Anyone ever thought about their own store??

[cheeks69]

You are totally resonsible ,you relied on bad advice and your fish suffered for it. I've been there and it is not pleasant. Learn as much as you can and then you can smokem' out before they get to ya'

you're right I am responsible my point is if the LFS wants to keep it's customers they are not going to help their cause by taking advantage of them :evil: or by charging rediculous prices for products you can get much cheaper online. Like I said I want to support the LFS and eventually I did find one that was conscientous and I give them most of my business but they are rare JMO :?which is the reason why someday I would like to open my own LFS

 

[reefout]

rant

i recently almost bought a salt water store in spokane, at the last minute,
the people who owned the building came in an screwed up the whole deal,
the sellers and myself had no idea that in the 11th hour, after we both spent considerable time and money on reaching an agreement, some idiot
yokel would nut up and try to take advantage of one or both of us, but in
hind sight i dont see how i could have expected anything else from a po-
dunk town, and it's probably a blessing in disguise.
i also worked at "the best salt water store in the seattle area" boy, that was a real eye opener, at least i learned how not to do things.you cant go from mom and pop pet stores to salt water specialty store and still hire 20 something idiots to run the show, you 've gotta cough it up for pro. help!
also, if your a real jerk that doesnt help either, customers tend to figure
that stuff out.
as for me i've been driving to portland for my stuff, awesome corals,
awesome prices on gear, and great advice!!(ie: seahorse,waves,upscales,
soutas)

 

[Shawnna]

Very interesting thread.......

Especially since I just spent well over a month trying to find a pair of maroon clowns locally.

Ended up ordering them online - paid $20 more total (including the overnight shipping) than what I would have paid had I been able to find them locally. That is what I chose to do to get what I wanted.

Seems to me that this business is really no different than any other business - if someone comes along and can offer better value for the $, they get my business. Isn't that the American way? Look at what Honda did to the auto industry way back when......

As for owning my own store - not on your life! I know my strengths and owning a business isn't one of them.

 

[tamarindthai]

Re: Starting LFS

.

last weekend we found just what this thread talks about. A couple turning their hobby into a business. Very nice folks, in their basement. Pretty good selection and prices. Questions and anwers about experiences, likes, tank habits etc. It is 52 miles, but take longer than the 110 in Portland Traffic from Sumner to N. Seattle yuk!

We ordered several things and took several more home. Went back on shipping day to p/u order and see what else came in. It seems others have found them too Already had many things sold. Just hours of getting it off the plane. Thats good for them. And in the long run for us too. If they can grow at a controlled rate and deal with being tied to the house? I hope so!

Chris[/quote]
i used to be their customer,,and aready had bad experienced with them , ,so ,,good luck you guy

 

[Electrokate]

What is the name of the store in Portland? I would like to see it as I will be there next weekend. Or are you talking about Vancouver? We have a new store here in Oly that I like, their prices are almost exactly the same as things I have seen in Catalogs/websites and you don't have to pay shipping. The staff is nice and knowlegable. Also have this wild idea that I need to personally lay my eyes on any stock I get and prefer captive bred due to bad experiences importing finches which are supposed to be easier to ship than inverts and marine fish, and so I like to give the LFS guys their cash that they definitely earn listening to my stupid questions. Yes, some questions are stupid. I don't have a problem shelling out an extra couple bucks for the small guy. After carefully comparing shipping rates, expected livestock losses, and the time it takes to wade through all the websites to put an order together my time and money is better spent in the LFS hands down. Plus it's more fun, and I can see that the tanks are clean and the staff cares about the stock. Course like one of the posters said, if the owner is a jerk it might seem a little cozier at Fostsersandpetplace.com

 

[H20doctor]

ok my turn, I run my own company for 7 years, If I ran my business like the knowledge at most Salt stores I would be under. These stores have high turnover for employes and low knowdege of the industry. Like people have said some stores thrive and grow and excell in the indusrty and some fail. I would support more local salt store if they had a CLUE. The reason I joined the PSAS is because everyone knows there stuff, the store don't. Look at Paul H in covington he is the man, he read books, set up a frag business and made it happen. As a business owner if you excell at what you do , then word of mouth travels and that's the most powerfull advertising of all.....