Quote:
Originally Posted by MMAX
I can assure you there is more than enough demand.
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I'll be the local skeptic.... I really don't think there's enough demand to support a full time store in Red Deer. A Fish store with a salt water selection maybe but not a dedicated salt water store.
Look at it this way, I think most of us buy our drygoods from the mail order guys anyways.... free shipping beats paying for gas to Calgary or Edmonton. So dry goods prices had better be REALLY competitive. My personal threshold to buy local is the lessor of $20 or 10% of the cost I can pick it up for online. If the idea to save on inventory costs is not to stock anything for drygoods... why bother, if I've got to wait I will probably be in Calgary before long or will be able to aquire it from J&L cheaper and faster.
As for livestock, IF there's an excellent selection and pricing then people will probably buy local. If the selection is marginal, the fish not healthy, prices a little high the store owner will find that people are just giving the place a pass.
The other factor will be location. Greg, I know you are dying to set something up at your acreage but I really think all you're going to do tie a whole bunch of your space and money up with inventory that will sit and stagnate. I just don't see your average consumer driving 20 minutes out of town to drop in on your acreage. I'll be honest, if you had something I wanted and I knew the price and health of it before hand I would absolutely come out and buy it from you. However, I would probably NOT feel comfortable showing up at your place and finding that it had Ich, or wasn't the same as advertised or the price was way high etc. and then passing on it. For some reason it's different at someones house as opposed to a store, same with showing up just to browse... and if it's uncomfortable to go as a consumer, people will not go. There's no doubt in my mind, a storefront in town is critical to the success of any aquatic entrepreneur in Red Deer.
As I stated originally, A storefront downtown or in one of the shopping centres at the south end selling mostly freshwater fish is what I see succeeding in Red Deer. Something that your average guy can go in and buy a guppy or some cichlids for his kids and maybe see the coral and sw fish and say "Hey, I'd really like to try that".