muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on May 31, 2011 22:12:09 GMT 11
So a recent comment sprung to mind an idea
I know most of you buy through here unless absolutely necessary to get from a LFS
as most of you know I work at all about fish
what I want to know is, what we can do for you
I want all comments, aslong as there constructive
what would make you buy more in store
what do you want to see in there
much appreciated guys!
|
|
|
Post by firthy13 on May 31, 2011 22:46:05 GMT 11
i have been going to your store since the day the store opened. and pop in every few weeks to check out any new stock. i have no criticisms at all. i think Jason and Sherry(i think that's how you spell her name) have done a great job with the store. All the staff, including yourself, really know their stuff and are very helpful. but in this economic climate, everything comes down to money! the cost of living has gotten so high, luxuries like having a fish tank are ofter not considered in a persons budget and there are only a few silly people like ourselves that do it. i understand that a business needs to be profitable, after-all it is not a charity. After paying for stock, rent, insurance, staff etc a profit still needs to be made on each item. if prices are competitive with the competition, people will come. unfortunately for all local businesses the internet is their biggest competition. anyways, keep up the good work.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 31, 2011 22:50:47 GMT 11
My biggest gripe with LFS are the range of rarer species, yes, yes, i know its a redundant arguement as if they were available they wouldnt be rare lol. I seem to be at the stage i can order everything i want online from the comfort of my lounge room including fish and recieve it in 1-3 working days.
I should support the LFS but i have extenuating circumstances with my kids problems so its just easier to go electronic.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 31, 2011 22:57:41 GMT 11
Maybe a short newsletter with the species coming in or new species you havent stocked for a while.
Im still looking for some half beaks in good condition They seem to be one of those species that needs to be taken home the day they come in to keep them in top condition.
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on May 31, 2011 23:16:02 GMT 11
Firthy I enjoy your visits very few people I can just babble it out with over fish! And dean I see your point, we are trying to develop into that, problem is once again pricing especially for frehwaters by the time we get it to store it's too much, I would love to stock them as it stands we've managed to get a decent cheap supply of Calvus and firefins that are walkinnout at $50 but so far that's th best we can do we are trying to improve that and halfbeaks for some reason have gone quiet on stocklists hatchets however are on special
|
|
|
Post by neilmar on May 31, 2011 23:21:57 GMT 11
what i dont like about going into a fish shop
1,its like walking into a lollie store for the first time when your a kid,
2, when i go into a fs, i always walk out with more then what i wanted,
3,i would'nt say that a fs is over expensive, but they have a business to run,so you have to expect the higher price,
my wife hates when i go into a fish shop, cause when i say im only going to be a sec, the after an hour, she comes in going of her head, lol
but i will want to call in to say hi, and see what you have, and ill be going in there by myself, cheers neil
|
|
|
Post by joller on May 31, 2011 23:46:28 GMT 11
i hate seeing fighting fish in jars because not only is it cruel as but also because it promotes the idea to people that you can keep fighting fish in jars. i know you guys are trying to turn a buck but i also reckon you guys should be reinforcing good fishkeeping practices the same thing goes for live feeder fish, being that its cheaper and more nutritional to feed fish food (and more hygeninc) this is another way fish shops are promoting bad fishkeeping practices
the message i get when i see these things is that you guys don't actually care about fish.
although i do belive you guys at least keep your fighters jars in a heated tank which is nice to see for a change, and if they have water circulation even better (cant remember off the top of my head)
this is aimed at LFS in general and not just all about fish.
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on Jun 1, 2011 0:04:46 GMT 11
Feeders we try and minimise, we have yabbies for our larger and finicky eating natives
which with barramundi it usually happens sooner or later
other then that we list as rosy barbs, what people do with them is there choice, personally Ill always recommend commercial pellets, especially when it comes to cichlids but unfortunately there will always be people that won't be told or who cgaf.
