Times have changed - Very disappointing

[Lbrdsoxfan]

The good old days.....sigh. I miss Black Friday when flame angels are $25 and yellow tangs are $20. And frogspawns are $15 a head.

Many of us miss that! Truly was the good ol days!

 

[Sean Clark]

You could try checking the saved pages on the Wayback Machine internet archives for past online prices.

I agree with your point but the subject is not exactly fair to the analogy.

 

[vetteguy53081]

The good old days.....sigh. I miss Black Friday when flame angels are $25 and yellow tangs are $20. And frogspawns are $15 a head.

No kidding

 

[CWalters]

Kind of sucks... I wanted some Noopsyche lights

 

[52728299]

Nothing too special at my lfs today. They do have 20% off all livestock but honestly they aren't looking great.. they had a couple cool butterflies but both looked to have some kind of scale damage on their side and the pearlscale was super freaked out unfortunately. He was hiding behind a lionfish heh

Innovative marine has 40% off on some tanks tho. I ordered their nuvo ext 100 and stand for like $1,500..

 

[vetteguy53081]

Kind of sucks... I wanted some Noopsyche lights

There should be one more sales event before Christmas

 

[tundraguy1106]

My LFS if you join their reef club (think it’s $50 for the year) you get 20% off everything! Anyone in the Jersey area should know who I’m referring too. Every year I gladly join the club. They also do a card where if you spend $20 or more 6 times you get $15 off your next purchase. This by far is one of the best LFS deals I’ve come across. A couple of visits and I’ve made my money back with the preferred reefer club.

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

Yup, you can get a 2x size at Costco for the same price, ridiculous, same with bread, beef, etc... Everything anymore is beholden to investor profits and speculators which equals price gouging

Costco trades under ticket COST:

 

[TheyGaveItToMe]

You mean a bag of air

I used to work for Pepsico. When you are buying chips, you are buying them by weight not volume. The air is blown into the bag right before the bags are sealed to protect the product in shipping. It is to alleviate consumer complaints about crushed product, it is not some grand conspiracy. You may not believe that the people at these companies actually care about consumer complaints, but they do because they are part of the calculation for bonuses.

 

[TheyGaveItToMe]

I wasn't really implying about reefing, just out in the world in general. I don't really look at many reefing website. Most small business owners own fancy brand new vehicles and super spendy phones, etc... I've never met a small business owner who drives a 20 year old vehicle. Contractors come to mind. They never have vehicles more than 2 or 3 years old, and we are talking 100k trucks, ever wonder why housing is so expensive? The consumer paid for that.

Housing is expensive because material cost and skilled labor isn't cheap. It takes 20-30 people and 4-6 months to construct a house. The average profit margin for a new construction house is around 10% of sale price.

 

[TheyGaveItToMe]

Yea that's my biggest fear. First business says to support them during covid and be understanding that price has gone up. Then it's inflation. Then it's probably going to be recession. All that means is price will stay high because there will always be something. Now that prices have gone up, no business gonna drop their price if demand keeps up.

I don't really understand the labor shortage. If everything costs more now, how are people able to sustain without a job??? Shouldn't there be a labor surplus??

I really should have taken that macro economics class in college....

The labor shortage is more like a wage shortage issue. Companies complain they can't find people to fill jobs, while at the same time offering pay that doesn't match the drastic price of living increase. I get a dozen unsolicited job offer on LinkedIn every week, 90% of the time I laugh at what they are offering. Skills and experience take time to acquire. And, over that time I went from having to support myself to having a family to support, which is getting more expensive by the day.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

This has actually been brought up, for the most part in serious discussion a handful of times over the years, at least the last 10 -12 that I've been payingg attention. I mean the idea of a "credible vendor" certificate or aquaculture certificate. something like that. Seems like it fizzles out every time though unfortunately. kind of a tough thing to really make a reality.


edit. sorry for the lack of context. I quoted a reply to the quote I was referring to that said this "Sounds like we need an 'Ethical Coral Vendor' badge. Make it cost something like $100 a month to weed out the not ethical ones! by Kyl

I doubt r2r is ever going to do that. I cant see a faster way of chasing off advertisement or worse, letting people buy a fake credential and still staying around annoying people.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Housing is expensive because material cost and skilled labor isn't cheap. It takes 20-30 people and 4-6 months to construct a house. The average profit margin for a new construction house is around 10% of sale price.

But but GREEDY CORPORATIONS!! they could take a loss and make housing cheaper for everyone. How dare they make a reasonable profit.

 

[piranhaman00]

The BRS coupons are a ruse to make you order again, people not understanding this selling gimmick is why they keep doing and keep making money.

 

[Dan_P]

Ive seen what's going on and have been tracking various vendors to try to stick with one or two as there are so many out there.
For me- NONE !!! I will buy from private parties or patiently wait for other RAP and MACNA shows.
Over the last 18 weeks, prices have gone up 36-39% with certain vendors (cant say names) and THESE SO CALLED BLACK FRIDAY AND XMAS DEALS are a joke- prices have jumped to as much as 50%.
MERRY XMAS TO THE VENDORS BECAUSE ITS NOT US !!
BE CAREFUL FOLKS AND NOT JUMP ON SOMETHING VIA IMPULSE BUT SHOP CAREFULLY. These 10%-20% off are merely off increased prices- Such a Shame !!

I owned an LFS and realize mark-up, profit margins and expenses but would not do this to my customers who work hard for their money. Very disappointed (but not fooled)

To keep things in perspective, the high cost of being in this hobby is a champagne problem. Also, part of the reason for that high cost is self inflicted. Wanting the best, the newest, the most difficult to grow, the whitest sand, the barest bottom, the easiest to maintain, and the most colorful are for the rich.

 

[Sasquatchv]

I've been trying to find genuine black Friday deal for 12 years now. Not a single genuine deal be it clothing, electronics, tools, games, you name it. It's usually cheaper to buy in January-April when shopmass madness is over.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I've been trying to find genuine black Friday deal for 12 years now. Not a single genuine deal be it clothing, electronics, tools, games, you name it. It's usually cheaper to buy in January-April when shopmass madness is over.

My favorite sneaky trick is colleges. They put a huge price tag just to offer everyone a merit scholarship. that posted tuition is just the msrp and everything else is a marketing gimmick for you to accept.

What is kinda scary is that the most transparent and honest pricing now a days is online used cars. #whodathunkit

 

[LiverockRocks Verified Sponsor]

Speaking of coupons- a thing of the past

Guess we are old school,
here's a genuine Cyber Monday coupon for 15% off the entire order: TBSRocksnRolls
No pricing trickery, a true discount.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Guess we are old school,
here's a genuine Cyber Monday coupon for 15% off the entire order: TBSRocksnRolls
No pricing trickery, a true discount.

How dare you?!? You could have just lowered your price by 15% and made less money all year round. I for one will not fall for you marketing shenanigans!! Evil and greedy!!

all seriousness, thank you!! Very cool of you. I hope you didn’t take my sarcasm wrong.

 

[Paul B]

Maybe Black Friday deals are only for black fish like Black Mollies, Black Moors and ghost black knife fish. :rolleyes: