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

[ska_kid]

1) I look for the mainstays, including the main cichlids such as: Oscars, Severums, Angels, Firemouths, Acara's etc, then bonus points for the more niche fish such as jaguars, Salvini's etc. Then I like to see the popular tetra's such as neons, cardinals, black neons, as well as other popular varieties, again bonus points for rarity. Then on and so forth from other genus', conversely, if the shop has minimum space, I'd like to see the stock chosen wisely.

Also, every aquarium must look pristeen, no green hair algae on the substrate etc; indeed if there is substrate, bonus points for looking maintained.

All fish should look healthy, if not should be shown to be getting treated or segregated from other fish.

Should hopefully stock a good variety of decorative items including driftwood, manzanita, as well as functional aquarium necessities such as filters.

Hopefully also see a well maintained selection of plants.

2) I like Jaeger heaters, but I agree with Fat Homer on the Ferplast.

3) basically included in point 1 lol

love your fish ideas

 

[ska_kid]

Louisiana or Los Angeles?

los
angeles

 

[ska_kid]

How about a few more details first before to help us give you advice? eg.,

- do you want to be a LPS or a LFS only?
- how's competition in your area
- have you got a good supply chain/breeder network?
- are you importing them yourself? need a big operation to do this.
- do you have enough capital or a good enough loan?

- what kind of fish are you going to stock? personally, you are asking MFK'ers so you are going to get biased answers. we like big fish by definition. that means cichlids, esp new world, and ancient fishes and big catfish. it would be awesome to have a specialty store stocking monster fish.
- HOWEVER, 90% of your sales are going to be to people who know very little about fish, let alone monster fish. They're going to be the dads bringing their kids in on the weekend for their first goldfish set up.
- There is limited store space and you need to work out how much turnover/profit per tank and overhead you want.

- at the end of the day, you have to balance out the high turnover from mass horde of casual, first time fish keepers who just want a cheap price and tacky goldfish bowl with decorations vs the few serious fish keepers who pay close attention to the fish welfare in your store and are willing to pay more for better quality, quarantined fish or rare fish they can't get elsewhere. these will be the people on the forum answering you and these will be your return customers. but these are only a fraction of your total customers.

I been thinking of doing both including reptiles/fish/

there a couple of stores around me but there ok not alot of competition

for the stock ,I found whosale fish guys and couple of people in Indonesia

I appreciate your answer thank you

 

[ska_kid]

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.

yes I need in that situation, I will keep different type of fish and cheap prices

 

[ska_kid]

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.

yes ,yes n yes; ) ..I was a maneger at a pet store for couple of years

 

[ska_kid]

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).

some rare fish yes, I found some places that will ship whosale

 

[ska_kid]

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.

ship didn't think of that ,I'll look into that

 

[ska_kid]

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.

thanks. .

 

[fisheatfish]

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.

Yes! Definitely ship...this opens the market nationally & worldwide if you want to get into that. With shipping, you can start your business out of your garage. This can lead to a local shop with local business and the web. A great example is Wetspot Tropical Fish in Portland, Oregon. It's a lfs plus online stock list.

However, customer service is always key with any business. You can carry the best product or own the most lavish facility, with poor communication skills and customer care, any business will go under.

 

[ska_kid]

Yes! Definitely ship...this opens the market nationally & worldwide if you want to get into that. With shipping, you can start your business out of your garage. This can lead to a local shop with local business and the web. A great example is Wetspot Tropical Fish in Portland, Oregon. It's a lfs plus online stock list.

However, customer service is always key with any business. You can carry the best product or own the most lavish facility, with poor communication skills and customer care, any business will go under.

I'll look in to that