Anyone else get a post card from these guys?
- Thread starter Raskal311
- Start date
Wow - nothing ever really changes I guess. Back in the 1970's pet stores often stopped carrying fish magazine because of mailorder ads in the back. In the 1980's onward, the competition was still from that front, but add to it chain stores.
There were rumors that one wholesaler was buying and operating its own pet stores and a mail order firm - all under different names, while still selling to its loyal retail stores....
To operate a public aquarium, I've pretty much stopped buying anything but bulk items from wholesalers, its more efficient (and just about as cheap) to go with mailorder. Just get tanks and gravel delivered from wholesalers now, plus salt from the manufacturer.
If I owned a pet store now, I would captilize it so I could go discount retail out the front door and mailorder out the back. I think that is how at least two of the current mailorder companies got started (Pet Solutions and That Fish Place).
Jay
There were rumors that one wholesaler was buying and operating its own pet stores and a mail order firm - all under different names, while still selling to its loyal retail stores....
To operate a public aquarium, I've pretty much stopped buying anything but bulk items from wholesalers, its more efficient (and just about as cheap) to go with mailorder. Just get tanks and gravel delivered from wholesalers now, plus salt from the manufacturer.
If I owned a pet store now, I would captilize it so I could go discount retail out the front door and mailorder out the back. I think that is how at least two of the current mailorder companies got started (Pet Solutions and That Fish Place).
Jay
clarionreef
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- San Francisco
They make a good point about the manufacturers selling out their own customer base by going to the public via mail order houses.
The industry has a right to defend itself and this is an attempt. I hope they succeed because without them, the critical mass of product that enables the industry to exist in the first place will suffer terribly.
This fact is the inconvenient truth that email consumers all know...and avoid admitting. Betraying , nay Killing the very thing that creates the economy of scale the hobby enjoys is counterproductive and unintelligent.
But alas, the public sells out faster then anyone as we are in fact the Walmart Nation...ie. the culture of hypocrites that demands cheapness above all virtues while at the same time decrying shoddy, poisonous goods and ecologically suicidal practices in China .
Steve
The industry has a right to defend itself and this is an attempt. I hope they succeed because without them, the critical mass of product that enables the industry to exist in the first place will suffer terribly.
This fact is the inconvenient truth that email consumers all know...and avoid admitting. Betraying , nay Killing the very thing that creates the economy of scale the hobby enjoys is counterproductive and unintelligent.
But alas, the public sells out faster then anyone as we are in fact the Walmart Nation...ie. the culture of hypocrites that demands cheapness above all virtues while at the same time decrying shoddy, poisonous goods and ecologically suicidal practices in China .
Steve
cortez marine":2q2pq2pm said:
That assumes that that economy of scale is a good thing and should continue.
I don't know if it is.Live animals as a volume business seems to generally put the well-being of the animal last, if it really gets considered at all. If a damsel was 20 dollars instead of 3 dollars at the LFS, less of them would be collected, and less of them would be considered disposable by hobbyists.
Ding! Everything should be cheap and everyone has the 'right' to buy anything they want. A very strange way to view the world IMO.
a damsel was 20 dollars instead of 3 dollars at the LFS, less of them would be collected, and less of them would be considered disposable by hobbyists.
I agree if they were $20.00 each fewer would be purchased.
Hobbyists don't consider any fish they purchase as disposable. They try to take care of the fish's needs irrepective of cost.
Do you think industry considers damsals disposable?
Wayne Ryan
I agree if they were $20.00 each fewer would be purchased.
Hobbyists don't consider any fish they purchase as disposable. They try to take care of the fish's needs irrepective of cost.
Do you think industry considers damsals disposable?
Wayne Ryan
naesco":11qpnziz said:
Sadly, you are wrong here. Damsels are still sold as disposable cycling fish in many places. They are also used as feeders.
Any cheap fish is often considered disposable, meaning, if it dies, no big deal, just replace it.
Some feel differently, but the majority seems to feel that since animals are instantly available and are generally so cheap...
Nope.
naesco":21dzo60d said:
LOL, I would love to meet you in person! I'd like to see your face as you say these incredible things you do so I can figure out if you truly believe the things that come out of your mouth or you purposely just try to argue day vs night to get a rise.
I can't count how many times over the past few weeks on just a couple boards I have read "Well I went and got it. If it dies it's no big deal, it was only $XYZ." I'm willing to bet it's a daily occurance.
Thales the point I was trying to make is who is doing the selling of and recommending a damsal to cycle a tank.
Justphish
Yes, and there are people who would buy a cheap fish and would not care if it died because it was cheap anyways. But, don't call these idiots hobbyists.
Justphish
Yes, and there are people who would buy a cheap fish and would not care if it died because it was cheap anyways. But, don't call these idiots hobbyists.
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