Debating starting an aquarium store

[t3ddy]

Hello!

I've been debating for a long time about opening an aquarium store with maintenance services.

I've done some research obviously, but I'm having a hard time finding wholesale vendors for equipment. I've seen marinedepot, etc have wholesale, but they obviously have their markup.

Any leads would be great on where to get a wholesale account.

 

[MONTANTK]

Royal exclusive is where we used to get our stuff. Not sure if they’re still in business or if they were acquired. Another big one was Phillips pet supplies. For Neptune, AI, Ecotech all of that stuff came direct from the company and it didn’t have much of a mark up.

 

[t3ddy]

Royal exclusive is where we used to get our stuff. Not sure if they’re still in business or if they were acquired. Another big one was Phillips pet supplies. For Neptune, AI, Ecotech all of that stuff came direct from the company and it didn’t have much of a mark up.

Awesome, I will check it out, thanks!

 

[MONTANTK]

Awesome, I will check it out, thanks!

Oh also when I say markup for AI, Ecotech, etc. I mean the margins weren’t that great. Not sure what marine depot prices look like but if for some reason the manufacturers won’t sell directly to you I don’t think you’d miss out on much profit

 

[Reef-junky]

I’ve seen a ton of saltwater fish stores go out of business. The equipment selection is usually small compared to online stores as well. You will have a tough time vs Petco or pet smart aka the Walmart of pet stores.

 

[Jekyl]

I would recommend not having a retail facility. Between lease, taxes, insurance, start up costs, and payroll it's easier to do it from home. Pay someone for website design and put money towards marketing. Get some frag tanks going and a rack or 2 for fish that are in high demand.

 

[Jekyl]

Create an LLC to distance yourself from any issues that occur. If you run it from your own home all of your bills are now tax write offs.

 

[hhaase]

Local guy started a maintenance business and has been doing quite well. He did end up opening a retail shop as well, but that's mainly only there so he has a supply of equipment and livestock for his maintenance customers. Anybody can buy at the shop but it's by far the lesser part of the business. The maintenance service is by far his bigger profit base.

 

[rhostam]

Local guy started a maintenance business and has been doing quite well. He did end up opening a retail shop as well, but that's mainly only there so he has a supply of equipment and livestock for his maintenance customers. Anybody can buy at the shop but it's by far the lesser part of the business. The maintenance service is by far his bigger profit base.

This is what one of the LFS in “my area” did. They specialize in tanks, setup, and maintenance and eventually opened up a retail front to support their maintenance customers. Now they are also open to the public for about 4 hours Friday and Saturday. They lease out space in one of those small industrial parks. Small, but one of the more well stocked and stunning inventories both for equipment and livestock.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Hello!

I've been debating for a long time about opening an aquarium store with maintenance services.

I've done some research obviously, but I'm having a hard time finding wholesale vendors for equipment. I've seen marinedepot, etc have wholesale, but they obviously have their markup.

Any leads would be great on where to get a wholesale account.

Don't stock anything that Petco or Petsmart sell! You will never even be able to buy tanks at the same price of their dollar per gallon sale so don't even bother to stock that brand of tanks. Central Garden and Pet is the largest distribution system in the United States and you should pick very sparingly from them since the are actually competition for your store through relationship with mass merchandise companies.

Concentrate on the maintenance market and system sales and you will do fine. Keep you overhead low and stock deep on the essential items that actually work for you and your customers. Aquarium stores have a short lifespan due to burn out and low profits.

Try to establish a connection with actual fish collectors and farmers and avoid the wholesalers if possible. You will have to have access to an international airport for good supply at lower cost per pound of air freight. Learn the correct way to acclimate fish from Transhippers or farms and put that system into practice.

 

[t3ddy]

Awesome advice and tips guys,

I already own a retail store front (Paid off - so no rental costs), so thats why I was discussing opening a store because thats where I would run my base of operations out of.

I could probably just setup the tanks there for fish/coral, then maybe eventually down the road have it open for business. I will probably try to focus on the maintenance side of things, as no one in my 60 mile area does ANY aquarium related stuff and the only petstore is Petco.

Thanks!

 

[t3ddy]

This is what one of the LFS in “my area” did. They specialize in tanks, setup, and maintenance and eventually opened up a retail front to support their maintenance customers. Now they are also open to the public for about 4 hours Friday and Saturday. They lease out space in one of those small industrial parks. Small, but one of the more well stocked and stunning inventories both for equipment and livestock.

This will be my goal!

 

[t3ddy]

I’ve seen a ton of saltwater fish stores go out of business. The equipment selection is usually small compared to online stores as well. You will have a tough time vs Petco or pet smart aka the Walmart of pet stores.

