A
Anonymous
Guest
Aug 9, 1992. Was the begining for me. I have had an aquarium ever since that day. Back then, we dident have large chain petshops, we dident have a shipping option from whole sellers. We had "mom and pop" shops. We needed them, ther was no other option. Now here we are 20 years later, shipping meathods are a million times better, large shops are able to sell fish at a much lower price. These guys are great, for a few things, but something hasent changed in over 20 years. The shops are better, this isent an opinion it is fact with proof to back it up. If you are on this forum and you are reading this then you are not. The "typical" fish keeper. And it is you, that spends the most time scouting out the best deals on the internet, for dry goods, filters, heaters and even fish.
Let me tell you a little story, about 2 years ago I had major desaster hit one of my aquariums. I needed meds, and now.but there was an issue, it was 9:30pm. Most shops are closed at this time, or would be closed before I would have been able tomake it there. What did I do? I called one of the smaller shops , I explained my sittuation and asked what I could do to get through the night until the next mourning when the shops were back open. I was told "don't wait, come now, I will stay here until you get here". I challenge anyone to call call petsmart/co, conkle, rapps, dave (daves rare fish), or any of the whole seelers and see if they would wait over an hour at there location for you to come and pick something up. The fact is they wouldent and for the whole sellers, they couldent get you the meds in time.
Now Anthony, why are you telling us this? Well simple, I was visiting a very good friend of mine on Sunday and spent about 3 hours just hanging out with him at his work office. This friend happens to own a pet store. While chatting about family and friends and working out and the weather and all the things friends chat about I asked so, how's buisness. The response I got was not expected. It seems that with the economy the way it is and with the internet the way it is. Our pet stores are going through some pretty tough times. And although there are several people who don't own there own buisness and are now unemployed etc. I feel it is important to shop at our local shops. Anyone ever heard of indoor reef? A saltwater only shop in tacoma. Well its gone now. And we will start to see even the best shops dropping like flys unless we as the fish keeping community do something about it. I can't stress enough the importance of supporting the "good" shops.
Let's talk a little about what makes a shop good. First of all a good shop won't seell you smething without first knowing everything you need to know about your purchase. Secondly a good shop has great customer service. Thirdly a good shop will answer all of your questions to the best of there knowladge and tell you if they don't know something. Forth a good shop will try to get anything you want in for you to keep you coming back. Fith a good shop has a true passion for the animals they sell, and keep at home. Sixth a good shop will treat you with respect and not like your dumb because you don't know something. And then seven a good shop will try to as reasonably priced with there goods as posible. The order of these thing are in a correct order to me in what I want to see out of a shop. With price being last on my list because I don't mind paying a little more for the knowladge and the time took to keep these animals healthy before I got them.
Bottom line is let's all do our part to keep the "good" shops in buisness so we can continue to have them for years to come. Sorry if this seems like a rant, but its really from my heart that I am bringing this up. Thanks for your time and for reading this
Anthony
Let me tell you a little story, about 2 years ago I had major desaster hit one of my aquariums. I needed meds, and now.but there was an issue, it was 9:30pm. Most shops are closed at this time, or would be closed before I would have been able tomake it there. What did I do? I called one of the smaller shops , I explained my sittuation and asked what I could do to get through the night until the next mourning when the shops were back open. I was told "don't wait, come now, I will stay here until you get here". I challenge anyone to call call petsmart/co, conkle, rapps, dave (daves rare fish), or any of the whole seelers and see if they would wait over an hour at there location for you to come and pick something up. The fact is they wouldent and for the whole sellers, they couldent get you the meds in time.
Now Anthony, why are you telling us this? Well simple, I was visiting a very good friend of mine on Sunday and spent about 3 hours just hanging out with him at his work office. This friend happens to own a pet store. While chatting about family and friends and working out and the weather and all the things friends chat about I asked so, how's buisness. The response I got was not expected. It seems that with the economy the way it is and with the internet the way it is. Our pet stores are going through some pretty tough times. And although there are several people who don't own there own buisness and are now unemployed etc. I feel it is important to shop at our local shops. Anyone ever heard of indoor reef? A saltwater only shop in tacoma. Well its gone now. And we will start to see even the best shops dropping like flys unless we as the fish keeping community do something about it. I can't stress enough the importance of supporting the "good" shops.
Let's talk a little about what makes a shop good. First of all a good shop won't seell you smething without first knowing everything you need to know about your purchase. Secondly a good shop has great customer service. Thirdly a good shop will answer all of your questions to the best of there knowladge and tell you if they don't know something. Forth a good shop will try to get anything you want in for you to keep you coming back. Fith a good shop has a true passion for the animals they sell, and keep at home. Sixth a good shop will treat you with respect and not like your dumb because you don't know something. And then seven a good shop will try to as reasonably priced with there goods as posible. The order of these thing are in a correct order to me in what I want to see out of a shop. With price being last on my list because I don't mind paying a little more for the knowladge and the time took to keep these animals healthy before I got them.
Bottom line is let's all do our part to keep the "good" shops in buisness so we can continue to have them for years to come. Sorry if this seems like a rant, but its really from my heart that I am bringing this up. Thanks for your time and for reading this
Anthony