Asheville Aquarium: Status on Invert System and Sales

DGSTRACK · 05-08-2005, 09:31 AM

Status Update

The Asheville Aquarium has now been open for about six weeks, and we’ve enjoyed a very successful first month! We’re seeing a lot of you come back, (in some cases many times!), and we continue to see a lot of new faces every day.

Our selection grows weekly as customers express their interest in certain products they can’t find locally. Last week we added two more vendors for dry goods and two more tropical and marine fish sources. Customers also notice our low pricing on both livestock and dry goods. In some cases we actually underprice the chains! A few say they don’t imagine the prices will last, but I think they will be pleasantly surprised when the prices not only stay the same, but in a lot of cases go down as our volume increases.

Inventory

·Our Freezer arrived two weeks ago, and we loaded it with a great selection of frozen foods from San Francisco Bay Brand and Ocean Nutrition.

·We’re adding new lines of products all the time. Two weeks ago we beefed up on pond products for those3 outdoorsy types, and this past week we added the Emperor line of filter products, coral and invert supplements and foods, and Bettas, Bettas and more Bettas (along with Betta food, bowls and additives!).

·Our freshwater fish and plants and our saltwater fish selection are the best they have been. We enjoy when customers say they’ve never seen a selection this good around here… We tell them they haven’t seen anything yet.

The Invertebrate System

Most of you have seen the 3^rd system against the wall, still waiting for us to finish it so we can start carrying live rock, corals and other inverts. Every week customers are checking in and asking “Is it ready yet”. Well, we’re almost there! Today I’ll put the finishing touches on the filter in the back, and then we can start filling her up with water. I’m planning on my first load of live rock in the next week to week and a half.

Sale Dates

We keep telling everyone that we’re planning on having some killer sales. Well, here we go… The weekend of June 4-5 we’ll be having our first sale. Our first sale will be 50% off freshwater fish, 20% off saltwater fish and 10% off frozen foods. Plus we’ll have some unannounced specials throughout the store!

DGSTRACK · 06-02-2005, 08:13 AM

Well, we've been open for two months now, and things seem to be going really well. We're seeing lots of new faces along with the "regulars" who make sure we keep a good selection of fish on hand.

Last week we received over 600 pounds of uncured live rock (Fiji, Tonga Branch, Tonga Kaileni and Marshall Island) to put in our now active invert system. As the rock cures, we'll start adding corals and other inverts to the system.

This week we started carrying the Oceanic line of products, including Oceanic Sea Salt. We've added this to our existing selection of Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals and Kent. If you haven't noticed, our salt pricing is very good. We sell 50 gallon bags of Instant Ocean for $15.99, and 160 gallon pails for $49.99. We've priced our other brands and sizes similarly.

Starting this week, we're also carrying live foods. We have live black worms, and should have the live adult brine shrimp tomorrow just in time for our livestock sale on Saturday and Sunday. Don't forget we also have feeder goldish, guppies and ghost shrimp.

We've also beefed up on frozen foods. I think we have one of the better selections here in town right now, and the frozen food is also on special this weekend.

Since I can't put anything in our invert system except for live rock and maybe plants, I've ordered both in volume. We should have a decent selection of Macroalgea available for sale starting this weekend.

Finally, we continue to build on our livestock. Each week we bring in some new varieties, trying to bring in both reef friendly critters (and some not so reef friendly of course!) From large Clown Triggers to Moorish Idols, we have a little bit of everything for everyone.

PS: For those of you who have been waiting for it, the 265 is on the verge of getting filled. Damian, one of our resident experts, has been working hard to get the system on-line. We may even get some water in it just in time for the weekend!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the store!

Dave
TAA