Instant Ocean huge price increase by some Vendors

[dvgyfresh]

Don’t have to buy salt if you never water change lol

 

[NowGlazeIT]

There is no justification for a 78% increase otherwise we would see most of our staples going up that much.

Im surprised your staples aren’t going up. I paid $6.50 per gallon of gas and $5 per half gallon of milk. Beef and chicken went up 50% here in the last year.

 

[Derrick0580]

$69.99 or so has been going price at my LFS since at least 2008 (never on sale and never sells either). I bought during the chewy sale mentioned above, but I’d expect the price to go up with regular sales (maybe just not as good)

I feel guilty buying off amazon sometimes and not supporting my lfs because the owner is a friend of mine. However I also remember they are the only saltwater shop within an hour drive and they take advantage of this which eases the guilt! I flat out asked one time why their prices are soo much higher than everyone else and they said it was because of their supplier, like I’m too dumb to know they are allowed to shop around for cheaper suppliers just like I’m allowed to shop around for cheaper retail prices. Their reply was that if there was something on BRS I wanted they could get it for me at that price. Tried that one time, took over 2 weeks for them to get me the item I wanted when it was worth me paying the $1.99 shipping from BRS directly to get it in a few days. Plus they very rarely have sales on anything, occasionally tank set ups but that’s it.

 

[SunnyX]

As someone pointed out, just get it from Amazon. I have a monthly subscription and get a 160gl bucket of RC for $33.99.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

The simple answer on that is not not buy their goods and buy a substitute good/from a competitor. Consumers can live without aquarium salt as this is a true luxury hobby. A vendor cannot over charge for a good that we willingly pay for and can live without. I know it sounds preachy and pedantic (sorry, not trying too)..but this is basic Econ 101. I doubt there is anything nefarious going on..especially with I/O who are usually on the cheaper end of the spectrum To me, if prices are going up this much, it is to cover their costs going up (fuel, shipping, raw materials, labor, etc)

I spoke to a gentleman in Instant Ocean customer service yesterday. He indicated it was probably the retail vendors hiking up the prices that high.

Why not just get it from Amazon?

That is what I did!

 

[Catnip885]

Petsmart has the bucket listed at 39.99 for the reef crystals right now and you can go in and price match. Just shop around find the deals the normal bucket price at petsmart is like 70 something but it is almost always on sale

 

[Sebastiancrab]

I feel guilty buying off amazon sometimes and not supporting my lfs because the owner is a friend of mine. However I also remember they are the only saltwater shop within an hour drive and they take advantage of this which eases the guilt! I flat out asked one time why their prices are soo much higher than everyone else and they said it was because of their supplier, like I’m too dumb to know they are allowed to shop around for cheaper suppliers just like I’m allowed to shop around for cheaper retail prices. Their reply was that if there was something on BRS I wanted they could get it for me at that price. Tried that one time, took over 2 weeks for them to get me the item I wanted when it was worth me paying the $1.99 shipping from BRS directly to get it in a few days. Plus they very rarely have sales on anything, occasionally tank set ups but that’s it.

I don't feel guilty one bit from buying from Amazon. My LFS is jacking up the prices too simply because they can get it. Other than Petco/Petsmart, they are the only game in town who carries necessary dry goods. Their inventory is 30% or more higher than BRS and these are both retailers.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Petsmart has the bucket listed at 39.99 for the reef crystals right now and you can go in and price match. Just shop around find the deals the normal bucket price at petsmart is like 70 something but it is almost always on sale

Yes, Reef Crystals is reasonably priced. I don't currently use it and not sure I want to switch. That is not the product this thread is about.

 

[Gtinnel]

Yes, Reef Crystals is reasonably priced. I don't currently use it and not sure I want to switch. That is not the product this thread is about.

The purple bucket IO is $38 right now on Petsmarts website.

 

[Reefing102]

I feel guilty buying off amazon sometimes and not supporting my lfs because the owner is a friend of mine. However I also remember they are the only saltwater shop within an hour drive and they take advantage of this which eases the guilt! I flat out asked one time why their prices are soo much higher than everyone else and they said it was because of their supplier, like I’m too dumb to know they are allowed to shop around for cheaper suppliers just like I’m allowed to shop around for cheaper retail prices. Their reply was that if there was something on BRS I wanted they could get it for me at that price. Tried that one time, took over 2 weeks for them to get me the item I wanted when it was worth me paying the $1.99 shipping from BRS directly to get it in a few days. Plus they very rarely have sales on anything, occasionally tank set ups but that’s it.

Definitely don’t feel guilty. My LFS (doesn’t even carry saltwater fish anymore - thank goodness) but I used to work for them years ago and I know their mark up percentage on most goods, there’s a reason I don’t go there anymore.

 

[gbroadbridge]

Im surprised your staples aren’t going up. I paid $6.50 per gallon of gas and $5 per half gallon of milk. Beef and chicken went up 50% here in the last year.

$6.80 a gallon here.

Most aquarium gadgets are only available on waitlist with delays of months. Not good.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I don't feel guilty one bit from buying from Amazon. My LFS is jacking up the prices too simply because they can get it. Other than Petco/Petsmart, they are the only game in town who carries necessary dry goods. Their inventory is 30% or more higher than BRS and these are both retailers.

