LFS Support

[Aquattro]

I guess, to qualify my statements, none of my LFS's really try to gouge on prices. Many/most prices are in line with J&L plus shipping with the convenience of shopping in person.
I agree that if my LFS was charging 40% more for salt, I wouldn't be shopping there either
I don't own a fish store, but the assumption that they make there money on livestock, I think, is wrong. You have shipping costs of water, it's heavy. You need salt in the water, equipment to manage the water, tanks to put the water in. you have to feed and light the livestock, so food, bulbs, etc come into play. Things die, that has to be absorbed by the remaining stock. It takes more staff time to take care of the livestock vs. dusting the drygoods.

At the end of the year, I don't think it's a huge profit margin.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I guess, to qualify my statements, none of my LFS's really try to gouge on prices. Many/most prices are in line with J&L plus shipping with the convenience of shopping in person.
I agree that if my LFS was charging 40% more for salt, I wouldn't be shopping there either
I don't own a fish store, but the assumption that they make there money on livestock, I think, is wrong. You have shipping costs of water, it's heavy. You need salt in the water, equipment to manage the water, tanks to put the water in. you have to feed and light the livestock, so food, bulbs, etc come into play. Things die, that has to be absorbed by the remaining stock. It takes more staff time to take care of the livestock vs. dusting the drygoods.

At the end of the year, I don't think it's a huge profit margin.

I don't think any business in the pet industry delivers a huge margin unless you do get to the size of J&L.

[reefwars]

Here's. My beef with local.....they don't frag its stupid , so a large chalice or acan colony comes in they want 300 and wont frag, so I'm stuck buying something the size of a dinner plate and forced to cut it myself....gets tiresome.

And the selection lately blows all the stores order in the same stiff from the same supplier's, notmuch is catching my eye in stores lately

If it wasn't like this I would spend more in these stores

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by reefwars

And the selection lately blows all the stores order in the same stiff from the same supplier's, notmuch is catching my eye in stores lately

that's more a product selection process. If I'm looking for AI lights and my fish store only sells Radions, I'm going to order wherever I can get the best deal on what I want to buy. Same for coral. If they get crap in, I'm not going to buy it just because it's local

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

that's more a product selection process. If I'm looking for AI lights and my fish store only sells Radions, I'm going to order wherever I can get the best deal on what I want to buy. Same for coral. If they get crap in, I'm not going to buy it just because it's local

True it is I guess for me I shop where's there's coral selection, lately I can't shop local and its one size fits all, it sucks to go to the fishstore and see a awesome acan colony but can't fit it or afford it....the last two times I asked someone to frag something o was pretty much told goodlyck lol

Now with said I wont buy glue online to save $3, and I would def buy everything local if the selection was there. I frequent most of the stores a couple tomes a week

[reefgirl189]

I buy all my stuff from local Alberta shops now. Almost all of them are willing to ship to me on their own time and that really helps, being in a remote location such as Bonnyville.

The one time I bought from a US company I had issues - and I got dinged hard with shipping to send the item back. It wasn't worth it.

The one time I had an issue with a piece of equipment I purchased from a local vendor he was very helpful and even sent me a replacement part before I sent him the defective one. If I had decided to buy said equipment for $50 less from the states it would have cost more to ship the parts back and forth in this case and wouldn't have been worth it.

Big ticket items I do try to buy gently used but I've learned my lesson with going that route too.

There's pos and negs to each side.

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by reefgirl189

I buy all my stuff from local Alberta shops now. Almost all of them are willing to ship to me on their own time and that really helps, being in a remote location such as Bonnyville.

.

This is an important point too, for those of us who are an hour or more drive from a quality LFS, a mail order from a shop like J&L or progressive Reef is often faster than finding the time and spending the gas to drive all the way in to a larger center.

[Slick Fork]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

I guess, to qualify my statements, none of my LFS's really try to gouge on prices. Many/most prices are in line with J&L plus shipping with the convenience of shopping in person.
I agree that if my LFS was charging 40% more for salt, I wouldn't be shopping there either
I don't own a fish store, but the assumption that they make there money on livestock, I think, is wrong. You have shipping costs of water, it's heavy. You need salt in the water, equipment to manage the water, tanks to put the water in. you have to feed and light the livestock, so food, bulbs, etc come into play. Things die, that has to be absorbed by the remaining stock. It takes more staff time to take care of the livestock vs. dusting the drygoods.

At the end of the year, I don't think it's a huge profit margin.

Not suggesting they make a huge profit margin. I have a world of respect for those who run their own business and I do NOT begrudge them a profit or a living. I am positive though, that the bulk of their mark-up comes from livestock as opposed to drygoods.

I am in complete agreement that it takes a lot of time and money to maintain livestock... but if you look at the floor plan of any LFS it's 90% livestock and 10% drygoods (and of that 10% the majority is every-day stuff like filter socks, fish food, lightbulbs, etc.) This tells me that they see livestock as most the most profitable item as a function of $/sqft of retail space so they make sure livestock gets the room it needs to maximize profit. Just like best-buy is almost half big-screen tv's... that's where they make their money.