open discussion on LFS!!!!

[Sean]

As far as quality you really cant say ,you never saw my tank in the store ,

sean this is not directed at you in anyway ,,,,,,,,,i liked your store ,and still waiting for my black sun polyps ,

Hey Fish Expo had nice african cichlid at least they did haven't been there in 6 months. they also had some nice show sized angel in and look downs. I haven't heard to many positive feedback about them from customers. In fact I just set up a 600 gallon reef for this guy who lives in midwood area. He bought his first tank ( a 180 gallon) from expo and felt ripped off. He said they didn't know what they were doing. He went around the city and decided to use me. After pointing him in the right direction with his 180 he got his new larger tank. Thanks Fish Expo you gave me a great client.

Black sun polypes still looking for good ones

 

[DEEPWATER]

Hey Fish Expo had nice african cichlid at least they did haven't been there in 6 months. they also had some nice show sized angel in and look downs. I haven't heard to many positive feedback about them from customers. In fact I just set up a 600 gallon reef for this guy who lives in midwood area. He bought his first tank ( a 180 gallon) from expo and felt ripped off. He said they didn't know what they were doing. He went around the city and decided to use me. After pointing him in the right direction with his 180 he got his new larger tank. Thanks Fish Expo you gave me a great client.

Black sun polypes still looking for good ones

ME ..not me sean ,I left that JERK (FISH EXPO) read my post in the fisrt page ,lots of sh-t about EXPO,,,over priced ,does not know a thing about reefs ,rips off who ever he can ,and more ,,Lets put in a good way ,he is lucky i got back my investment ,,he tried to rip me off for lots of money ,,

Im honest thats why im not rich ,,lol jking ,,

 

[DEEPWATER]

i do my best to try to help other in this hobby ,since i got the shaft as well from LFS and online vend,,i do reserch before i buy things and look up as much web sites as i can, not to mention ,conversation ,best way to educate yourself on things ,
I happy i found this site ,good conversation ,great ppl and everone knows and helps eachother .

but like i said before ,Your palce is cool ,and the lady that answered the phone took timeout to get me the right directions

 

[Sean]

ME ..not me sean ,I left that JERK (FISH EXPO) read my post in the fisrt page ,lots of sh-t about EXPO,,,over priced ,does not know a thing about reefs ,rips off who ever he can ,and more ,,Lets put in a good way ,he is lucky i got back my investment ,,he tried to rip me off for lots of money ,,

Im honest thats why im not rich ,,lol jking ,,

You said he rips off whoever he can thats how this costomer felt after spending alot of money there.

Yeah I guess that why I'm broke as well.
I spend a lot of time here on MR because I'd rather have some dedicated hobbiest then ripping off people week after week. I try and be fair with pricing and honest with customers. If people come in and tell me I'm pricing my stuff to high I check with my supplier and see what I can do to give you guys a better price. I know I can't match a lot of prices sometime I can't even come close.

 

[jhale]

Sean this goes back to what I said earlier.
If your providing good service and healthy specimens your pricing should be higher than say fish town, or some other store like them.

there has to be a give and take. people can't expect superior products and service for cut rate prices, it does not work that way.
it's the equivalent of people asking me to match prices at lets say, Ikea / pottery barn / west elm , for the furniture I build. there is no way I could come close to them. so I tell them if they want low prices and low quality to shop at those stores, but in a nice way

bottom line, if your giving better service than everyone else you should be charging a premium for that, and people should not complain about paying for it.

 

[Sean]

Sean this goes back to what I said earlier.
If your providing good service and healthy specimens your pricing should be higher than say fish town, or some other store like them.

Yeah
thanks for understanding but like I said a fair price. I honestly feel I have good prices on stuff.

BTW if anyone want I just got some beautiful golden angels in $75................ and I also got in small vlamingi tangs $20................. and a med. clown trigger $50

 

[ShaunW]

Sean, I have a request , is it possible for you to put pictures of your new corals up on the vendors forum and/or provide a list every now and again of your corals in stock.

I personally would be much more inclined to make the trip to your store, if I knew what you had before I made the trip.

I know you have a website, but it doesn't seem to have a stock list of corals.

 

[Sean]

solby

I did it once for a little while like two months with no good results. Then I would have written lists but that didn't bring in costomers but I may try doing it again not realy sure if it's worth all the effort.

 

[ShaunW]

I guess you might be right! if you get no responses I can see why it may not be worth it.

 

[jhale]

solby

I did it once for a little while like two months with no good results. Then I would have written lists but that didn't bring in costomers but I may try doing it again not realy sure if it's worth all the effort.

you take nice photos why not just post some pics in the vendor thread,
and number them. people can call and ask if you still have number X.
like shaun said if I see something i like i would make the trip to BK.

 

[spykes]

sean, i have to say, thank you for your responds to these question, i know we have more then one vendor posting on MR, so far you are the only vendor that cares about the board as much as we do, also as you may hope to grab some new customer attention on this post, just so you know you got a new customer me, i'll probably see you in 2 weeks when i get my tank up, hopefully you will have nice frags around "SPS". I'll definatly like to see a store where a owner accually cares about his customers and his specimens.

