Shopping at an LFS vs. Online

[bs6749]

Just want Excel, I have everything else. Oh and I doubt I would ever buy my aquarium products from a bedding store unless they are saving me 35% or more.

Yeah, sorry about that. You made it clear what you wanted, but I misunderstood. I was doing some searching the other day and saw Seachem's Flourish Excel, so now I think of Excel whenever I hear "Flourish". My fault .

Okay, I will take some sheets, a couple of pillow cases, a matress pad and.... I know this is kind of a funny question to ask but... do you by chance carry Seachem Flourish? LOL. Sales rep's response "why yes we certainly do." Customer's response: LOL. I bet that would be a pretty interesting conversation.

 

[fish_4_all]

Just bitterness I guess, isn't your fault. Small businesses don't have a chance anymore unless they can provide a product under the cost of the internet site and that has to be base price.

My LFS has a shelf that is about 8 feet long and about 50 hooks to hold their entire selection of fertilizers, suppliments, filter media, airstones, chemical treatments and test kits. I could fit everything they have in a 55 gallon aquarium. Why, because no one cares about the specialty products so Marshal's, my LFS doesn't carry them and can't be competetive. Eco complete is $42 a bag but their supplier sells it to them for $31 because they have ordered it twice in 15 years.

 

[bs6749]

Wow, and I thought $25 was high for Eco Complete.

Just curious as to how your search for driftwood went seeing as how I now know that your lfs has limited selection. Did you find what you needed?

 

[fish_4_all]

No driftwood, guess I have to go to the beach and get some more and boil it again. Either that or find a good deal on Malaysian or some other stuff online that will stain the water so I can try that for the BN breeding.

Send the prices you find that are lower to Big Al's. they may match or even beat the price. Then tell them to come up here and open a store so I can shop locally at their stores!

 

[bs6749]

Are you looking for any specific colors or shapes of driftwood, i.e typical round "log shaped" or spirally. Darker colored vs. lighter colored, etc. Is Malaysian heavier, more bouyant, less bouyant? I can check my lfs for some driftwood, that is where I got mine, and they had a decent selection. I haven't seen any "new' or "interesting" pieces in a while since I purchased mine but I can check if you want to see what is available.

 

[rkilling1]

I try to support the hobby as best as I can and that is why I shop my LFS.

Just bitterness I guess, isn't your fault. Small businesses don't have a chance anymore unless they can provide a product under the cost of the internet site and that has to be base price.

This thread has went way off base. sorry fish_4_all, but I feel I must add in my thoughts to your reply.

Business is business. If the LFS can't sell products at decent prices, then they go out of business, that's the way it works. Most times it's not the prices that drives people away, it's the condition in which the shop is in or how the shop is maintained. If they can get people in the shop and push products out the door, they can keep their product prices inline with other stores. Granted they still have more overhead due to the cost of the building and such.

I purchase most of my aquarium suppies at petsmart using their web prices and most of my plants and fish from a local mom and pop shop. The mom and pop shop wants 46 dollars for a peguin 170B, when I can get it at petsmart for 26 dollars. So you say I should support my LFS, But I have kids and a wife that I have to support in the mean time and 20 dollars is a lot of food to feed them. So should I be concerned about the LFS or my family?

I do want to add that most of my clippings, that I can salvage, go the mom and pop shop weekly. He has finally gotten a 55 gallon tank setup with CO2 and the works and his aquarium plants sales have 'taken off'. This doesn't cost me anything, but helps him where he needs it the most. ie pure profit.
[/rant]

 

[bs6749]

I think that fish_4_all was saying that he would support the lfs to a certain extent, because he said that he would never buy things from a bedding store unless it saved him 35%, or in other words a decent amount of money.

He also said, " am sureI will order from some online site to save a good $10+. Saving $2 bucks is not worth it to depatronize my LFS over and with the freebies they have given me, they deserve my business."

I agree with him and with you, rkilling1. If I can save a bunch of money somewhere else then I will, but if I can give a couple of dollars here and there to ensure that I have a place to purchase good quality fish and plants then I will do so. Little shops seem to be the ones that are most willing to help because if they weren't, they would eventually go out of business because people would go elsewhere. It is the service that counts and often the big name stores cannot provide this type of service. I really doubt that if I went in to Petsmart and asked them to order a "special fish" that they would do it. If I did the same at a mom oand pop shop you can be sure that they would at least try.

 

[fish_4_all]

Couldn't have said it better myself, and like you said I did. Like I said, I bought my AC20 HOB on Ebay because my LFS was over 2x as much. I support them when I can, and like I said, I have $30 a month, if I am lucky to spend on the hobby as a whole so no need to lecture about money nor the need for a cheap alternative. And that leaves out November because all 3 of my kids are in November, April because my 2 step children and wife birthdays are in April, also whatever month Easter is in, December, July, and October.

That is why I asked the original question; what price do you pay at your local fish store. This topic might have actually given an idea of what to expect is a descent price to pay if some one needed Excel to fight algae. Would it have been less expensive to order online than at the LFS, in my case, after shipping; it is not. Oh, I'm sorry, it would have saved me $0.72 cents and probably cost me some points with the LFS that so generously gives me breaks on just about any fish I buy because I show them as much patronage as I can. Yah, I spend an extra 30% in the long run on Excel because I didn't order 2 liters from Big Al's but My LFS has given me well over $150 in deals on plants and fish so I think I can spare a couple dollars here and there to try and help them out

So forgive me if I show some patronage to my LFS in a hope they might let me someday set up a planted 55 gallon tank to promote the hobby and maybe help them keep aquariums in their store instead of phase them out even more than they have because only lawn and garden can make them money.

Just a side note, I work in my paterents shop about 30% of the tme in a wheelchair to help them try and make a mom and pop business survive in our glorous economy so I know just what it islike to have a comany and need patronage. My business failed last year after being open for just 14 months. On top of it I buy the very ceramics I make in their shop.

Then again, maybe in the future Wal-Mart will open LFS and we can all forget about our mom and pop shops and support the corporate conglomerates that intend on driving them out of business.

 

[An t-iasg]

This thread contains posts that were split from the thread "Excel Prices".

My local lfs is a saltwater shop. I have freshwater, planted tanks, and I'm really happy with my lfs. The owner really goes out of his way to order FW stuff for me. He got me all my Eco Complete planted tank substrate. I do order online also, but every FW supply that I have asked him to order, he has been able to get in for me.

 

[fish_4_all]

Well I paid $16 for the Excel but got a free Anubias ($8.95 from same place) Granted it isn't a prime specimen but made it worth a couple extra buks to order from my LFS.

Is just a shame that so many cities have lost the small town feel and that it has come to ordering online instead of making friends and getting a good deal.

Now don't get me wrong, like I said before. If I am gonna save 30% or more and I can get what I want without feeling like I am stocking up for WWIII then I will buy off the internet. Otherwise I will take the LFS price knowing I am paying for something that will buy a lot more than a product, patronage.

 

[alaher2]

I am a big fan of seeing the fish before I make the purchase...I prefer seeing the fish eat and selecting the fish that I want rather than having them select for me and stress them with an overnite shipment.