There is only 1 Petco within 60 miles and it literally has almost nothing for stock or equipment for saltwater.

 

[mdb_talon]

I’ve seen a ton of saltwater fish stores go out of business. The equipment selection is usually small compared to online stores as well. You will have a tough time vs Petco or pet smart aka the Walmart of pet stores.

I guess it depends on the market and maybe your local store. Other than cheap tanks neither of those stores are really any competition if the target audience is the more involved saltwater hobbyist. Their equipment is generally low quality; yet not inexpensive at all relative to other low quality brands. At least near me the Petsmart does not even have saltwater; the Petco does, but the only decent prices are when they mislabel something because they have zero clue what they are doing.

In any case the several LFS owners I have spoke too have all indicated pretty much the same thing and that is the storefront itself is not incredibly profitable, but it is what legitimizes their business to most people and sets them up for the real profits... maintenance.

 

[Montiman]

As some one who has worked in the industry and been to many stores the number one thing to keep in mind is know what you are. Are you an online coral vendor, a Maintenance business, a full line store? All the time stores make decisions that don't make sense given what there business model is.

If your goal is maintenance and installation. A small showroom style store is perfect. limited dry goods for standardization between clients, extra effort into display, and the ability to get custom equipment and tanks is important.

If you want to be a coral vendor, my experience is that most market places cannot sustain a coral only vendor for local sales. You need an online presence. This will likely be over 50% of your business.

If you want to be a traditional aquarium store like I grew up with then you need to sell everything someone needs to walk out the door with a tank today. This is the one advantage the traditional store has over the internet. I loved working at the LFS. At the shop I worked at you could walk in and leave with everything you needed to set up a 200 gallon reef tank. More and more I see stores wondering why they can't sell tanks like they used to but they don't have the skimmers, sumps, or lights to pair with the tanks in the store. This represents alot of upfront cost but to be honest most small businesses need at least $100,000 of inventory to start. If you don't have the cash you probably should be doing something else. The LFS I worked at had approximately $200,000 of inventory at any given time. I have seen many stores who couldn't pay their rent if they sold everything in the store.

 

[sharpimage]

It is hard to compete with Amazon for hard goods, so don't bother. You wil end up with inventory just sitting on the shelf

 

[Montiman]

It is hard to compete with Amazon for hard goods, so don't bother. You wil end up with inventory just sitting on the shelf

This is a flaw. You can compete if you have a complete selection and knowledgeable staff. I worked in the industry for years very recently and I can tell you there are local fish stores that sell over half a million dollars a year in dry goods, some much much more. They usually maintain a $3-400,000 inventory that includes everything. It is not impossible to compete with the internet.

The inherent weakness of the internet is the lack of information particularly in this hobby. This is why online outlets that emphasis teaching and information do the best. BRS did about 60 million last year.

The inherent weakness of the LFS is the lack of selection. The largest fish store in my local area is in a converted roller ring that is huge. It is a private business so there are no public figures but from knowing their suppliers the store easily does 2 million in sales a year. Again you can walk in and walk out with a complete 200 gallon reef tank today. You can have it installed Saturday. If you really want to sell dry goods you need to become like a walmart and have everything. I know this is expensive but it really isn't that expensive compared to other businesses. An average livestock order at the LFS I worked at was at least $10,000 and $30,000 was not crazy. Imagine how $30,000 of dry goods could improve the selection of most stores. Given how low interest rates are More stores need to get more inventory.

 

[Reef-junky]

There is only 1 Petco within 60 miles and it literally has almost nothing for stock or equipment for saltwater.

There were probably 5 or so salt water stores all out of business by us. Even one of the good ones that’s left doesn’t have 1/2 the selection I can get online and for cheaper at that.

 

[Reef-junky]

I guess it depends on the market and maybe your local store. Other than cheap tanks neither of those stores are really any competition if the target audience is the more involved saltwater hobbyist. Their equipment is generally low quality; yet not inexpensive at all relative to other low quality brands. At least near me the Petsmart does not even have saltwater; the Petco does, but the only decent prices are when they mislabel something because they have zero clue what they are doing.

In any case the several LFS owners I have spoke too have all indicated pretty much the same thing and that is the storefront itself is not incredibly profitable, but it is what legitimizes their business to most people and sets them up for the real profits... maintenance.

That’s my point the stores aren’t profitable that’s why most of them are going out of business.

 

[mdb_talon]

That’s my point the stores aren’t profitable that’s why most of them are going out of business.

And my point was the storefront is what helps in creating a profitable service business. Generally speaking a business has to do many things that are not truly profitable in order bolster the profitable parts of their business.

I would also argue that "most" of them are not going out of business by any stretch.