Hmmmm, I was not aware you guys have fish. I am intrigued. I love that you don't want to keep common fish. It's very annoying that middle Georgia doesn't seem to have many decent places to fish shop other than Petsmart. They tend to close quickly around here. You should check out the Pet Supermarket on Tom Hill in Macon. They're going to be your competition, and they've only been open a couple of months. I was impressed that they had some oddball stuff. I stopped in there yesterday on my lunch break and that's the only place I've ever seen a Silver Aro for sale in person. What do you currently have in stock at the store?
I'm back!
- Thread starter Aquaman_95
- Start date
There are lots of "rare and exotic" fish that aren't monsters... even smaller oddballs like gulper cats, rare plecos, alot of the micro barbs ect go fast around here. rtc/tsn/arrows sell surpizeingly less and less because they are in reality easy to get from pretty much any lfs. snails,shrimp... plants... ime develop a strong aquatics department.. and it will develop itself. if you want to sell 100$'s of dollar fish... mkae sure you have the rep to bring in the big spenders.
Yeah you have to have a base to start from. Something that is gonna sell a lot. Plants, snails, mixed community fish, those things are a must. Do have the oddballs and exotics, but don't loose touch with the basics, they will be the bread and butter of any successful store, but were most stores fail is they forget to bring in rare things. That costs customers, along with miss information. I was at a store were I have spent well over a few thousands at(trip before last I spent $600 on livestock and a filter) and they have got new owners. The new owner came in as a tank making hotshot and tried to change the world. Unfortunately he has only crashed and burned with this store. He was doing great things, but through bad advise to make a deal he has lost a lot. He brings in some fish like gatf and has them at $250 for a 3"fish. He also in my presence and with my counters points to the potential buyer lied to the person. He had a 12"+ henli hybrid he wanted to sell to a guy that has a 125gal. The guy is using city water and the ray was in ro water, he said it would be fine. I tried to tell the guy about rays, tank size and the proper way to care for them and if he really wanted a Ray to try a Motoro or retic from the next tank over. This retic was the nicest retic I have seen. Yet this owner came up and tried to brain wash the guy I just properly educated. I mean I still tried to get a sale for them, told the guy the store could special order a big tank for this ray and they would hold it for him until it was ready(witch is true). The guy was ready to order the right tank and get it ready, until the owner came up and tried to discredit every thing I told him. I left and wont be back. I tell everyone i know not to waste their time on it. With one exception, that ray was nice so i told a friend that could house it about it to maybe save it. Dont find yourself in that situation, be honest, upfront and clear about everything even if you don't know the answer, tell them your not sure about it. That way you make and keep customers, I like it when I here from the LFS " you know I am not sure. I can go look it up for you now if you have a minute."(a direct quote from the store I drive to. Tropaquatics in north st paul, Mn they also have a website great little store owned by a pair of brothers) I'll never go back to that other store again. Yet there is a new store farther away that does what I suggested you to do and I drive the extra and spend the cash(named above). Be that store, all it takes is one person to ruin your rep and the store is broke.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Sent from my Nexus 4 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
Yes, our fish section is relatively new. We keep several common fish, but generally we try to go for the more oddball, and exotic ones. It is extremely annoying that this part of the state doesn't have many decent fish shops, because it is such a highly populated area, compared to other parts of the state. But, I haven't heard about the Pet Supermarket. I'll definitely have to check that out.
At the moment our stock goes something like this:
-Florida Gars
-Spanner Barbs
-Oscars
-Tiger Barbs
-Corydoras
-Upside down catfish
-Angelfish, of several varieties
-Redtail Catfish
-Goldfish, of several varieties
-African Cichlids, including a Frontosa
-Red Severums
-Bala Sharks
-Australian Rainbow fish of several varieties
-Raphael Catfish
-Alhi Cichlids
-Plecos
-African Dwarf/Clawed Frogs
And, I believe that's it for now.
Im really not going to tell you how to do your job however I am the livestock manager at my store and yes I appreciate that you specialise in exotic pets but RTC, TSN, gars etc aren't going it bring in loads of people in plus considering most people can't even house on of these fully grown you will surely end up having it brought back to you and being stuck with them. besides they will only be able to stock a couple of these guys in a large tank so that a couple of sales of fish and that person wont be back again for fish unless they really are a true huge MFKer and have lots of large tanks to fill.
we stock a huge variety of oddballs at my work big and small and we have a good reputation for them but still you will loose out on a huge amount of customers by not stocking lots of variety on the basic fish which gets people into fish keeping. we make a lot more by selling all the "bread and butter fish" getting people interested in keeping fish and learning the basics and working their way up with what they keep, then keeping smaller oddballs. Half of what you have listed which is smaller wont even work together in the same tank eg Angelfish and Tiger barbs.
anyways sorry to sound negative just hope it works out for you.
we stock a huge variety of oddballs at my work big and small and we have a good reputation for them but still you will loose out on a huge amount of customers by not stocking lots of variety on the basic fish which gets people into fish keeping. we make a lot more by selling all the "bread and butter fish" getting people interested in keeping fish and learning the basics and working their way up with what they keep, then keeping smaller oddballs. Half of what you have listed which is smaller wont even work together in the same tank eg Angelfish and Tiger barbs.
anyways sorry to sound negative just hope it works out for you.
It's not for lack of trying...there was a store on 96 that seemed to do fairly well and they closed down. There was a store next to video warehouse on Watson several years ago that didn't last very long either. There was also a store on 247 that lasted less than a year. I dunno. They just seem to be doomed to fail around here.
I'd be interested in any plecos that aren't common and don't get gigantic. Do you think yall will ever do special orders for people?
Did you know that the store you're describing is/was owned by the same person, and he has to continuously move due to unlawful business practices?
Pet stores are hard businesses to run, because they do require an immense amount of work, and they can be very unprofitable. Yet, if properly ran, they can be very rewarding.
And yes, we do special orders all the time. What were you interested in, exactly?
Yes, you're right. I am beginning to incorporate more new world cichlids into the order list.
You know, you're right. However, we specialize in exotic pets, which include fish. Quite honestly, we are not ordering massive amounts of these fish, when we do order them. We order a few at a time, and before people buy them we educate them in the proper care, and stocking for them.
Besides, you are forgetting that we are NOT housing these fish in the same aquarium. We have 21 aquariums, that we use to stock fish with. I also never said that we didn't stock the basic fish. We have Goldfish, Angelfish, Barbs, Tetras etc...however, as I stated before, we specialize in exotic pets, therefore we carry a larger amount of them. Furthermore, we sell out of our fish quite quickly.
Not sure why everyone is being so negative on this thread. I thought this forum promoted things like this?
Well that explains a lot. They wouldn't happen to own the one at the end of Carl Vinson on Russell? I went in there when they first opened and I thought I recognized one of the guys working there from one of the other stores. They don't have fish that I know of, but it's been a couple years since I went in there last.
I really want a gold nugget pleco, but I'm open to different varieties. I'm fascinated by plecos, but I don't have any :/ I don't want a boring old common, and I don't want something I can't house.
