Petco buying Dr. Foster and Smith.

[erk]

Dang, so many Debby Downers in here. How about we wait and see where this goes? I personally shop at one of the Petco magnet stores here in TX and its not bad. Has a lot to learn, but they offer lots of corals and fish. Health of the animals is hit or miss, but its progress. The corals in their frag tank last for months before a rogue employee doses 2 part at the same time. I've bought plenty of corals and fish from them that are doing great. Heck, my scooter blenny, clown, exquisite fairy wrasse, and sail blenny all came from Petco and they are doing amazingly well. I've bought corals as well and they lasted awhile until my tank crashed. So stop getting so down and maybe give this merger a chance. Whether you like it or not, its happening and we might as well try to see the positive in all this.

So what do I see coming from this? I see Petco getting a better source for their aquatics rather than some random distributor on the west coast. I see more aquatic equipment, aka skimmers, pumps, testing equipment being offered at Petco or at least being able to order to a local Petco for pickup. I am also intrigued to see if this will force Petco to better train their staff, say send some to Live Aquaria to get trained to become real aquatics specialists at certain Petco stores. Definitely a good sign here. I think Petco can learn a thing or two from DFS, especially in their online catalog sales. Petco just sucks at that.

 

[Jeremy E]

Article Page | TheStreet


Fosters and Smith put themselves up for sale back in October. Petco didn't shake them down to buy them, they put themselves out there.

 

[thejuggernaut]

Yea they even mentioned medications in their press release.

"The addition of Drs. Foster & Smith's product line will complement Petco's existing capabilities in pet health to include prescription services, including prescription diets, preventive care and products created by licensed veterinarians, according to a Petco news release."

 

[Reef Pets]

It's possible that Petco has purchase Dr foster and smith only to close the doors. This happens all the time, it's the easiest way to get rid of competition. The local Walgreens just purchased all of the surrounding self owned pharmacies in my area only to cut out their competition.

 

[saltyhog]

So what do I see coming from this? I see Petco getting a better source for their aquatics rather than some random distributor on the west coast. I see more aquatic equipment, aka skimmers, pumps, testing equipment being offered at Petco or at least being able to order to a local Petco for pickup. I am also intrigued to see if this will force Petco to better train their staff, say send some to Live Aquaria to get trained to become real aquatics specialists at certain Petco stores. Definitely a good sign here. I think Petco can learn a thing or two from DFS, especially in their online catalog sales. Petco just sucks at that.

Actually Petco's source of livestock is one of the best in the business(Quality Marine I beieve). The problem is not with their wholesaler.

On a positve note, I've ordered from the Petco online store and though the customer service stunk (I finally got an answer to my question about salinity 10 days after the fish arrived) the fish were high quality and healthy.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So...I've seen the terms "merger" and "acquisition" both used by individuals in this thread. Those are NOT interchangeable business terms. A "merger" generally involves an assimilation of sorts of both companies (though one party usually does dominate ultimately)...an acquisition is a purchase in which the company/entity (in this case, Petco) which acquires the other (Drs.F&S) is now the owner of the acquired entity. Thus, Drs.F&S will only continue to exist in as much (or as little) as Petco allows. The current/former owners of Drs.F&S no longer have any say in any part of the runnings of what USED TO BE their business since it is now owned and operated by Petco. As much as I wish this were a merger, it is NOT. It is an acquisition. Based on that, I'm afraid I share the negative outlook that most have expressed... as much as I wish I could be optimistic, there's just not much about this that looks hopeful.

 

[N1Husker]

I think it really depends on the individual store and the people that work there. I have bought several fish at our local Petco and the guy in charge of the fish is very dedicated to the fish. I have bought several fish there and they are still healthy and happy. I emailed Petco complaining about another store in our vicinity and the regional supervisor called me and talked with me for about 15 minutes and even gave me his phone number to let him know if I find any problems anywhere else.

 

[DecanoLA]

Petco bought out their biggest online competition for pet supplies/livestock. There is two ways this goes. They did it to bring in expertise to improve their company's practices or they acquired to conquer so they can continue providing mediocre at best retail products and livestock. My guess is with their biggest online competitor out of the way they are planning on business as usual and hoping profits just rise on their own because one of holes in their pocket has now been sewn shut.

^^^Exactly ^^^

I think things might go on the same way for a short time, but I think we all know what will happen in the LONG RUN... RIP LA

We all know what it takes to develop and run an amazing reef tank (LOTS of TIME, MONEY, PATIENCE, EXPERTISE, ETC).... now imagine running a business !!! FI dont think Petco is interested (or even if it is possible) in exporting the Liveaquaria model or philosophy into every retail store...

