Quote:
Originally Posted by Enigma
Asked the gent in one local shop how much a single head of ricordia cost. $80! I said "Oh," turned around, and walked out. I won't be back. I don't need a "buddy discount." I just want to be treated fairly and not exploited.
If he had stretched the cost a little bit I may still have shopped in his store, as it was very pretty. Not $80 pretty, though.
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I think I know the one you're talking about. Regardless, one shop tries to have ultra high end stuff where prices are super high. I believe the guy is a bit mislead... because he needs to think of his customers as groups (marketing calls segments). He's got stuff that sells to maybe 10% of the reef hobbyists out there... If Calgary is 1.2M people... there may be 10K people with aquariums... and maybe 10% (=1K) people with marine set ups. Maybe a few hundred people are actively buying stuff for their tanks... and the fraction that seeks and affords ultra high end stuff is dozens... it's a tough business model to have a client base of dozens of people in the discretionary spending category.
Then the rest of us, feel insulted at the pricing. He once tried to sell me a 3" diameter hollywood stunner chalice for $300, with the logic that 1/2" frags of it sell for $25 on eBay... that logic works if it weren't so readily available locally and you fetch $25 a frag on a good day. He's got to let go of his margin.
Many LFS get stuck with 'the formula' in their head. To account for losses, labor, shipping etc... I'll simply take my cost and multiply it by X factor. Well, you can't do that on an item that cost you $100... you have to be happier with a slimmer margin to move it consistently out the door and cultivate return customers on the high end stuff.