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Icebear, in my experience as a retailer... Kent and Seachem are easy to get via distributors and are quality products.
I prefer Current USA to Coralife - both easy to get, but Current has better customer service.
I carried Salifert tests but nobody bought them... lots of people talk the talk but few walk the walk. Having said that I carry Seachem tests and you will NEVER find an AP test kit in this store. Red Sea tests are good too - and have a copper test from Red Sea if you sell Cupramine. The Red Sea test works with Curpamine but the Seachem test is a pain in the rear.
No Sea Clones either OR Prizms - spend a few more dollars at cost and go to a bit more trouble and get AquaC or CPR - PM me if you need distributor info because they don't come from your main line distributor. Neither does Salifert but there's a couple of places you can get them.
Carrying every wattage/colour temp etc., of lamps is impractical for most stores. Depending on your sales volume, a couple of each of the 65 and 96 watts move well. Metal Halides may be "order only" because it's expensive inventory to have on the shelf, and if you have 10,000K the customer wants 20,000K or if you have 175 Watt they want 250, etc and it's hard to keep some of everything on the shelf without going broke.
Bulkheads, plumbing kits, and other PVC parts are good to have on hand. Black tubing - Lee's makes good stuff readily available through most distributors.
See if you can't replace the Wardley and API stuff with comparable Kent and Seachem... better products, more "high end". I like Omega Sea for flake/pellet foods, there are some other good ones too.
San Fran, Piscine Energetics, and Ocean Nutrition (and Hikari) are good for frozen.
Salt: Kent, IO, Reef Crystals, Oceanic. I haven't found that Seachem moves at all, and Red Sea salt is awful, IMO - so is Coralife salt. You'll move way more IO than any other, but Kent's up there for me - but I prefer it, so I push it more.
The issue with carrying all the big-dollar, high-end stuff is that unless you're in an affluent area, you won't move as much of that as the middle of the road stuff. Don't carry the junk - it's not worth it. The downside is that if you have a decent HOB skimmer for $10 more than the crappy one your competitor sells, more than half the people will buy the POS from down the road and a few months later they might buy the good one from you. It's a catch 22 sometimes, but IMO you're better off carrying the better stuff in the first place, then you aren't as likely to find the name of your store being smeared online because the "stupid LFS" sold them crap
I am sure I could go on and on about what stuff moves well, what's good to keep - but that's something to chew on for now
Jenn
I prefer Current USA to Coralife - both easy to get, but Current has better customer service.
I carried Salifert tests but nobody bought them... lots of people talk the talk but few walk the walk. Having said that I carry Seachem tests and you will NEVER find an AP test kit in this store. Red Sea tests are good too - and have a copper test from Red Sea if you sell Cupramine. The Red Sea test works with Curpamine but the Seachem test is a pain in the rear.
No Sea Clones either OR Prizms - spend a few more dollars at cost and go to a bit more trouble and get AquaC or CPR - PM me if you need distributor info because they don't come from your main line distributor. Neither does Salifert but there's a couple of places you can get them.
Carrying every wattage/colour temp etc., of lamps is impractical for most stores. Depending on your sales volume, a couple of each of the 65 and 96 watts move well. Metal Halides may be "order only" because it's expensive inventory to have on the shelf, and if you have 10,000K the customer wants 20,000K or if you have 175 Watt they want 250, etc and it's hard to keep some of everything on the shelf without going broke.
Bulkheads, plumbing kits, and other PVC parts are good to have on hand. Black tubing - Lee's makes good stuff readily available through most distributors.
See if you can't replace the Wardley and API stuff with comparable Kent and Seachem... better products, more "high end". I like Omega Sea for flake/pellet foods, there are some other good ones too.
San Fran, Piscine Energetics, and Ocean Nutrition (and Hikari) are good for frozen.
Salt: Kent, IO, Reef Crystals, Oceanic. I haven't found that Seachem moves at all, and Red Sea salt is awful, IMO - so is Coralife salt. You'll move way more IO than any other, but Kent's up there for me - but I prefer it, so I push it more.
The issue with carrying all the big-dollar, high-end stuff is that unless you're in an affluent area, you won't move as much of that as the middle of the road stuff. Don't carry the junk - it's not worth it. The downside is that if you have a decent HOB skimmer for $10 more than the crappy one your competitor sells, more than half the people will buy the POS from down the road and a few months later they might buy the good one from you. It's a catch 22 sometimes, but IMO you're better off carrying the better stuff in the first place, then you aren't as likely to find the name of your store being smeared online because the "stupid LFS" sold them crap
I am sure I could go on and on about what stuff moves well, what's good to keep - but that's something to chew on for now
Jenn