boards where someone purchased a Metal Halide bulb from a website at $125.00 and it was dropped shipped from the distributer and they forgot to black out the charge to the internet site. The cost of the bulb was about 89.00 and the person had a cow (Texas, means upset) that the internet company made so much. However, the person was happy with the price until they saw the cost. Ever heard of supply and demand? Go to your LFS and buy a metal halide bulb and see what you will pay, think they are in this business to give it away. I THINK NOT.

Being cost aware is not being cheap. Being cheap is being not so smart.

Okay, soapbox retired.