Looks like I missed a few posts. Sorry for not replying sooner.
Fish mark ups vary from store to store. I do know that my friend's store's markups have diminished a lot since I was selling fish. In some cases, Bettas for example, the price for commons is the same as it was back in the 70s and 80s. The first price change I saw was recently when Far East breeders raised the price on their multicolored fish opposed to the standard Red, Blue or Green fish. Tail selections have redone what prices shops pay for the fish as well. How much do I sell my fish to the stores? Less than I would to a retail customer but that's because they will buy volume over a retail customer. I would sell to a wholesaler for less than a shop because they will buy more than a single shop would. You can call it a quantity discount program. There has to be room for the stores or wholesalers to make a profit or else they go out of business and then who do I sell my fish to? Retail customers? Only if you buy 12-25 fish at a time and more than once a month.
This next info might P.O. some stores but it should make you all aware just how far off you are in your thoughts on pricing. I can't tell you what those $.99 fish wholesale for today but I can give a price I used to charge stores back in the 80s for common swordtails ( for example). I charged stores $.39-$.42 for a red swordtail. That's about how common you can get. Back then, this was that $.99 fish. Zebra Danios, can it get any cheaper? I charged $.09 for them then and the stores sold them for anywhere from 5/$1.00 to 10/ $1.00 in some cases. They are not money makers. Many stores back then sold fish tanks for exactly what it cost the store. The reason? What good is a tank without a filter, stand, hood, gravel, fish food, etc? So is the store making a killing when you buy a tank? NO. They make something when you buy the other things. What if you are like me and don't buy anything else?
Well, I would get charged a fee for using a credit card to buy the tank because the store was losing money if I didn't buy anything else. So fair is fair. I gladly paid the fee.
Hopefully, corporate will get the message if the OP keeps the section profitable and the management recognizes the reason why and they implement it in other stores. It will not be easy. Case in point, there is a chain store here in FL ( I won't name names for personal reasons) whose fish buyer was my customer in a retail store I worked at and the owner was my wholesale customer when he only had 1 store. Even today, when I mention to the employees my relationship to their boss or bosses, they tell me they have either never met them or even know how to contact them and I can't sell the store my fish unless I get their approval. Talk about a corporate chain of command!
I don't have the patience for that so Mom & Pop shops are going to be getting my fish.
So hopefully the OP succeeds. I'm pulling for it to happen. Nothing but good can come from a successful outcome. There's been a number of good ideas given here. Some are realistic, some, IMO, are not possible or just unlikely at best. But any move forward is a step in the right direction. Look at it this way, Edison didn't invent the light bulb on his first try. But he learned something to use on each next step.
Hope this helps
