Brs taking over marine depot

danieyella

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Clo

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Mixed feelings. I like competition its better for thr consumer most of thr time
I think it is too. And so far, the one experience I had with BRS customer support was them closing my ticket out without resolving the issue. o_O
I've been using MD since then....
 

danieyella

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Mixed feelings. I like competition its better for thr consumer most of thr time
Exactly. On one hand, it's nice that I can order in one go instead of splitting between the two; however, generally only one choice hurts us in the long run.
 

Clo

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Woah?! What company just bought out both leading suppliers to the aquarium trade?
I think it was a private group? I only remember from reading in passing in another thread where people where complaining about the change in BRS youtube videos.
 

WVNed

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I find this thread interesting. I haven't been able to buy anything useful from Marine depot in a long time. I always looked out of habit. At one time most everything I bought came from there and then they just seemed to never have anything I was looking for anymore so I moved on.
I got the email so I must still be in their system.
 

Silvas

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I just hope they treat this like a “volume dealer” and not a “hahahah we own it all, pay our crazy prices”.
I think, since they mostly sell equipment and supplies, that is the way it will play out.
For the most part, they're a retail sales business. They're going to be selling most things @ or close to MSRP, with margins not too far off from other retail sales businesses. The best way for a retail sales business to increase profit is not to start price gouging, it's to increase sales and negotiate better deals on the product to lower cost and increase margin.
If they come in and start increasing prices and basically telling the community too bad, you only have 1 choice, pay what we demand... they'll only incentivize people to find alternatives, DIY solutions, or to start their own business in this space. Nevermind the ill will they'd engender from thumbing their noses at the community that not only made them what they are today, but is their only source of continued success. Granted, new businesses wouldn't have the same margins they do, but could still be profitable while selling at a lower price.

I'd be a lot more worried if they were a coral seller, and there was massive consolidation going on with them buying out all the other coral sellers. That would be a lot more problematic in my view, as I feel like there would be a fairly large knowledge gap in between hobbyists growing coral and doing it as a business to sell in volume, and that knowledge gap would make a fairly effective barrier to entry against someone deciding to start competing against them on any significant scale. Also, in my view corals would be a lot easier for them to price gouge for as long as they could and then sell at a loss or at cost to drive out any new competition that pops up, then go back to price gouging since with corals you're not having to buy them from another entity to resell them, and have a fixed cost you can't get around.

One thing about the consolidation that does bother me is them stating that they're consolidating operations at their MN headquarters; I read that as a lot of people at Marine Depot's operations in CA are going to be losing their jobs. While you always lose some staff with a merger, you almost always keep some too. I would've preferred that they kept the CA operations and warehouse alive; not only would it keep people employed, it would give them multiple places to ship from - less distance to ship to reach most of the west coast which could help them on shipping costs... or what about wintertime when a massive snowstorm hits MN and shipping out of there is ground to a near halt? Having multiple warehouses can help alleviate some of that kind of pain. Also can mean lower shipping times, and being able to ship live goods like chaeto, pods, and coralline from whichever warehouse is closest to the customer.
 

Waters

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I hope Brs continues to carry stuff that only Marine Depot had in the past. For example, I always had to go to MD for Kent M Magnesium and my UV bulbs because BRS doesn't carry them.
 
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