I honestly can't believe how there are peolpe that think this is a good thing... (unless they are owners of Petco, lol)

 

[mgdmirage]

For godsakes I just hope Petco allows Drsfostersmith to remain its own entity and conduct business as it has in the past and not interfere and Petco is a horrible company as a whole but they have some decent stores. I buy most of my stuff from Marinedepot lately as drsfostersmith usually just carries the generic stuff but I have spent thousands of dollars there and their customer service and prices are amazing. Let us hope that the chain giant known for garbage knowledge doesn't destroy the empire built on awesome service and quality livestock. If there were no live aquaria anymore I may go mad.

 

[ruppertb]

I live within 30 mins of rhinelander and do all of my shopping at there retail store as well as pick up my live aquaria orders there. I really hope nothing changes or that they don't fail on the standards I am used to, like our local petco which is an hr and a half away and has a terrible fish section.

 

[Sully]

I really hope all the "sky is falling" downers here get proved wrong. Only time will tell. I've bought 80% of my current live stock from a local petco. I only buy if one certain individual is working so I can ask/inquire/know what I'm getting. I've not had a problem (knock on wood) from anything I've bought there. Are there some bad Petco's in the chain? Absolutely. But I'd bet there are just as many Mom and Pop SW/FW experts (non chain) out there selling under bad practices. I'd also be curious to know how many of the people railing against this have actually been to there local petco recently? I've seen huge changes in the one I go to in the last month or two. Maybe they knew this was coming and the upgrades were starting early? Who knows.

And PS, I'm know petco advocate as I also utilize 2 other lfs in my area. I could give you many pro's and con's for each of those too but they all have there value to me, the consumer in the long run. Some of you are so quick to judge off one or two bad experiences. I wonder how many of those were your own fault?

 

[kingclam52]

Is this a good thing or a bad thing we shall see.

 

[kingclam52]

I agree our Petco here the fish tanks are not kept up very dirty I would not buy anything from that store when it comes to fish or corals but I think it is just the people working in that store not doing there job just saying.

 

[Diesel]

In any event it will help Petco, and I'm sure that's the reason that this bought out was accomplished in the first place.
Not seeing that Foster and Smith suddenly will become a Petco.

 

[mainereefer]

atleast we can still order from divers den! personally I wont order from petco and now liveaquaria

 

[Mike J.]

I regularly order from Drs. F&S for my dogs as well as my fish. I sure hope it doesn't change dramatically.

 

[mainereefer]

allot of us dont give petco a dime now we cant even buy from dr foster or live aquaria... anyone know of a good place to order from

 

[pickupman66]

Clicky Clicky for source

From my local forum I posted this.

I see this as going one of two ways. It may increase the buying power for the Liveaquaria operations thus getting more livesstock into their high quality program as I would venture to guess they both import livestock from many of the same collectors. it May also increase the Dr.'s Foster and Smith Dry goods supply areas as well. Lastly and HOPEFULLY, the experience and knowledge of the Liveaquaria side of the business could significantly impact the live goods sections of all Petco stores.

ON the negative end of the spectrum, you now get a wall street mentality company that could very quickly shutdown a non profitable division and or cut available budgets to the point that both quality and care suffer thus losing many loyal customers.

then again, if LA and F&S operations remain profitable they may just let them run their own show and continue down the road they have paved. Will it stop me from shopping at F&S? NO. will i by a fish from a petco retail location? NEVER AGAIN.

Now reading the source that MrDJeep123 spoke of, I truly believe that this is a huge win for PetCo because of the addition of the veterinary experience of F&S and their commitment to livestock health.

 

[Diesel]

Other thought this would be profitable for Petco is to have LA/DD as their main hub to bring fish all over the country in that case they don't have to train 5 staff members for each store.
Petco has over 1000 stores in the US and 22000+ a employees with a revenue of 3.2 B.
With reducing the livestock in fish but ramping up the LA/DD advertising on their web and stores it can go only better.
Fish can be ordered and delivered next day at your Petco store and will be the same quality as we know now from LA/DD.

 

[skiwez]

Would like to believe this is a good thing, but hard to be optimistic in that there is not even a mention of the fish part of the business in any of the press releases. In all probability the fish business is high capital outlay with razor thin margins as compared to dog food and medicine. The most likely outcome is that the fish business get rolled up into the Petco website or even worse, Petco leverages on the goodwill earned with LA & DD. They will continue using the front end of LA & DD but replace with their own back-end operations