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Originally Posted by reefman90
Dont look at them as the enemy.
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It's not whether or not they are the enemy. It's about whether or not they are doing anything for the hobby. As far as I can tell, the mandate of most of the LFS' around here is to sell as much as possible, as fast as possible, to whoever they can. The fact that none of them have qualms with stocking and selling to newbies animals that should be left to experienced aquarists is fairly good evidence for this (octopuses, sea horses, sharks, sea apples, finicky anemones, fish that belong in temperate water tanks...). If it weren't for this site, I'd have been done with this hobby long ago, after trying to keep an anemone with NO fluorescent lighting in a 20 gal, as was suggested to me by one Calgary LFS which I will leave unnamed.
Why is it that LFS' seem to always stock the gear that most of us Canreefers agree is low-end. Crappy protein skimmers, rarely metal halides... I'm not sure I really know, but perhaps it is because they know they can get a better markup on stuff they can buy cheap from the wholesalers. Better to sell more for less than less for more right? There's more money to be made selling Big Mombasa skimmers or whatnot than Euroreefs.
Regarding employees, I wouldn't feel comfortable telling them what I think they are doing wrong... first off I'm not that aggressive, even though I am fairly outgoing, and secondly I'm rather young, and ageism against youth is rampant in our society. I have a feeling if I told any of them how I feel I'd just hear a bunch of BS back. I would also be willing to hypothesize that most LFS staff would be perfectly happy to give an enquiring customer a BS answer rather than admit they don't know and will check into it... after all, checking into it takes time, and time is money. Sorry, but I've worked in retail, and even in the computer industry, I was essentially told to lie to customers on a daily basis ("this product is perfect for you, there's nothing better or cheaper", even when the same product is half the price down the street). You can't tell me the majority of LFS' aren't the same way. I think it was Canadian Man who went into a local store when he was getting into the hobby, and walked out with a quote on everything he'd "need", for a measly $6,000 as I recall (55 gal tank or something as well, and you can bet it didn't include halides or a CA reactor). That's the way to get people into the hobby.
It's not that there are no good, honest, intelligent LFS employees out there. But I'd venture to guess that they are the minority.
Sorry, had to get all that off my chest.
