Poll: Fish Store "Responsible Practices" Certification

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Would you:

  • Go out of your way to shop there / willing to pay 10-20% more

    Votes: 22 26.8%
  • Go out of your way to shop there / not willing to pay more

    Votes: 26 31.7%
  • Not change my current shopping practices

    Votes: 27 32.9%
  • Avoid the store or vendor

    Votes: 7 8.5%

  • Total voters
    82
To be clear on a few points:

- The purpose of this poll is to assess whether people would change their purchasing behavior based on a retailer demonstrating RESPONSIBLE PRACTICES in selling fish

- I agree completely that this HYPOTHETICAL CONCEPT relies on people changing their purchasing behavior (giving a $h*t) based on whether a fish retailer demonstrates commitment to being a RESPONSIBLE IN ITS PRACTICES. It also relies heavily on whether vendors give a $h*t about the ACA and its members.

- Additional cost associated with demonstrating responsibility would primarily come from the additional costs of, for example, properly labeling fish, having quality stock, not housing easily confused species together, quarantining, etc...and not from cost of certification itself (which would be relatively trivial). Vendors that are already spending money on being responsible would have very little if any incremental costs. Those that aren't being responsible would have much more work / cost (if they chose to change their practices).

- Voluntary "certification" is much different from "regulation". Voluntary certification means nothing more than committment to demonstrating an agreed upon set of practices. It's not the law. It's voluntary and run by a private organization. There are numerous examples of private organizations that run certfication programs.

- The purpose of this HYPOTHETICAL program would be to recognize fish vendors that demonstrate commitment to responsible fishkeeping practices and to allow them to differentiate themselves from those that do not make this commitment: an incentive to do the right thing. Developing such a program would require DEFINING a practical set of RESPONSIBLE PRACTICE guidelines that organization members would like to see vendors demonstrate.

- IRRESPONSIBLE PRACTICES by fish vendors represent a major cause of unintentional hybridization and impurity of captive stock. This HYPOTHETICAL program would address this issue directly by providing guidelines and incentives for those who follow them.

- This HYPOTHETICAL PROGRAM would represent an actionable, measurable, and visible way that the ACA could demonstrate commitment to its goals / principles. It would require resources but could be funded by the program itself.

- It appears that most people who have responded to this poll WOULD NOT change their purchasing behavior to a significant extent based on whether a vendor demonstrates committment to RESPONSIBLE PRACTICES..so it seems to be a moot point.
 
"i think the idea of reputable stores being posted on the ACA magazine is fantastic and that would be viewed with much less eye rolling than a piece of paper."

Wine spectator provides a recognition badge (a sign) for restaurants that are certified by its program.

It also provides searchable lists of certified establishments (by class) on its website (and probably also magazine).

People make dining decisions based on Wine Spectator recognition. Not so sure if this would apply to fish purchasing decisions...
 
How many members does this wine certification club have, how do they keep track of their certified members and ensure they're up to snuff to keep their reputation golden, where does their funding come from? Things like this need to be answered.
 
From the link provided: http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Dining/Restaurant_Awards/Rest_Awards_Info/0,2839,RAP,00.html

For Restaurareurs/Awards Entry Guidelines & Info

Wine Spectator's Restaurant Awards recognize restaurants whose wine lists offer interesting selections, are appropriate to their cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers.

To qualify for an award, the list must present complete, accurate wine information. It must include vintages and appellations for all selections, including wines available by the glass. Complete producer names and correct spellings are mandatory, while the overall presentation and appearance of the list is also taken into consideration. After meeting these basic requirements, lists are judged for one of our three awards.

Award of Excellence
3,254 winners
Our basic award, for lists that offer a well-chosen selection of quality producers, along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style. Typically, these lists offer at least 100 selections.

Best of Award of Excellence
802 winners
Our second-tier award, created to give special recognition to restaurants that clearly exceed the requirements of the Award of Excellence. These lists display either vintage depth, with vertical offerings of several top producers from major regions, or excellent breadth spread over several winegrowing regions. These wine lists typically offer 400 or more selections, along with superior presentation.

