Nerve of some people, please read up first

[HooKooDooKu]

I was warned in my petsmart to not to tell people about fishless cycle; against petsmart policy so I wrote petsmart a letter hopefully they will get it.

So dont blame the employees blame the business like petsmart, petco not training there staff and letting people know how to setup tanks properly.

Most customers anyway in petsmart I noticed want to do it there way and dont care, they want a tank and fish right away.

That's because PetSmart doesn't want you to do a fishless cycle. They instead want you to have to use their products to remove ammonia and other "problems" from the water. And unfortunately, I've heard several people talk about problems they were having with a new fish and the pet store than sold them all these various medications. But based on their descriptions, the "problem" was actually ammonia poisoning.

 

[SWerner13]

the difference is lfs vs big chain stores. chain stores only carry fish to sell the other products. one of the reasons some of the big ones give what 7 day refund with little questions is to get you back in hopes to sell you other stuff. the big chain stores dont make money off their fish live stock.

I do work at a chain store. The mark-up is high on most things but live stock is very high as well. dogs coming in for one or two hundred bucks going for over 1000. Like I mentioned earlier. a 65 or 70 dollar "dwarf lion fish" costs me 9 dollars. Which means its costs them less.

Not to be argumentative at all. I'm not passionate about this point at all I just figured I would share my experience as well. Please don't think I'm fuming behind my computer at those silly AA people who think store don't make money off fish!!! haha thats not the case at all I just figured I would throw out there what I have seen.

 

[cwt]

Hmm, an Oscar, cichlid and a pleco... sounds like that ad I saw recently. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f23/classified-ads-with-overstuffed-tanks-114882.html

I have no complaints with my LFS, but then there's really only one LFS, the rest are general pet stores, and I don't ask for advice at those.

 

[WhiteDevil]

Just to note, in any fish store whether it be a chain or 'mom n pop' shop, livestock is the lowest profit margin. The majority of the profit comes from food and product sales that accompanies aquarium setups. Majority of the time you will only find such low costs for fish under $1 is through transshipping, of which you must purchase in very large quantities and expect large % losses. Wholesale costs vs. profit margins aren't exactly stellar unless you are configuring your business to that of Walmart: Buy in bulk and sell low = volume sales. Few have the financial resources to do this. Also, from what I have experienced, most of your transshipping companies do not credit fish losses so there is a bit of "biting the bullet" at play. That doesn't mean you cannot make a profit through livestock, but you must plan your niche carefully.

I guess the single most important factor to remember is that all business are there to make money and if that wasn't the case they would either not be in business or giving their stocks away for free. It is up to the consumer to make the educated decision and gain the knowledge prior to purchasing; otherwise, it is a revolving door.

I used to work for a mom and pop, we went and hand selected our livestock. SOME fish were pennies and some were hefty money with the hopes of selling if the buyer backs out.

The problem with places like deathco and pets-mart is they do buy bulk yet they do not pass that long, instead they mark the item up to increase they projected margins for the rats on wall st. Thats how you make money in this country.

I work in returned merchandise processing, I process returns for a 185K sq ft retail store, the mark up is stupidly rediculous especially on the pet items. Those items are so profitable that we make more money selling a tritronics or smartdog collar over a gun.