I’m an avid proponent of supporting the local economy, even if it costs a little more. It’s not easy competing with out of state corporations that have access to ginormous commercial properties in industrial areas with huge tax breaks to move in. Wages, healthcare, taxes, trying to manage a small space….it’s very difficult. That said, I’m now legally blind and can’t drive. My lfs was not willing to deliver, even using Uber, with me perfectly willing to pay for the delivery. They even told me it was not worth their time to deal with it as they only have two people at any given time. They were honest and said they hate to lose my business. When I buy from brs, nothing goes into my local economy for resources and infrastructure. The sad part of economics is cornering the market, undercutting the market, acquiring or forcing the closure of any competition, and then the inevitable…..rising of prices. It’s hard to be a mom and pop anymore.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Definitely don’t feel guilty. My LFS (doesn’t even carry saltwater fish anymore - thank goodness) but I used to work for them years ago and I know their mark up percentage on most goods, there’s a reason I don’t go there anymore.

honest question and not trying to troll...you know their markup, but do you know the business's net profit / profit margin? The amazon's of the world have economies of scale which allow them to sell goods cheaper yet still make a higher profit than that of small businesses. It sucks that LFSs are generally higher than online retailers but those LFSs are such an important piece of the reefing community and the prices they charge are usually necessary to stay in business. I doubt any reef store owner is living in lap of luxury and is probably a few bad months of sales from going under.

 

[Pntbll687]

I feel guilty buying off amazon sometimes and not supporting my lfs because the owner is a friend of mine. However I also remember they are the only saltwater shop within an hour drive and they take advantage of this which eases the guilt! I flat out asked one time why their prices are soo much higher than everyone else and they said it was because of their supplier, like I’m too dumb to know they are allowed to shop around for cheaper suppliers just like I’m allowed to shop around for cheaper retail prices. Their reply was that if there was something on BRS I wanted they could get it for me at that price. Tried that one time, took over 2 weeks for them to get me the item I wanted when it was worth me paying the $1.99 shipping from BRS directly to get it in a few days. Plus they very rarely have sales on anything, occasionally tank set ups but that’s it.

So, I'll say that your LFS probably has a routine order they place with the distributor to get the product you wanted. That could be every week, or every other week. They also have a minimum order to reach with every distributor, probably somewhere around $1000. If the product you wanted is from a distributor they don't order allot from it can take a while to get products.

I work for a distributor, and I can tell you, LFS especially saltwater oriented ones, need to do a better job of stocking their shelves with items people want. Gone are the days of Coralife and Kent marine products with little or no directions on how to use them dominating the shelf.

Now, for the main topic of the thread. There was a price increase on instant ocean products, at least at the distributor level! We have seen a 18% increase from Jan 1 until now. We absolutely CANNOT absorb increases like this. The price increase has to passed on to the retailer, and more than likely is passed on to the consumer. Most places have slowly raised the price on IO, since they new price increases were coming.

There is a giant game being played by online retailers. It's called change our price to way higher and hope everyone else's algorithm catches it and adjusts accordingly.

 

[brmc1985]

Don’t have to buy salt if you never water change lol

Laughs in no water changes. Mwahahahaha

 

[ninjamyst]

this is normal pricing when there's no sale. not everything is inflation...

 

[Reefing102]

honest question and not trying to troll...you know their markup, but do you know the business's net profit / profit margin? The amazon's of the world have economies of scale which allow them to sell goods cheaper yet still make a higher profit than that of small businesses. It sucks that LFSs are generally higher than online retailers but those LFSs are such an important piece of the reefing community and the prices they charge are usually necessary to stay in business. I doubt any reef store owner is living in lap of luxury and is probably a few bad months of sales from going under.

No problem, I have problem sharing info and didn’t sign any confidentially agreement, I just don’t want to derail the thread…when I left in 2013, granted this LFS is a small chain (4 stores only in Ohio) pet store not just a fish store, they were averaging just over or under $1 million in profit each year, averaging about $6k in total sales per day, with a $7k/month storefront rent plus utilities and other overhead costs of payroll, product, etc.

 

[doubleshot00]

Either im retarted or yall are; IO purple “box” is $52 on Amazon and OOS on persmarts website. What am missing here?

 

[Miami Reef]

I really didn’t want to hear this today. I love instant ocean salt.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

Either im retarted or yall are; IO purple “box” is $52 on Amazon and OOS on persmarts website. What am missing here?

Kindly reread my posting. The point was some vendors are enormously jacking up the prices and had they gotten a huge pass on cost increase from IO or was this just gouging by the named retailers? In other words, was it going to stay this high when vendors work down their inventory at a lower cost?

With inflation today, there are genuine price increases. But there is A LOT of price gouging going on in certain industries due to lack of competition. The answer to my thread was posted by @Pntbll687. He stated there has been an 18% price increase by IO. If you work at a retailer you would see this coming from IO billing or a distributor. He also probably nailed what is going on with the price gouging. The prices by competitor companies are monitored by the retailers via computer matches. If enough of them go up, they will most likely raise their price too.