LFS that just don't care?

[Nick Steele]

If your removing the frag plug anyway, why you pushing for discounts?

Cause why not! There’s always a risk even when removing plugs imo

 

[SaltISlife]

Petco? Wow! The Petco’s in Utah are nothing like that. Barely have freshwater fish

My petco im guess is lucky.. well they were until this virus jit they kinds stopped ordering corals. And the girl changed the lights to all pink so it looks rediculous.

But this was my petcos frag tank.

 

[AdamD76]

My petco im guess is lucky.. well they were until this virus jit they kinds stopped ordering corals. And the girl changed the lights to all pink so it looks rediculous.

But this was my petcos frag tank.

Your petco has open tanks?

 

[homer1475]

I’ll add one in here,
I live in Vermont and my state has -ONE- “legit” coral shop.
He is literally never there though. I’ve texted the guy asking his hours, asked if he will be there the days I will be going etc . . Every time I show up there’s a “Will be back at 4pm” sign up in the window.
I was able to get ahold of him on the phone last time I drove all the way out there. Asked him if he was coming back still since I hd waited from 3:30-4:30 after driving the distance out there and seeing his sign for 4pm.
He asked what exactly I wanted to buy, and I told him I wasn’t sure until I was able to see in the store. (I had an empty tank at the time so was planning on spending good money but I didn’t tell him that). So he told me he wasn’t “in a rush to make it back to the store, and may not be back today”.
That was the last time I drove up there.

I’ve gotten some really nice torches from
people here on R2R and some really nice others from TSA on here as well. Probably for the best lol

I know the exact store your talking about(green mountain corals). I've driven there a few times from NY, and have even called to make sure he's going to be there(it is a 3 hour drive for me). Only to have him not be there, and upon calling was basically told the same as you.

I will never be going back there. But on a side note, did meet someone who has some very nice SPS for sale in VT right here on R2R!

 

[AdamD76]

I know the exact store your talking about(green mountain corals). I've driven there a few times from NY, and have even called to make sure he's going to be there(it is a 3 hour drive for me). Only to have him not be there, and upon calling was basically told the same as you.

I will never be going back there. But on a side note, did meet someone who has some very nice SPS for sale in VT right here on R2R!

I was just looking at that place on google. I do want to check it out. It's hour and half away from me. I can always just check in on my way to Burlington.

 

[homer1475]

I was just looking at that place on google. I do want to check it out. It's hour and half away from me. I can always just check in on my way to Burlington.

Have fun trying to get into the store!

 

[ScubaFish802]

I was just looking at that place on google. I do want to check it out. It's hour and half away from me. I can always just check in on my way to Burlington.

I didn’t want to call the guy out, but that’s the one haha
If you do make it in tell him there’s a whole customer base trying to shop there lol

 

[homer1475]

I only knew because I've tried to go there several times, and have yet to make it into the store. Even driving up in a blinding snowstorm because "I'll be there all day today". Or at least thats what he told me on the phone.

I've been in almost every LFS I can find in VT, PA, NY(except the city), MD, area.

 

[nastronaut]

I've been catching a feel for the LFS in my area, there are a few further out that I haven't been to in neighboring towns but 3 in the city that have a good selection.

Store A:
Definitely some pros and cons to each. One is closest to me, but their markup is pretty high. I assume it's due to their rent and overall sqft probably being the largest of the 3. They've got a good selection, and the employees are helpful, but something about the margins tilts me a little - for example they sell the tiniest frags at a flat $25 minimum regardless of species, and generally their fish are $5-10, or more, higher than virtually any source. They do have decent weekend sales.

But today I went in, generally I'm the type to spend some time in the shop, generally I keep to myself and inevitably start doing research while I'm there, especially when I find similar options for products I'd been considering.

