How many shop at Big Al's?

[dan44]

Our nearest Big Al's is in Burnaby (BC) on North Road at Lougheed Hwy. Their prices are a bit too high though. I remember the days when you could get 3 Neon tetras for 99 cents. Now they're like ~$3.99 each! And you're not guaranteed that you'll get a healthy group.

And now with the onslaught of the HST, fish will become even more expensive when it kicks in. For now, I think I'll stick to my Mickey Mouse Platties and my pleco...

I do get some of my supplies there too, like filter floss and accessories but I do find those a bit expensive too.

In one word, Big Al's = Expensive

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I dont use dr f and S any more. They take too long to get orders out. Aquacave. has cheaper shipping and I get orders in about 2 or 3 days. I could wait a week or more from fosters. Also aquacave is a site sponsor. Also they are cheaper than fosters on most products. As far as staff at all lfs, if they knew anything they would work at sea world. I go in expecting them to be stupid then if they know something I can be surprised.

I'll have to check out Aquacave, but I guess I don't expect super-fast shipping when you can order as much as you want for $5.99 flat rate. I just ordered 20 lbs of miracle mud, an 8-bulb T5HO fixture, a 200g box of Instant Ocean, and a smattering of other items, all for $5.99 shipping - over $660 worth of stuff. The salt alone is $35 shipping anywhere else, and even stand alone salt w/shipping is cheaper than Petco or anywhere else in town.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I dont use dr f and S any more. They take too long to get orders out. Aquacave. has cheaper shipping and I get orders in about 2 or 3 days. I could wait a week or more from fosters.

Just FYI, I placed that order of Tuesday early afternoon CST and I received everything in the order today (Friday) by 4:30 pm, including the light fixture that was on backorder. My last order took about a week, but that was during Xmas time...to be expected.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I have ordered from both the drs and aquacave, and both orders were shipped very quickly. i ordered both of them on sundays, and received them the following wednesday or thursday. drs foster and smith have the $5.99 flat rate shipping right now, and there is a $5 off coupon on one of the coupon websites, which basically means $.99 shipping.

 

[jimmy c]

i find my local big als expencive for african cichlids. I bought everything from there except my tanks, untill i found a good website with other breeders. now, if i can avoid it, ill use my other website for buying items (fluval fx5 for 230$ brand new in box, warrenty and extra media) and use big als as little as possiable or in case of emergencys.

also, overheard some staff members not giving good advise re: some fish to put in with other fish and the staff member said "i dont care, they will come back and spend more $"

so i go there and get what i know and leave..... however, the 1 in scarborough (toronto) i have never had a problem with enjoy going to that store.

 

[johnanthony74]

Hi all i am fromm the niagara region and well i haven't been to a big al's as of yet. I usually go to a couple a local fish stores that treat me great. I am planning onn checcking out big als tho to see what its all about and from what i have been reading skip hamilton and drive right on up to oakville??? sound accurate ?

 

[Wlegrow]

I've been to the scarborough store and the Steeles store. Have to say I like the Scarborough store more. I haven't felt real comfortable with the advice I got in either of the stores - more like they just wanted a sale as opposed to really finding out what the customer wants. BUT - I got fantastic advice from calling the customer service line of the website!! If I ever have a question, I'll definitely call them! Otherwise, prices are good in store and online.

 

[gallowchris]

Big Als is the best! When i lived in TO up till a few weeks ago I went to the Scarb location. Great stock (great for Rams) Scott the fish room manager is fantastic. Going to the Oakville location which is also great, little less selection but Ivan fish room manager is also great, very helpfull and wants happy customers. He knows alot so if you have a question or problem present it nicely and then listen. I just had a problem with a batch of Kribs from the store, Ivan took care of it no problem. One thing I learned about Oakville has 7.8ph out of the tap! My tank is 6.6ph, lost a couple Kribs due to ph shock. Ivan and I chatted and figured it out because it was a mystery for both of us, never had a problem with Scarb ph as it is 7 out of the tap. But Ivan took care of me, i dripped in the new females and all is great! I will be sad to see the doors close in April

 

[miran3773]

Loving big als in London, Ont. There fish always seem healthy unlike what we've seen at petsmart sometimes. Great for questions and everything

 

[Koikid88]

Hamilton has a good selection and an educated, informative staff. Isn't the most appealing visually, compared to Oakville, but still a solid LFS. It is smaller, so they remove the koi pond during the winter.

Oakville is a much nicer store, bigger and more tanks. What I found was that, even though there are 2x as many tanks as Hamilton, they have a lot more of the same stock. Tons of guppies, tetra, platies, mollies.. if you get what I mean. Not the greatest cichlid stock the times I've been there. There's 1 full grown malawi tank, that you'd be spending an arm and a leg for a peacock at 4". Other than that, the grown cichlid tanks look like all returns.
Other than prices, big als is a quality shop. I usually only buy the sales on wednesdays for double point VIP.
I've actually shoplifted from there by complete accident, realized I didn't pay for a bottle of Excel when I got home, called, and they were surprised I called, and said don't worry about it maybe just pay next time youre in.


