potential idea.. just thinkin' outloud.

Morledzep

Feeder Fish
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Apr 26, 2007
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where my cichla are
so.. down the street, and a well traveled corner is an empty former Smart and Final store that has been empty for a number of years now.

i've wanted to have a pet store for awhile, but Petsmart and Petco are very well established here and most pet stores don't last. But it's on a busy street and i think with the right signage and something that resembles real customer service and some cool exibits (like this 800 gallon aquarium that i'm never going to get around to building here at home). and a VERY good selection of food and supplies for fish and for dogs. i think it could work.

the whole back side of the store used to be refrigerators and freezers, i was thinking some bulk meat for dogs by the case and or portioned for easy feeding, and pre-made raw for the folks that are still fooled by that, some dry and canned dog and cat foods too just to bring folks in. and a couple freezers dedicated to frozen fish food and specialty diets. one or two refrigerators for folks that forgot to thaw something for their dogs that day.. lol. and one of the fridge sections for the aquarium stuff that either needs to be refrigerated or should be even if it's not required.

as for livestock i'm sure i would end up carrying all of the usual suspects and try to keep a small selection of young exotic fish too. probably not as good of a selection as Ocean Blue, but enough to keep the locals happy and feeders for almost every animal. mice, rats and chicks for the reptile folks, and several different types of feeder fish.

do ya think it'll work? i see businesses spring up and disappear a lot here in town, but mostly over by the freeway on the north side of town. it's a on popular street, with a freeway offramp just a few blocks away, some billboard advertising is available within a mile of the off-ramp in either direction. and with a talented painter or graffic artist to turn the main street side of the building into an awesome sign, it also has a small lighted sign in the grass next to the building by the parking lot.

the only real drawback to this location is there is no access to the parking lot from the main street, the store faces the side street where the entrance to the parking lot is.

so what do ya all think? would you go to this store?
 

Bderick67

Bronze Tier VIP
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Aug 18, 2006
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Well if ya sold fish I would go there. What you gotta get to go there are the general public. You may not be able to compete with the Petco/petsmart/walmarts of the world pricewise. If you can make the visit to your store more of an atraction, you may be able to get people willing to pay a litttle more at your place.

Hands on exibits are cool, just thing if you had a stingray pond that people could pet and feed the rays.
 

Miguel

Ole Dawg
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2006
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Very much south..
It all depends on the size of town you live in.

If it is a small town, forget it.

If is going to turn into your corner Mom and Pop store, forget it.

I am a great believer in specialty stores, so as Brian said, i would diffeentiate heavily. I would try to get known for oddball ( God knows there are plenty of places to buy guppys, etc )

I understand you will need to cater for the cat and dog people. That is probably the backbone of the store, but no more than that.

Some salt, some oddballs.

You could even try and have a direct link with some wholesalers.

But, again, it depends on where you live and it also depends on whether you need it to live. If the reply to this last, is that you do, i would try other ventures, nowadays.
 

piranhaman00

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 15, 2009
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Morledzep

Feeder Fish
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Apr 26, 2007
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where my cichla are
it's not a small town, just a slightly offbeat suburb of Riverside, CA. we are pretty densely populated, a LOT of new apartments, lots of single family homes and some new or relatively new distribution warehouse type buildings, but no real industry. according to Wikipedia we have about 200K people just in the city limits according to the 2010 census. the street this store is on is very well traveled, it's one of the easiest access points in and out of the city, going south and north.

if stingrays weren't illegal in CA i really like Brian's idea about a petting pond, i know my grandsons really love petting the rays at the Wane Center in Birmingham, AL and when they came to visit here in CA we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and they got to pet sharks and rays there.

i think maybe a better selection of larger feeders than what you can get at the big box stores, and a couple of large display tanks. all freshwater.. there are salt water aquarium stores all over, they are a dime a dozen. but the freshwater exotics are few and far between. Ocean Blue is 40 miles from me.. and i don't like driving in the OC, i don't like going anywhere on the other side of the glass curtain (for those not in so cal, no one in LA or OC counties can see what is on the other side of the glass curtain, those of us that live in the IE are invisible).

i want to focus on raw feeding and natural diets for fish and for dogs and cats because that's how i feed mine. but i will obviously offer more options than just raw prey model type foods. and all of the collars, leashes and harnesses will all be made in the USA, i feel that might be a good selling point.

thing is, it's not a giant store, it's relatively small.. Smart and Finals have never been big box stores, they have traditionally been small stores that are packed to the ceilings. i'll probably be limited to one or two large display tanks, put the 800 gallon at one end and another one that size or larger at the other end of the store. i can see aisles dedicated to brands, like Hikari, San Francisco brand and Tetra and maybe another isle dedicated to lesser known names like NLS and Xtreme. and a section in the freezer for each brand too because i think all of them, except maybe Tetra, make frozen fish food too.

it's all ideas.. just something to think about. the store has been empty for a long time, i've seen folks taking stuff out and look like they were going to clean it up and do something with the store, and the building has sold at least once since Smart and Final moved out. but nothing has opened, i can only guess that they are cleaning it up or removing stuff that i could probably use if the walk in freezers and fridges are still there. the for lease sign blew away in a wind storm a year or two ago and no one bothered to put up another one.
 

CanadianKeeper

Fire Eel
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Apr 25, 2012
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If you have the money and resources to get it started id go for it... BUT MAKE SURE YOU ARE ONLINE ASWELL... Create a clean up to date site. (people are much more likly to visit a web site then drive to your store to just check it out).
Do consider shipping also.

do you want a PET STORE or do you want a FISH store, or do you want an EXOTIC animals store (reptiles, fish). Alot of planning before you even start to look at property is needed. Such as start up costs, overheads, employees, distributors and merchents. Product you want to put your name on or not. Ect. (liek what brand of filters do you want to carry)
 

Miguel

Ole Dawg
MFK Member
Dec 28, 2006
15,857
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Very much south..
If you have the money and resources to get it started id go for it... BUT MAKE SURE YOU ARE ONLINE ASWELL... Create a clean up to date site. (people are much more likly to visit a web site then drive to your store to just check it out).
Do consider shipping also.

do you want a PET STORE or do you want a FISH store, or do you want an EXOTIC animals store (reptiles, fish). Alot of planning before you even start to look at property is needed. Such as start up costs, overheads, employees, distributors and merchents. Product you want to put your name on or not. Ect. (liek what brand of filters do you want to carry)
very well put.

I understand you are a grandma, already, so you must have the basics covered ( in terms of "bare necessities" ); so, if this is true, I say go for it.
 

joe jaskot

Dovii
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Sep 16, 2011
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A lack of capital is the downfall of most pet shops. You need enough money to survive the lean times and any emergencies that arise. Customers always want to see new things. They don't want to see last week's fish, etc. So before you open up a business make sure you have enough money to do so. With the way the economy is right now, opening up a pet store is a risky venture. But then again, without risks there is no gain.
 
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