Anyways, today I knew I was going to get a reef test kit very soon and went ahead and brought some tank water to get a baseline from the stores test. They offered free testings which is great. But the results they gave me were way off. The results were quite jarring, and they didn't have a complete reef test kit for <50. Luckily I was able to rush to petco and pick up one of theirs. I get home and find out they'd told me my alkalinity was half of what it actually was (they told me it was 6... It was actually 12), and they told me that my phosphates were more than double what they were (they told me I had 3-4ppm phos, I actually had .25ppm phos~). Could've just been one off but I'll be careful letting LFS run tests for me in the future. That said it was probably my fault for not already having a kit (which I now have and the levels were more or less fine), I'll be working to perfect the levels from where they're at, but it's nowhere near as jarring as LFS telling you you have deadly low alk and hellishly high phos.

Tldr; unless I urgently need something I'm probably going to go to this store less. Even if I signed up for their membership the prices are still too high - and the owner, or who I presume to be, told me once they give you a one time ticket and don't like document their members cause it's too much work (to maintain a spreadsheet?), Idk.

Stores B:
Super cool store, very unique, and I haven't even explored their outside, pond, setups yet. Store it literally divided by levels, upstairs being saltwater. Staff is always super on it and designated by section, even the employees I've barely talked to seem to really know what they're talking about. I'd emailed them a few times too, as I got my clowns here, and they've been nice and transparent.

Their coral selection is pretty amazing and they have a massive selection of $5 frags (which store A would sell for $25), I always love popping in and seeing what cool selection is in that tank, and then impulsively buying the biggest one - hah. They also have $10 tank, $20 tank and so on, the health and quality compared to store A is night and day. Wayyyy more bang for buck.

Fish wise they seem to sell a little cheaper than the online vendors, such as live aquaria - I just wish they would label their tanks and prices. I hate asking. But I also think it's good to make people inquire so they can gauge knowledge, which I think they do - I've seen them thoroughly interrogate families on care requirements and tank status. Luckily they didn't grill me much but I tend to be asking them a ton of questions about literally everything prior to actually making any purchases.

I fell in love with store B and became a ~member~ so on top of their good prices I get 15% off marine life and about 10% off other purchases. Also their saltwater is only $1/gal! Plus the discount is pretty awesome. Some.kf their dry products are marked up pretty high though, but generally more competitive than store A, and usually about the same as amazon or just a dollar or two more.

Tldr; worth the drive down, though they don't necessarily have as wide a selection of dry products and hardware as store A for misc things. Can be a little dusty though, sometimes I want to offer to come rearrange their staging of dry products and wipe the place down (not the tanks, just the shelving and such).

Store C:
I've only been once but they're my 2nd favorite for sure. Super clean, lots of high tech. They've got less sqft but the biggest display tanks and some of the biggest fish I've ever seen. So clean. Good prices, very cool employees - we didn't talk a bunch but the vibe was nice. Their hardware / dry goods were the best pricing of all 3 shops - honestly idk how they kept pricing so low, other than I know their overhead is much less just based on location and sqft.

Their fish selection is pretty good too, similar pricing to store B/live aquaria. And their inverts were reasonably priced and a good selection of those which aren't found in the above 2 stores.

Coral wise from what I could tell their pricing is a lot like store A, kind of overpriced for what you get.

--

They all fill nice niches. I wish either B or C were the closest to my place, but I'm pretty lucky having 3 shops so close. Starting to get a little aggravated with store A just because they can be a bit more dismissive/rude at times, but most of the employees are great, but seemingly much higher chance of being misinformed at store A too - which sucks when it's about your parameters z.z

Store A's overall quality in terms of coral, fish, and invert health also are bottom of the 3 from what I've seen.

Side note: store A and B need to let me redo their websites... Store A hasn't updated their website in 4 years! Store B (though it's my favorite) hasn't updated in 5 years!!!!! Scary

 

[Texas Rick]

On the bright side, at least your LFS cares enough to have a frag tank and sell coral. My only local saltwater store doesn't even sell coral. At least not any more. They tried years ago, but all that is left is the old tank in the back corner that was once their coral tank, but now it sits empty. There are a few empty plugs, a few plugs with dead skeletons attached, but nothing alive in the tank other than algae.