Grand Award
73 winners
Our highest award, given to restaurants that show an uncompromising, passionate devotion to the quality of their wine program. These restaurants typically offer 1,500 selections or more, and feature serious breadth of top producers, outstanding depth in mature vintages, a selection of large-format bottles, excellent harmony with the menu and superior organization, presentation and wine service.

Other Information
Wine Director/Sommelier: Provided by the restaurants, these are the people responsible for managing the wine list and assisting diners with their wine selections. (As staff turnover in the restaurant industry can be high, this information is subject to change; the listings were current as of Wine Spectator's Aug. 31, 2008, issue.)

Wine Strengths: Determined by our judges, this indicates the emphasis of the list, not all the regions from which wines are offered. Wine strengths are listed in descending order of their prominence.

Wine Selections: Indicates the number of selections on the restaurant's list at the time the award is conferred. For Grand Award winners, this information is followed by the total number of bottles in the restaurant's inventory.

Wine Pricing: Determined by our judges, this describes the overall pricing of the wine list, taking into account both the general markup of wines offered and the number of wines at high and low price points. Inexpensive lists offer many bottles for less than $50, while also employing a below-normal markup (generally considered to be 2 to 2.5 times the wholesale bottle price). Moderate lists use the industry norm for markup, with a range of both less expensive and expensive offerings. Expensive lists offer wines at a greater-than-normal markup, along with many selections for more than $100 a bottle. Wine pricing is not a judging criterion, it is provided merely as a guide for the reader.

Corkage: Provided by the restaurants, this indicates the corkage fee charged per bottle to customers. Corkage fees, which can range greatly, are typically charged per 750ml bottle, so plan to pay double if you bring in a magnum. Some restaurants do not permit diners to bring in their own wine; others are simply prohibited to do so by state or local regulations. If you plan to bring your own wine to a restaurant, always call ahead to confirm its corkage policy.

Cuisine Type and Menu Prices: Provided by the restaurants, these list the style of food served and the price range for dinner entrées, respectively. Restaurants that offer only a prix fixe menu are indicated accordingly, with the price (or range of prices) per menu.

It's important to note that our awards evaluate wine lists, not restaurants as a whole. While we assume that the level of food and service will be commensurate with the wine lists entered by award winners, this unfortunately is not always true. We cannot visit every award-winning restaurant (although all Grand Award winners and many others are inspected by Wine Spectator editors), so we encourage our readers to alert us to discrepancies and disappointments. If you have any comments regarding your experience at one of our award-winning restaurants, contact us at restaurantawards@mshanken.com.
 
Uh, other than the questions you asked...:headshake

It's $250 per restaurant to apply for certification. And there are approximately 4,159 restaurants in the world that are certified at some level (not sure how many applied and were not certified).

Which means that Wine Spectator receives over $1M per year in total cerification dues from this program. Of course it costs restuarants a heck of a lot more than $250 to qualify for the criteria to receive even the lowest level award. This is just a public way of demonstrating the restaurant's commitment to having a good wine list.

Wine Spectator does regular (published) reviews of its highest rated restaurants in its magazine and available on line. A way to provide better oversight (than it currently does with a limited number of "editor" visits, in my opinion) of others that it has certified would be to encourage members to visit certified restaurants and post about their experiences (in a structured web and/or paper form): Did the restaurant actually live up to its rating? Too many poor ratings and the restaurant risks losing its certification.

Encouraging members to actually visit and report on the restaurant could be as simple as giving them reward points for each complete report that a member completes. Reward points could be used for goods and services from Wine Spectator or its business partners.
 
So after a day of voting:

4/10 Monster Fishkeepers would avoid or not change their shopping habits in order to go to a store that demonstrates Responsible Practices

6/10 would go out of their way to shop at such a store

But only 3/10 would pay a little more (e.g $5.50 vs. $5.00) for a fish from a store that demonstrates responsible practices instead of buying a fish from a store that doesn't commit to responsible practices
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com