Pet Co makes its move!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter bobimport
- Start date
i wouldn't go running around in a chicken little panic just yet-f&s was supposed to spell certain and immediate doom for all, according to dizzy's ilk some years back, no ? 
i think the ones who should be sweating the most are the other internet bizzes-NOT the b&m's
in fact, i'll wager that the internet hasn't hurt truly good b&m's nearly as much as the 'doomsday sayers' claimed it would, yet.
i think the ones who should be sweating the most are the other internet bizzes-NOT the b&m's
in fact, i'll wager that the internet hasn't hurt truly good b&m's nearly as much as the 'doomsday sayers' claimed it would, yet.
vitz":16dq21ru said:i wouldn't go running around in a chicken little panic just yet-f&s was supposed to spell certain and immediate doom for all, according to dizzy's ilk some years back, no ?
i think the ones who should be sweating the most are the other internet bizzes-NOT the b&m's
in fact, i'll wager that the internet hasn't hurt truly good b&m's nearly as much as the 'doomsday sayers' claimed it would, yet.
Man have you got a selective memory. In a nutshell, all I said was inland retailers couldn't compete very favorably with dropshipping, due to the additional freight costs of having livestock shipped to them. I've always maintained that the average retailer is better off catering (providing services) to their local clientele, than trying to compete in a game with the odds stacked against them. For you to suggest that good brick and mortars are innocuous to the effects of dropshipping is ridiculous. It reaches out and impacts every store in the country to varying degrees. The ones that are more established can probably handle the loss of revenue better than a startup, but none escape unscathed.
Now the question is *who* is going to be dropshipping for Petco? The fact that they have stores in so many states will actually work against them to some degree, since they will be required to charge sales tax in those states. This will give some advantage to Foster and Smith, unless Petco can cut their prices. It should be a buyers market which is not particularly good news for the sealife.
Mitch
i honestly do not think that any GOOD store could show a marked and definite impact that could be directly linked to drop shippers, period-any more so than a slew of other economic factors, and i will always maintain that not only are they irrelevant-for some b&m's they might even be a boom, in the long haul.
my recollections of many of your 'old' posts seem to be far more sensationalistic than yours seem to be-heh, so be it
and i think petco entering the e-tail biz will be very beneficial to b&m's, in the long haul
my recollections of many of your 'old' posts seem to be far more sensationalistic than yours seem to be-heh, so be it
and i think petco entering the e-tail biz will be very beneficial to b&m's, in the long haul
vitz":1gwk3c4y said:and i think petco entering the e-tail biz will be very beneficial to b&m's, in the long haul
Considering the fact that Petco is a b&m I'd have to agree with you. :wink: With over 800 stores now I can see this working pretty good for them. They can bring in some ORA clowns and psuedos for the store displays and encourage customers to order in the rest from one of the dropshipping wholesalers, via petco.com. No loses, no freight, no labor, very little energy consumption, and no dead fish in the systems to get the public riled up. They can use loss leaders on sea salts and common clowns to lure traffic from the independents. All they really have to do is use some pretty posters (signage) and train employees to recommend people buy from their online site. I think we all realize the fish and corals that would be shipped to the customers would be pretty much the same stuff that would be shipped to the retail stores, only it makes one less stop. The real advantage they would have, is that they would have access to pretty much anything the customers might want, where as ordering in special items for an independent is hit or miss much of the time. By adding this to the partnership on service and installation they have with Aquatic Vision, I believe they have a winning formula for success. While I think what they are doing is smart and will be good for them, the logic on how this will benefit independent retailers escapes me. Please enlighten.
Mitch
they will lose more on warranty claims than they make selling livestock
iirc, overall, petco/petsmart do not make bank on their livestock, as a whole-they are more the loss leader for supplys, etc
combine point 1&2 and the rest should be clear-i think they'll eventually be driving folks to switch to b&m's out of plain dissapointment and frustration, in the long run-that pretty much happened to the b&m i worked at in mass that was about 1/2-3/4 mile away from TWO petsmarts, each on the oppsite side of the highway near us
they were one of the best things that ever happened to our sw dept
iirc, overall, petco/petsmart do not make bank on their livestock, as a whole-they are more the loss leader for supplys, etc
combine point 1&2 and the rest should be clear-i think they'll eventually be driving folks to switch to b&m's out of plain dissapointment and frustration, in the long run-that pretty much happened to the b&m i worked at in mass that was about 1/2-3/4 mile away from TWO petsmarts, each on the oppsite side of the highway near us
they were one of the best things that ever happened to our sw dept
There is talk locally that the Petco here already carries lr and it seems they are hiring people claiming reef keeping knowledge, as their new fish people are from other lfs'. There is a real derth of quality stores in the area so I doubt the people they are finding are worth a salt. This hobby has a good communication network estableshed; if their stuff isn't up to par word quickly spreads. Its not like the lowe's and HD thing where I think most people don't know they can do better on most items by either going to the local supply houses or buying from quality internet sellers.
Any LFS will tell you that the vast majority of their customers are not on Reef Central or reef.org or any other forum. That they are only a very small precentage of their business. The novices/beginners is where most of the money is. They will but anything they are told they need and buy fish they can't possably keep. When it dies they will buy another to replace it untill they get discouraged and quit. Just look at Petco's Invertebrate Package, How many of the anemones do you think will make to 6 months in beginners tanks. Very sad!!
I can tell you my experience with the local petco...
Clams under standard freshwater type flourescent lighting. Live rock that all looks like red lava rock that was made by a stamping machine, because there are 15 rocks in the holding tank, and only three diffrent looks. Some sort of leather under the same flourescents as the rest of the stuff kind of melting on to a piece of mass produced live rock. Coral banded shrimps with only one claw.
And a manager with so little concern about the animals, that rather then sell me the dieing clam at cost, he will return it to the distributor for credit.
Petco is a store with no compassion for anything marine related and is only concerned with the money. But I am not sure who is worse, the store that will take on selling animals they are not equipped to handle, or the distributor that is willing to give them full credit on a clam that only died because the store mishandled it?
Clams under standard freshwater type flourescent lighting. Live rock that all looks like red lava rock that was made by a stamping machine, because there are 15 rocks in the holding tank, and only three diffrent looks. Some sort of leather under the same flourescents as the rest of the stuff kind of melting on to a piece of mass produced live rock. Coral banded shrimps with only one claw.
And a manager with so little concern about the animals, that rather then sell me the dieing clam at cost, he will return it to the distributor for credit.
Petco is a store with no compassion for anything marine related and is only concerned with the money. But I am not sure who is worse, the store that will take on selling animals they are not equipped to handle, or the distributor that is willing to give them full credit on a clam that only died because the store mishandled it?
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