As for fighters it can be troublesome housing them sometimes
we have tried separate bay systems for them which didn't work to well we've tried in our main tanks, which then we cannot house enough to sell and they get attacked, we have tried floating fry catchers but eith jumping it leads back to previous one
best result we have found have been jars, in which we w/c daily to refresh the water
i do see your point as per the keeping practices, the problems can also come with commercial fish tanks aimed at bettas, but practicality for keeping that many instore is unfortunately jars
if you have suggestion I'd be well open to it
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on Jun 1, 2011 0:07:43 GMT 11
And Neil, it does get a bit like that
and if staff are anything decent of a salesperson that can never help the credit card
if you know what your talking about you can sell a banana to a monkey
but thus they are the joys of fish keeping
be sure to introduce yourself if you stop in I always enjoy putting faces to names
|
|
|
Post by neilmar on Jun 1, 2011 0:28:09 GMT 11
yea muzzie will do,
talk about selling bananas to a monkey, i sure hope they can afford them,
cause i brought a kg of narnnas the other day $12 per kg, guess im the monkey hey(lol) oh well the little chimps love em so we need to keep feeding them
|
|
|
Post by maxfish on Jun 1, 2011 0:40:41 GMT 11
Hi I am not commenting on the particular prices in petshops .. but first just like to make a comment on prices on things like new DVD's or going to cinemas. For life of me I cannot see how some new movies on DVD's would cost up to $50 each considering the technology we have these days that make them almost few cents to make..Yet the prices we see in shops etc are there due to royalties, taxes people in the middle etc.. So no wonder piracy etc are the prevalent and you do feel ripped off. Yes many years ago with video tapes there was a good cost in making quality tapes before you got them ..however the price never dropped as the cost of making them reduced. Yet I am sure if they were say below $10 (for new ones)or so people would not even bother with piracy etc ... and I am sure lot more of those royalties etc would flow through the system..to people that deserve it
Similarly going to cinemas .. I have not been lately ..but from what I remember ..you could buy a DVD for the cost of one cinema ticket .. And few times I've been in the past ..during week days ..there be only a handful of people in the cinema and yet still charging the exorbitant price to watch it.. Don't these people get it running these places .. say if you half the cost ..you probably fill the place and make 10 times the amount on that night ..compared to few people you have on one day and make only few bucks ..
So what is the moral of all this .. well maybe with respect to aquarium fish .. aquarium shops would have to compete with local breeders etc .. so how can they compete ..well maybe like the suggestion above .. Quantity is the way to go .. Yes have your regular prices for one or two off for people that just walk of the street ..but have a fairly good reduction for 5 or 10 or more .. for serious aquarists.. I know in my case I like to buy small fry or juveniles in numbers .. and have gone to aquarium shops .. but in most case I would be lucky to get the fish under $5each even though I mentioned I would need 10 or more .. so what is my next move ..forums etc So moving lot more stock with lesser profit ..is lot better in the end than selling only few items with a big margin and hoping some one would buy them some day.. another option is ..on stock that does not move ..sell at cost ...at least it is out of the system and you can use the money for new stock. I hope some of this helps .. Mike
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on Jun 1, 2011 0:50:42 GMT 11
Neil it's a bit like that recently
wish they'd hurry up and come back down in price my lil boy loves them bit we can't afford them at that price
And thanks mike I appreciate any feedback we will offer bulk discounts
still hard tobget close to online prices though unfortunately
and one thing I forgot to mention you may need to excuse any spellin mistakes or wrong words I operate off my iPhone and it likes to do it's own thing
|
|
|
Post by oldmate on Jun 1, 2011 1:20:55 GMT 11
I think most people would be shocked at how little profit there is in fish the bit that makes it hard is people want good money for there fish but want fish for next to nothing when you get a full break down of how much it really costs to sell a fish there isn't much money in it How many shops are really strggeling to keep the doors open
|
|
|
Post by danielwynne1 on Jun 1, 2011 7:25:45 GMT 11
i have been into some fish shops/ pet shops and sometimes i see filthy dirty tanks and i no you cant help fish dying after being in a big for a few days but i see people leave dead fish in the tanks they are selling out of and that can cause a break out in disease iv found that hunter pets is they best pet shop that i have been to in ages they have a great variety and there always helpfull and there tanks are clean 99% of the time and i have never seen a dead fish in them
|
|
|
Post by firthy13 on Jun 1, 2011 8:37:00 GMT 11
mabye you could talk to jason and get him to advertise some new stock or even support this forum a little bit and do specials for NAS members?? once we are in the store we are more then likely going to purchase other items (Neilmar) and yes i do remember what happen on Aquaholics with all about fish a few years back, but as i believe those trouble makers that causes those issues are not on this forum.
this is directed at fish stores in general and not at all about fish specifically.
Colour Enhancing Food! i know alot of CEF is all natural and is mainly just beta carotene in high concentrations. (same stuff is in NLS at lower quantities) but i feel its ripping off the buyers. esspecially when people that arnt in to breeding fish and want males that look nice for a display get their fish home and after 3-4 days their fish looses its colour. on the other hand experienced fish breeders may find a species they are after in a store, but the whole tank looks like males when they are predominantly after females. i dont think anyone benifits from this food and it tends to deter people buying fish there.
mabye instead of colouring the fish, have a set of fish profiles with pictures of the adult fish to place under the tanks to show people that if you buy this little silver electric blue, it will one day look like this.
|
|
|
Post by joller on Jun 1, 2011 10:10:17 GMT 11
oh yeah as firthy said i think little pictures and species profiles tacked onto the tank are great
although in one shop i saw a profile for a blue acara below a tank of green terrors haha i told the guy they werent blue acaras and he assured me they were (they werent)
|
|
|
Post by oldmate on Jun 1, 2011 10:26:30 GMT 11
hey we all know fish die and just because there is a dead fish in the tank doesnt mean that they shouldnt sell any from that tank but i do agree that shops should do a few "dead runs" through out the day i understand this but the average punter just sees that they are dead which means that the lot are sick.
