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#12
10-21-2012, 04:00 AM
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It also kind of embarrassing to ask price of each livestock one by one and its even more embarrassing when the price is way out of the league of the wallet and one have to say "oh well I will pass". Its always better its have the price posted on so that one can silently pass along with something like "oh well, maybe next month!". Like once I had to hear "man, you are cheap" when I kept on asking price and kept passing on :P 
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#13
10-21-2012, 04:07 AM
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I miss having a store that wasn't a 45+ minute drive from the south side of the city.
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-- Tony My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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#14
10-21-2012, 04:09 AM
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I grew up lugging buckets in my family's LFS in Halifax for 10 years before getting into marine ornamental aquaculture production/sales/export/management in Florida/Puerto Rico. I'm no longer in the fish business, but rather enjoy it now as a local hobbyist. Nice thing about Calgary (for hobbyists) is that there are a lot of choices in marine LFS... more so in terms of store to people population ratio than most other cities.
Without naming names: One LFS I like because their prices are the best around, and fortunately, I don't really rely on LFS for guidance... some of their advice is quite unbalanced. Their prices are so low that it's hard to find fish left for sale there because everyone buys them up and keeps them on hold in their tanks until they're ready to go, so you're going in and drooling over someone else's paid fish. They are also willing to frag their big pieces. On top of that, they are friendly. Another one, has some nice displays to look at, good variety of fish, but I don't always trust their livestock health. Also, their price is a bit high on livestock and non-sale hardware. There's no question that this big box store has a strategy of getting hobbyists from their 2 gallon gold fish bowl phase all the way through to the infancy of their marine keeping phase, and leave the experienced hobbyist with their dry goods specials or really hard to find marine fish (to be quarantined DIY). Another one has livestock that's not always the best prices nor best health, but hardware is consistent with what I know is MSRP instead of stretching for a bigger margins. Sometimes sales here gives good deals on dry goods. Another all-rounded shop targeting hobbyists from fish bowls through to moderate experience reef keeping phase. Another one is a good in between... livestock prices are reasonable, the guy is friendly, I feel good giving him my business even though it's not the cheapest around. Even though at first he didn't know I was experienced, his advice has always been consistent, solid, and fair. For example, he wouldn't try to convince me that I NEED all kinds of different additives for a reef tank. This shop's strategy is obviously to do different from big box stores with whom he cannot compete with, so he has no freshwater, no tanks for sale, only marine fish & corals, some basic hard goods... picking up moderate to experienced hobbyists nut at reasonable prices... does not bother with entry level marine livestock (softies/leathers/condylactis/flame scallops etc... for example). Another one has really really nice stuff at prices that I know are really really exorbitant (coming from the marine livestock wholesale/export/retail business, I am still on wholesale supplier lists). His stuff is nice because they stay around for a while. I don't mind buying some items that are reasonably priced (compared to fair market value and local big box stores, given a small premium in price for good health), but there are stuff I don't even bother asking the price tag on... in truth, most days I don't even bother stopping here unless I am hunting for something that the other guys don't have in stock at the moment. PS-the guy is consistently very grumpy. Not sure this guy is a better businessman than hobbyist... as you have to be in the service business if you are retail. Reminds me of professors who are strong scientists but shouldn't be teachers. Another one I hear is great but has not been open since I got back into the hobby and having moved to Calgary, a niche high end livestock place offering reasonable prices by having low overhead... perhaps too low overhead of an area lacking a security system? Another one I hear is interesting but have yet to visit. in my experience dealing with independent LFS accounts throughout the US, my advice is: You have to be aware of who you're playing with and against. Who you're playing with are your customers... are they people in the neighbourhood (like your local Petland)? or are they people that seek and find you (then, what do most of them seek? $300 corals or $50 corals?)? Who you're playing against are big box stores, online operators, home fraggers/farmers. Choose a strategy to compete with big box stores/online shops/hobbyist fragging (you can't do it on hard goods, you don't have floor space for tanks). That will leave you to choose between high quality quarantined livestock or high volume sales based on price. -online forums and hobbyist producers can go either way, for you or against you. Accordingly, most try to stay out of this game. Consider a program to absorb their production for store credits. That said, you should have an attractive offer in trade and not take advantage of their position of limited outlet... or they will find their own outlet online. By the time that their production product no longer fetches sales for your store, same will apply should they try to sell online (eg. red montipora, GSP), which then is time that the producer has to smarten up and produce something else. -give better service and advice than the big box stores, as they strive for lower operational costs to offset their higher overhead, they tend to have higher staff turnovers. This limits their knowledge build and consistency in advice, but not their friendliness (if applicable). -try different wholesaler/suppliers. Get better survival rates and different stock than your competitors. All LFSs know this, nothing new here. Last edited by Reef_Geek; 10-21-2012 at 04:23 AM.
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#15
10-21-2012, 04:54 AM
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i know AI in edmonton a few years ago offered to do deliverys on some things, maybe an idea like that could be tweaked:P
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#16
10-21-2012, 05:12 AM
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Decent stock all the time with good variety ( i have 1 1/2 hr drive to any store ) prices clearly marked, list of available stock that can be ordered WITH prices, websites that are updated regularly & fast response to email inquires.
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Feed the bear goodies, make a new friend, don't feed the bear............... 8' - 165gal Reef DIY LED's Build 2012 Nano Contest Winner Febuary 2013 POTM Winner 300 gal + 60 gal Complete DIY Build
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#17
10-21-2012, 05:13 AM
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__________________
Feed the bear goodies, make a new friend, don't feed the bear............... 8' - 165gal Reef DIY LED's Build 2012 Nano Contest Winner Febuary 2013 POTM Winner 300 gal + 60 gal Complete DIY Build
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#19
10-21-2012, 05:20 AM
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The store I use to work at in Calgary didn't mark their prices on the tanks due to the sheer variety of animals in each tank (you wouldn't be able to see the livestock through the wall of grease pen), but everyone had a VERY firm grasp on livestock value. Prices didn't change from hour to hour, day to day like one would imagine.
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This and that.
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#20
10-21-2012, 05:26 AM
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which brings me to the next point of dedicated systems , i personally want to see sps with sps zoos with zoos and corals of the same species etc housed together, not scattered in 15 different locations in the store, to me thats clutter.....if creating a reef is the goal then do a display only . sometimes i feel like im shopping in the $5 bin of movies at walmart....i never find a movie i like and settle for a cheap laugh i had years ago lol :P
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