They don't use RO water let alone RO/DI.

the staff consists of a mom, her daughter, and a couple of her friends. All about 16-25yo and completely clueless.
One time I called to see if they had a certain pellet food in stock (TDO chroma boost) and the girl on the phone said "gee, I don' t know, we have a lot of stuff on the shelves..."

Talk about not caring.... I have the poster child LFS for not caring.

Man, that sucks! Instead of helping them out your shooting them down! That’s probably there only source of income. You never know what they are going thru. Personally, because I know how a locally family owned business can be struggling. I would help them however I can or buy from them. They are probably a small fish in the water trying to float with the rest. In my position, I would buy more from locally family owned business than chain stores. And if they are at least nice, I would definitely come back. And if possible, I would even help them out. To this day, in my profession, I still help family’s that I see who needs it. And most of the time, I don’t ask for much or nothing at all.

 

[nastronaut]

Man, that sucks! Instead of helping them out your shooting them down! That’s probably there only source of income. You never know what they are going thru. Personally, because I know how a locally family owned business can be struggling. I would help them however I can or buy from them. They are probably a small fish in the water trying to float with the rest. In my position, I would buy more from locally family owned business than chain stores. And if they are at least nice, I would definitely come back. And if possible, I would even help them out. To this day, in my profession, I still help family’s that I see who needs it. And most of the time, I don’t ask for much or nothing at all.

They're not really shooting them down though, the post you quoted didn't name anyone. They're simply sharing their experience.

 

[fish farmer]

I was just looking at that place on google. I do want to check it out. It's hour and half away from me. I can always just check in on my way to Burlington.

FWIW I think most of his frags are WWC and priced as such....and when I was there a couple of years ago no prices on tanks. I asked and he said between $30 and $70. I picked out a couple of things....palys and a brain....came out to around $80.

 

[SaltISlife]

Your petco has open tanks?

Yes its a frag tank open short in height wide frag tank. Probably a good 60 gallons. With sump and 5 t5 lights.

 

[ReefBeta]

I know the exact store your talking about(green mountain corals). I've driven there a few times from NY, and have even called to make sure he's going to be there(it is a 3 hour drive for me). Only to have him not be there, and upon calling was basically told the same as you.

I will never be going back there. But on a side note, did meet someone who has some very nice SPS for sale in VT right here on R2R!

How's it not getting 1 stars on google map for that kind of service.

 

[ReefBeta]

For so some local fish store I been to, both reef and freshwater, you can definitively tell the owner has stopped being a hobbyist. The store is nothing more than a selling business. It's basically a convenient store with a live section, just happen to focus on selling aquarium related products. I don't blame them as things change, and people got stuck in the career they no longer have passion is not that rare. But I also won't support them just because it's a LFS. Not every store will be good and successful, doesn't matter if it's selling aquarium stuff or something else.

 

[VAFish]

Just a gentle reminder that any and all comments that violate the forums TOS may be removed or deleted. Please keep the conversation on point and civil.

Thank you!

REEF2REEF Team.

Than why don't you remove post in which stores and employees are directly named.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I think that we need more threads alt the good of the LFS than always negative threads. Where I am we have several stores. Some people love store A and hate store B, some love store B and hate store A. I find it very odd how that works.

The talk about prices Is probably stores buying frags from the same big wholesalers. I don't see much money to be made when buying and reselling premade frags unless you are a busy store moving then quickly.

 

[SaltISlife]

Than why don't you remove post in which stores and employees are directly named.

Why ? If a store does a crappy job or service. Whats wrong with naming it ? Id call any store or employee out if they wronged me in a really bad way.

 

[fish farmer]

How's it not getting 1 stars on google map for that kind of service.

Actually somewhere on one of those rating sites, there were some negative comments, there was also some negative comments right on this forum about holding and shipping corals to a guy who moved to Colorado. But there are always two sides to the story.