LFS venting area - no naming names!

[Piero]

Hi all,
I've created this area so we can all express positive or negative experiences that we've had with LOCAL reef stores. Please refrain from naming any names.

have at it!

[Piero]

I'd like to express my frustration...

- I don't understand why any LFS would reject the opportunity to host meetings of a reef club. Seems like a great way to get to know your customers better and get some business.

- Why don't local LFS stores have better relationships with eachother? Is the market that small that it's fight or die?

- I'd like to say that it's encouraging to see some LFS owners participating in the forums - and positively.

[reefcam]

Hey Piero,

Here are some possible answers:

Why LFS don't want to host meetings:

1. They are their to make a living and don't really care about the hobbyist, except for how much they spend without disrupting their business.

2. Meetings typically disrupts their business for other customers who are not in the club and just want to shop.

3. Their place is not large enough and don't want to risk any accidents from over crowding.

Why don't LFS have a better relationship with each other?

1. Competition. That's why their prices are also different. Now that hobbyist are selling to each other or trading, and with the mail order prices, it is now harder for LFS to make a buck when they have to lower their mark up.

2. Most LFS owners used to work for another LFS. Bad blood.

3. The market is not that big. Consider how many are in the area you live in. Take a dollar and divide that into the number of LFS, then subtract a fraction from all but one and add the sum of the fraction to the one you visit frequent.

4. For a LFS to make it in this business, there has to be a compelling reason why you would want to visit them.

LFS owner participating in the forum.

1. They are tired after a long days work and don't want to deal with anymore fish problems.

Just my 2 cents.

[reefcam]

But I do see that some LFS are opening up to the idea to hosting meetings. Why not? It drives traffic to their store. It may sound corny, but why not.

I know that some LFS owner do visit these sites, but don't post much, but use these forum as information resource to understand what the hobbyist are doing.

I guess many of them are coming out of the closet. Geez, when I first started this hobby, the internet wasn't even around...

[puntific]

[Dorkfish]

well being pretty new to the hobby i had never been to a "real" reef store till weekend before last when i went to portland to trade in my little boat for a bigger boat. If I hadent read and talked with you guys i would have been under the sad sad thought that the only fish / pet store not naming names but where the pets go lol was a reef store because of the tank they have with half dead corals in them....

if the reef store owner feels
1. They are tired after a long days work and don't want to deal with anymore fish problems.
then they need to open a matinance only store and not wory about the public....

i work for a medium sized network consulting business here in bend and we did exactly the same (only providing for businesses) because the general public is very needy in our buisness to....
what we dont do though is hope the strays off of the street will provide for us the fat we do that by word of mouth in the offices we service.... thus

I would think and this does frequently get me in trouble but if a store wants the $$$ then they have to have the people in them even if the prices are out there. if i trust a store and the people behind the counter are pleasnt i would spend $$$$ there..... now im not saying i would always on the spot but i sure would send friends and people i talk with to check it out.... and i would garantee if i needed something thats where i would spend...

ok im done now

[Frank]

I my self don't know of any LFS that have rejected to host a reef club meeting. I know that some would like to but the times that we have are meeting do not work well with there hours. I know of one that is always willing to have use in. Not allot of stores have enough room in them to have all of use in there.
Remember that most company's don't have the best relations ship with each other. It is just how the business world works.
I maybe wrong here but I believe that most LFS are not spouse to post on the boards. I'm sure Alice can tell if this is correct.

[reefcam]

As far as, the store owners don't want to deal with any more fish problems after work and they should keep to the maintenance side. There are some owners who are only maintenance only type store and you can't really make a living do just maintenance. The market is not large enough. How may places have you gone to that have a large saltwater tank for display. The maintenance cost it self will keep any store from having one. On a small handfull of restaurants have it and they are not as good looking as the ones at LFS. There are a few who have cool looking tanks, but that is still few and far. Think about how much time you put into your tank and multiply that by $40/hr. It's not much, but it adds up. So they have to have a store front if this is the main business. In this business, product is a mojority of your income, not service. In the computer business, it's a balance of both. I work for a major computer shop that builds product and services.

Networking maintenance is a different business as business networking runs a different gammet and types of people. It's easier to fill a tank of water than to connect 2 computers and have them talk to each other.

As far as LFS owners posting on boards. There may be some that don't allow store owners, but most I know doesn't care, as long as they don't use it as a advertising place. As long as the post are kept on the hobbyist level.

[Dorkfish]

thats what i thought to hehehe

till i put that water in a tank

[Alice]

LFS owners are allowed to post on all the boards that I know of, most just ask that they ID themselves in their signature lines and keep the "running commercial" for their stores to a minimum. Especially as most boards now have sponsors, it can make for an uncomfortable situation for the board host/owner. I would hope that we could get all LFS owners on the boards, just lurking even if not posting. Might open their eyes a bit and they might learn a thing or two

What Frank said was true, I think most LFS would be open to hosting a meeting but there are some that are too small to hold a big crowd, especially on a Sunday afternoon.

What many people don't realize is that many of these shops run right on the edge. They aren't making the big bucks. Many of them are also staffed by one to three people, often family members who work 6-7 days a week, 10 or more hours a day. I can understand why they might be a little too tired to surf the boards.

If you've got a good LFS in your area (and we are lucky in that regard, we have quite a few!) support them!

Alice

[Dorkfish]

very much in agreement the ones i have talked to on here are great no problems there i am more refering to them in my area because they all have gone under and they seem to want to blame the big chain stores when it is in most cases not them that put them under... if they would have been more atentive to the consumer.....

[Dorkfish]

wasnt trying to bash them just trying to give a newbes picture maybe to help the shops that are a ways away from us because we are in numbers and we do have dollars that we like to spend if we get more than a mail order atmosphere.....