David.

 

[Sean]

you take nice photos why not just post some pics in the vendor thread,
and number them. people can call and ask if you still have number X.
like shaun said if I see something i like i would make the trip to BK.

Yeah i know what your saying

Maybee I'll try it again.

 

[Sean]

sean, i have to say, thank you for your responds to these question, i know we have more then one vendor posting on MR, so far you are the only vendor that cares about the board as much as we do, also as you may hope to grab some new customer attention on this post, just so you know you got a new customer me, i'll probably see you in 2 weeks when i get my tank up, hopefully you will have nice frags around "SPS". I'll definatly like to see a store where a owner accually cares about his customers and his specimens.

David.

Thanks spykes
looking foward to you comming down

Sean

 

[indireef]

wow dis is a long thread. definitely, reasonable criticism and feedback to the owners should help mutual improvement. everyone wants to save a buck or more but my outlook is in the longrun the HOBBY is most expensive anyway. if you want cheap fish you get a 10 gallon and throw in some guppies or goldfish. exotic stuff will cost more until they are breeding clownfish and damsels as productively as feeder goldfish inside of north america.

first off i gotta ask, how do you lfs have the balls to deal with all the crazy customers out there? during high school i used to help the guy at tropical pets with customers and they were like so ghetto and psycho it scared me, i thought i'd get shot. a couple times police were called over money issues and ridiculous altercations that defy logic. then theres the everyday people coming in with fish that died the next day always expecting a refund. so how do you deal with customers getting bad and stuff and exaggerating the truth you know especially in a litigious urban environment. anyway one of the former partners said if anything sw died in his shop he would get it replaced in his next order. now if only lfs would offer that to the public on sw items -- but the reverse is true. its like salt specimen can die in the bag on way home and they are like all sales final cause maybe you stressed it on the way home or whatever.

anyways fish town's special sales is awesome on the livestock they get in bulk. just you have to be there in a ny minute when they get their shipments because their sales are like announced after they livestock that were on sale sell. (???) thats not fair. aquatic treasures (qns) had the same floor area but did not put on such specials at all. their prices were quite steep but not as high as NW. now aquatic treasures is history cause the owner went on to be a distributor upstate or something like that. nuf said.
fishtown really needs to be more up to date on their website. as a customer, i would say all lfs should get wit da program and technology and maintain helpful info on their prices and stuff on a website. for example fishtowns sales are always old sales -- today is feb 8 and they advertise the sales from jan - feb 2 only :scratchch

delicate stuff like fish and full size coral i justify always gettin from a local new yorker (lfs or hobbyist) but stuff like supplies and even live rock as long as the lfs have a 50-100% markup i will be doing mail order even with shipping charges until they wean themself off royal pet supply and find a cheaper wholesaler if ever for at least their dry goods. i remember a few yrs ago a guy at ace pet shop (oob) on northern was quoting crazy prices like $1000 for a metal halide hood then i got it from champion for $400, and $600 on a skimmer i got from marinedepot for $300... and so on.... they have overhead but they shouldnt price like you need to gamble in a pet store over luxury hobby merchandise.

 

[alrha]

it seems that now there are more people hooking up with suppliers and are able to get us stuff at better prices than online or LFS. while we all want to help support locals, the fact of the matter is that more often than not, we are going to buy from where it is cheapest.

 

[fritz]

Fishtown has to order 200 purple tangs to get a 29 dollar special, while new world orderes like 1-3 at 79.99 retail price. wholesalers who buy from importers need to eat too.

Whoah, FT imports from the Bali exporters that's why it's so cheap and that's why their quality is so poor. Pay attention next time how many fish you see that are labled "Bali" but don't come from anywhere near Bali! The "Bali" fish are caught, shipped, sit on a dock in Bali and then shipped here. "Bali" is where you get the $15 queen angles with brain dehydration from sitting in 1.36 SG water. Next time they get in new stock try to go every single day, notice how many of the "new guys" were sold vs die.

FT also doesn't acclimate.

 

[inkblue]

...i taKe it friTz u doNt liKe FT :scratchch :happysad: :afro:

 

[fritz]

...i taKe it friTz u doNt liKe FT :scratchch :happysad: :afro:

I shop there don't get me wrong in fact I was there yesterday!!! Fishtown isn't horrible it's a business. They have good deals on dry goods and great deals on fish if you know what you're doing.

I'm not doing the "high and mighty" I buy the $5 royal gramma on sale like everyone else, that's why I go there. I guess maybe I feel bad like I'm selling out the animals we keep. I hope they get new stuff in tomorrow....:lol:

 

[inkblue]

tHey juSt got new fiSh in toDay :usa1: i caLL'd

 

[fritz]

hahahaha awesome.
Absolutely Fish in NJ is supposed to be a great store. I've seen the owner speak about the industry and he seems to have found a nice middle ground between price and sustainability. Supposedly his stuff is top notch. I've never been possesed to drive to NJ, although I have hit every store in Brooklyn, Queens and Nassau county in a day. Maybe I should make the trip. I've heard it's well worth it.