I think Green Mountain gets his corals from WWC so much easier to buy from the source.I've stopped in Waterbury on 5 occasions and never caught it open, so I'm guessing the retail traffic was enough to keep retail hours. It's hard to say if Vermont could support a REAL fish store in the internet age. I tried! I'd always rather support someone locally if at all possible.
I grew up in Lebanon and remember when Lebanon Pet opened that store. It was incredible back then (30 years ago?). Kind of sad to see it now.
I drove to Florida last week, and stopped at Worldwide Corals. That place is incredible. Now that I've seen it, I probably won't be satisfied with any store!
We used to have a couple of up and coming reef stores years ago. Milton Mini Reef, that was over 10 years ago, don't think they lasted more than a few years. Another was in Essex, but Joel also worked days at IBM so hours were odd, he lasted a couple of years. Then there was the talk of a wholesaler of marine stuff opening in Winooski....no idea why Winooski was a good location, but when our club was still going we were fully expecting tours of the place, they never opened and the guy in Essex bought a bunch of their stuff at auction.
20 years ago there was the Pet Advantage, Green Mountain Aquarium, Noah's Ark, Green Mountain Tropical Fish (Rutland) and some other place in Rutland. The last three has some saltwater, but didn't have corals. I literally had to drive to Massachusetts to find a healthy Hippo Tang as the two I found at the named stores didn't look well. I drove all the way down to CT for the best cured Fiji rock in New England at the time...another place that has come and gone.