Are small town LFS better than big city LFS?

[hectina]

I live in a medium sized city, but there are two and a half LFS within a 45 minute drive, that are better than the LFS in most of California's major metro areas. They are clean, well stocked, and for the most part well informed. In fact, most mom and pop type small LFS in small cities that I have visited have been suprisingly good.

Has anyone else seen this trend.

 

[jwtrojan44]

I think the quality of the store is largely dependent on the personal interest of the owner. The best lfs we have in Erie is owned by a guy who has been a hobbyist for many years. His wife works with him and the store is SPOTLESS. Nice selection of fish, dry goods, corals, etc. He'll order whatever you want, and is full of great advice. Sure, he's making a living, but not at the expense of his livestock. He will even refrain from selling stuff if he thinks your tank is not ready. I'm sure there are "big city" stores who run on the same principles, but perhaps the metropolitan areas are more likely to have the Petco's, and other franchise stores who are motivated solely by profits. I know I would be willing to drive a ways to get good stuff and support a good store. JWT

 

[jwtrojan44]

Oh, I forgot to ask, what does half an lfs look like? LOL.

 

[reefland]

IME, small shops out of homes and basements tend to have higher quality livestock. I feel its from a lack of overhead. They have less pressure to move high volumes of livestock and can create more stable environments.

Plus most of them tend to be in it for the love of the hobby and not purely for the money.

 

[troyrb]

I live in a small town about a hour from Pittsburgh, PA. We have some IFS here but they never keep many corals in stock. I have to travel to Pittsburgh to get most of my corals. Most of the city stores are clean and have a pretty good supply. I know most chain pet stores stink but there is a very nice Pet Supplies Plus in Monroeville that keeps nice corals and has good prices. Also I can shop around for the best prices in the city. My IFS charge about $10 more for everything and they know little to nothing about corals or inverts. The IFS closest to me has been selling Aiptasia's for years now (only $19). LOL

 

[Mickes]

What is nice about the LFS in a smaller town is, I think, the owner/operator know the customers and about their setups more and are able to point them in the right direction when it comes to buying stuff. I work at a LFS in a smaller town. (Best Job in the world.) I know most of the regular customers and am able to let them know if something will work or not in their system without the 500 question test, or just selling it to them without knowing if it has a chance of living or not. Shoot, I think I spend more time during the day just talking with other reefers that come into the store then selling. And every weekend I get someone that just comes in to let me know about something great that happened to their tank. Mushrooms dividing, Coraline algae starting, Shrimp with eggs…. you name it.

 

[allenfrenchy]

It's nice to know that there are some small town LFS's out there that are good. I live in a very small town (7000 or so). There is a pet store here that doesn't even count. Within a 45 min drive are 3 larger small towns (35,000-100,000) with at least 4 LFS's between them. None of them is really anything worth shopping at. All have lousy selection. Animals are in tanks too small for them and too crowded. The owners are generally 5 yrs or (much) more behind the times in knowledge. None make any attempt to obtain or sell captive bred and all regularly carry inappropriate livestock (sharks, moorish idols, very large fish etc).
I can't wait for our move to Indy next week.

 

[Anonymous]

Hectina,

What LFSs are you refering to? I live in Vallejo which is not TOO far away. The wife and kids love to go on Sunday drives so this would give us one more destination.

Thanks
Greg

 

[Anonymous]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hectina:
<STRONG>there is a small shop in Hanford, a city of 25,000, that shocked me.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll have to get the map out and find out where Hanford is. Meanwhile...what's the name of the shop?

 

[Quillen]

I live in SPFD, Mo. We are not quite small here, but aren't a huge city (by my standards) either. I like a LFS that takes interest in what you are doing at home, it is hard to keep up with everyone's tanks, but this is a security check for those who are doing silly things in their tank. I like going to St Louis and looking at the tanks there, the stores are a bit bigger (prices also higher) and getting home with a fish might be a problem

. I enjoy both kinds, mostly shop at whatever is closest.
If I had multiple to decide from, I'd see who was getting what shipment in before going.

 

[Speed]

I agree that you can't judge a store by it's location. In Ct. we have two stores in small towns that are on the opposite ends ot the spectrum. One is WWP which has been discussed on this board before and is by far the dirtiest non interested in health of their pets of any place I have ever been in and cited for violations by the state on many occasions. The other is in Gramby and although it is crowded is clean and the employees are knowledgable and interested in dooing what is best for the customer. My point is that we should pick our source based not only on price but also on service and deal with them whenever possble to insure that they stay in business even if they may be slightly out of the way or a little higher in price. Remember good service does cost them time and with todays overhead that is money.
Did not mean to leave out one of the best stores in Ct. for reef which is also in a small town and that is Paragon aquatics which has also been on this board before.

 

[hectina]

Two and half good LFS refers to a certain pet store I have in my area that has great service, if you get the right people to help. Otherwise, they are terrible.

I agree that most large cities have pet shops that are well stocked, but on two different trips to Sacramento, CA, I was disappointed.

Sure the big stores had exotic animals, but the service was nonexistant, and they were overstocked. One store even had customers pull numbers! Sure they had a chevron tang, and several hard to find dottybacks, but they also stocked pipefish, moorish idols, and live rock that looked like someone had poured dirt into the tank. They also would sell anything to anybody.

 

[hectina]

GDawson,
Most of the LFS here have nothing you haven't seen, but there is a small shop in Hanford, a city of 25,000, that shocked me. They have three beautiful reef tanks. Two with powercompacts and one with VHO's. Each is setup with a different style(species selection and DSB depths) to give customers different ideas. It is clean, well stocked( Turboflotors, ETSS, and Knop skimmers in stock), and the fish are very health. They also sell Walt Smith aquacultured and Fiji live rock for $5.00/lb. The hitchhiker population in my tank has exploded since adding their rock.

Of particular interest, is their corals. They have a good selection of healthy specimens. They have a hardy species of pulsing Xenia that grows like a weed. In fact, They have been able to keep it pulsing for over a year.

 

[Speed]

[ July 26, 2001: Message edited by: Speed ]