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on Jun 1, 2011 10:48:18 GMT 11
Exactly, we do on average 3 runs a day and that pretty much covers us
if we werent to sell from a tank thats had a dead one in there all our tanks would be shut down becuase we lose them overnite and cant get them out
Mind you if we happen to notice a trend or higher then average loss rate we do shut the tank down from sales out of it
and yanke is dead on the mark, retail is down 14% on average, which one of the worst hit is the pet industry
to shed a bit of light, on average we budget $45000 months it costs us $25000 in overheads, leaving us with $20000 for purchasing now heres where online retailers beat us, they dont have to make $45000 out of $20000 worth of stock stores do unfortunately
This month is the worst reported month in our shop, no guys were not oging to be going anywhere anytime soon, but it is very tough
|
|
yanke
Moderator
Posts: 436
|
Post by yanke on Jun 1, 2011 12:46:48 GMT 11
oooooooo i said that lol
and yanke is dead on the mark, retail is down 14% on average, which one of the worst hit is the pet industry
lol i know that lol yanke
|
|
yanke
Moderator
Posts: 436
|
Post by yanke on Jun 1, 2011 12:55:25 GMT 11
hi the thing i have with lfs is they don't feed the fish or feed them little food to cut down on cost then u get the fish home and it takes u 2 month to fatten the fish up so they look good yanke
|
|
|
Post by oldmate on Jun 1, 2011 21:29:58 GMT 11
i dont think that to many lfs care about the cost of fish food to much most of the lfs i know of are given food for the shop as part of the deal for selling their food but there is some of the wholesalers that i know dont feed enough as to save on the problems that come fish being in bags for 24 hours or more sometimes. as a rule do you get many deaths with your fighters? as i have found that keeping fighters in (smaller) tanks is much more successful then putting then in larger tanks.
|
|
muzzie
Labidochromis
Posts: 130
|
Post by muzzie on Jun 1, 2011 22:10:22 GMT 11
Yeah mortality rate was a huge difference between jars and in larger tanks
and oldmate is right, we feed our fish daily, and pretty heavy at that
we get shop use foods for selling, aside from our cihlid pellets which we buy what's on special in bulk
|
|
|
Post by danielwynne1 on Jun 2, 2011 7:33:34 GMT 11
if i can tell use anything i would say never buy from pet shop he takes little or no care of his fish or any of his live stock for sale his tanks are never clean the fish are always eating dead fish and i have brought some stuff from there and they had disease. last year i got a small 1.5 ft tank from him when i first started breeding fish again and it was crackd so i through it out and had to buy my stuff else were everyone that buys stuff from there say its **** quality so just hope none of use make that mistake
|
|
|
Post by oldmate on Jun 2, 2011 10:43:37 GMT 11
if i can tell use anything i would say never buy from pet shop he takes little or no care of his fish or any of his live stock for sale his tanks are never clean the fish are always eating dead fish and i have brought some stuff from there and they had disease. last year i got a small 1.5 ft tank from him when i first started breeding fish again and it was crackd so i through it out and had to buy my stuff else were everyone that buys stuff from there say its **** quality so just hope none of use make that mistake I dont think this is the right thing to be putting on here.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jun 2, 2011 10:52:28 GMT 11
Your right, derogetry comments will not be tolerated and the post and in some cases the user removed.
|
|
yanke
Moderator
Posts: 436
|
Post by yanke on Jun 2, 2011 13:14:05 GMT 11
hi all i modify the posts in here u can not say the name of the pet shops in the forum sorry but thats the way it is u can talk to dean about it if u want
yanke
|
|
|
Post by craig on Jun 2, 2011 13:54:57 GMT 11
hi all i modify the posts in here u can not say the name of the pet shops in the forum sorry but thats the way it is u can talk to dean about it if u want yanke Does this apply to both positive and negative experiences. So am I allowed to post "Today I bought some great fish from Shop ABC"?
|
|
yanke
Moderator
Posts: 436
|
Post by yanke on Jun 2, 2011 14:17:01 GMT 11
hi positive u can but with negative no they can come back and get the forum saying u are hurting there good name u can say what town they are in but can't give there name
yanke
|
|
|
Post by neilmar on Jun 2, 2011 14:54:21 GMT 11
i must say,
ive had no trouble with any pet shops, only thing is that when i go in there,i cant seemed to get out of there, i just want to buy the whole shop,
and as for that other shop that was mention a few posts ago, i use to buy all my fish from him, and never had no trouble with the fish,and we used to breed budgies and use to sell the to him, he payed good dollar for the birds, and no one never complained,,
cheers neil
|
|
|
Post by oldmate on Jun 2, 2011 15:19:35 GMT 11
maybe instead of a members night you could try a forum night. maybe have a bit of a lucky door prize or something maybe. im happy to donate a few fish or something as well in a similar way to our meetings
|
|