^^Londons online flyer always looks so scarce and pitiful lol

 

[Shanny]

I just bought a large aquarium decoration from the Big Al's in Calgary for $80.00. After one week in the tank (freshwater) it started cracking, crumbling and the paint chipping off. I called them and they said they won't refund anything that has been submersed in water. Nice eh?

I'm still trying to get a refund from them.

 

[Pton46]

I pretty much do amazon unless I need anything right away.

Their Return policy is great.

 

[Shanny]

I pretty much do amazon unless I need anything right away.

Their Return policy is great.

I just bought a Fluval U4 from amazon. Bought from the American one though as it was literally half the price. Shipped it to my folks in the states and then they shipped it up to me.

 

[Niki]

I personally won't shop there anymore! I've had a bad experience and didn't like how it was handled.

I bought a fish for 50 bucks and asked if it died with in seven days could I get a replacement and try told me yes, took my fish hope very happy...it died day seven, called benefit a replacement they asked if I ha a membership(which I didn't know existed) said no and they said I could t get my replacement...he manager said he would talk to the supplier and call me back, never heard anything from him ever again!

They also do the maintenance on the fish tank where I work and we stocked cichlids in a 120g tank they would mix Africans with new world and the fish would always kill each other and hey didn't offer any advise to the office, just replaced fish on our dollar....we have black algae and they tell us we need to up grade our lights and there's moldy food in the tank, they come to "clean it" and they just bury the moldy food....real professional! The Edmonton store we deal with doesn't seem like a good store to me!

I will be a pj pets purchaser for a log time, they treat me good, give me extra deals and offer advise if I need it and also tell me if thy don't know the answer....

 

[Shanny]

Yay! They are giving me a refund in the form of a gift certificate. I dealt with the manager and he was very nice about it. I will definitely shop at the Calgary store again.

 

[Luna09]

I buy the majority of my aquarium stuff there. My closesest is Ottawa East. They have great selection and alot of stuff.

I'm in Ottawa too but to be honest, Ottawa east is a sore disappointment especially compared to west end. They never have what I am looking for and they don't give good advice. At west end they really care about your tank and will speak up if they think you are doing something stupid lol.
At Ottawa east they told me that 2 dwarf gourami and a betta in a 20 gal would be fine.
I actually live in Centretown and it is way closer for me to go to innes and Blair than terry fox but I make the longer trip anyways.

 

[Pteronarcys]

Calgary Store

The Calgary store has been under new management for about a year now. It was franchised by the same person who runs the Edmonton store. Under the old owner it was all fish. Since corporate has taken over it has become all pets.

It is still a nice place to shop, but new owner is definitely about making money. You can hear him get mad at his employees for spending too much time on one customer, which can be good and bad. Sometimes you want to build a friendly rapport with customers, but on the same time don't want to keep others waiting. I have heard that refunds/returns and replacements can sometimes be difficult now at that store because the manager doesn't want to lose money. I think the old managers might have been too eager to do so, I dunno.

I have had heard mixed reviews since the new management. I do know that many of the employees and some management that had been there for years were gone soon after new management took over. Many of them really knew their fresh/salt fish and reptiles very well. New employees are very new and learning the trade. It is sad not to see those friendly knowledgeable people anymore.

Personally I go more to Pisces because they will let me order specific plants and have ADA products for my aquatic plant hobby. They are good with offering credit with fish or plants I bring in to them. I go to Big Al's now just to see if they have something I can't find at Pisces. So they still get my business.

Most recent experience with Big Al's Calgary was I was looking for HC (baby tears) and they apparently "just" got them in. These were tiny pots with about 3 leaves in each pot. They looked horrible and definitely not much there. I didn't know they just got them in but found out when I asked if they would reduce the price because I thought their plants were dying off and I offered to take some. The guy didn't like that I asked for them cheaper and told me they just came in and the prices for them are cheap. At $16 for that little pot of 3 leaves not a good deal at all. I popped back to pisces a day later and they had big plastic cups from aquaflora with about a 12cm diameter wide bunch that was super healthy for $14.
Not that pisces plants are always in great condition. It is hard to find LFS that actually have their plant sections set up to grow healthy plants, so you often find their stock after a week or so starts looking bad and gets algae until they get more new stock.

 

[Reeffanman]

Big Al's at my end pretty much sucks...
Customer service is near a 0, they give terrible advice (Except for one guy that has been there for ever), and you really have to watch the livestock you buy. (That's why a QT for new fish is a Must!).
On the positive side, their prices are great, lots of choices of hardware, foods & Fish...
It's one of those... You really wish you didn't have to go there, but they are the only real aquarium specialty store around... (Other than big box stores, which I refuse to buy from)...

Easy or west? There are only 2 people in the west that know anything about marine fish, and their prices on livestock are ridiculas at times

 

[Crystal A]

I shop at big ALS in whitby and Scarborough. I would say that they are both pretty decent stores. I do however think the shark in the whitby store is outgrowing the tank it's in. Wondering when they will replace it with a smaller one.

 

[JoDrapes]

I've been to both stores, was in Whitby yesterday as a matter of fact. I do agree, the shark looks a bit big for the tank.