opening my own pet store,your opinion/tips will help ;)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
my number 1 draw to an LFS/pet store is variety of uncommon or downright rare fish.

I have 2 LFS's that I go to in Pittsburgh.
One blows the quality/rarity meter out of the water. If you get that itch for a new fish and don't want to risk the expense online, this place has it almost guaranteed.

The other one I go to gets the rare fish but I don't like their caretaking procedures. They also tend to stock the rare, but run of the mill for serious hobbyists, fish (dats, flowerhorns, tanks full of 1 inch dovii and jags etc etc etc) .

I want to walk in afraid for my wallet haha, meaning I want to see fish I don't have the chance of getting easily, and have to run through my head how I would change my current stock to accommodate.
 
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Having managed a store for 10 years, my experience is:

Focus on the livestock, people are cheap and will order dry goods online for substantially less than you can sell them in a brick and mortar store. Most online fish retailers have substantial shipping charges that make buying locally more appealing. Stock a small but thorough supply of last minute, impulse buy dry goods like food, dechlor, nets, etc.
 
A lot of good ideas so far. Just brainstorming here...sometimes having more variety is better than little species variety. I realize quantity sold would dictate that, vs. less of more expensive, slow turnover fish. But, this does position you as a pet store that has variety that your competitors may not. Location, Product and Pricing all important factors as noted, more or less.

In this day and age, I see less and less of good customer service. With most LFS, they're not always the most attentive. Make sure you instill good customer service to the one or many who will work for you. If they say they'll call back customers - they should. I know this sounds very basic, but you would be surprise how common following through on what you say goes a long way. All other things aside, this could be what differentiates your store.

Do you plan to do special orders for stock or products? How about aquarium/cage clean-up/maintenance service? I know a few places that do that (although I'm not sure how well that part does - something to consider).
 
ska_kid said:
I'm planning to open a pet store in couple of years and want your opinion on some questions

1.what do you guys look for when going to a pet store ?

2.what aquarium heaters do you guys like and hate?

3.when looking for fish what do u you guys look for ?

any extra tips you guys have I would love to hear ;)

thanks
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First good luck!!

Second, the first thing I look for is cleanliness, the second thing is lack of foul orders, and the third thing is good lighting. If a store has those, I feel better about the prospect of finding a healthy fish.

Next, I want to not see dead or obviously nearly dead fish in the tanks.

Once I have those, I shop. Products are hard to sell to me at stores (unless I'm desperate) because online retailers can offer better prices, but I prefer buying fish, lizards, live foods, etc. in stores, not online. If I ran a store, I'd actually consider trying to get local residents to pre-order exotic fish, then have those shipped to my store. (Not sure if that would work, so who knows.)
 
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You need to be able to ship and have heavily stocked online lists with oddball fish that would cater to the market of keepers like most on this website. You also need good wholesale prices when you buy your items because there is no way you can compete price wise with big box stores or amazon when you sell chemicals/lights/filters/tanks if you do go that route. You also need good staff that take care of the fish when you are not there because you want a clean work space and no floaters in any tanks.
 
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I agree with everyone said. I would make sure the employees are nice and knowledgable. You need to do saltwater as well. What I noticed and liked is I know small shops sell used tanks for cheap! Most of their inventory are donations so they get whatever you want for them.

Price is the biggest factor. If I like the fish but I can get it a lot cheaper somewhere else I wouldn't buy it from there.
 
Warborg said:
1) Decent prices(I know a LFS that's asking $12 for a mid size convict...really?)
2) N/A(don't use them). When I did, the length of the cord was my biggest issue.
3)While livebearers are the 'common' fish, 80% of the stock should not be them.

Extra: When at a fish store, I don't judge them on how 'pretty' the tanks look but on healthy the fish look.

I'm slightly turned off by stores that only have tanks under 30 gallons in them. You should have at least 2 or 3 that are at least 180 gallons for the 'bigger' fish.
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Nice ...ill k
exp that in mind
 
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