trying new wholesalers

[ampresearch]

My husband and I have a small business , all corals and livestock-no drygoods. We do it for love of the hobby as opposed to profit (we breed clownfish and propigate most corals we sell) anyway, I have been in contact with MANY wholesalers and right now we get almost everything from a single wholesaler in Miami . I really want to try some of the others, but I have heard lots of horror stories (in general) about wholesalers.

What do you look for when trying a new one, do you tour the facilities or how do you know what kind of reputation they have in business?

 

[clarionreef]

oops....

 

[JennM]

Welcome to the forum!

Where are you located? That will be helpful in figuring out where to recommend. Also, do you have a retail storefront? The only reason I ask is because some wholesalers won't sell to you unless you have a retail presence.

I've been into a couple of wholesale operations, but I'm only located near one - and it's not one of my staple suppliers, but I do use them for freshwater livestock.

I've chosen my wholesalers based on recommendations of my peers - and I'm reluctant to make changes or try anyone new now that I have a good relationship with who I'm buying from now.

So to answer your question - word of mouth advertising has been the way I've found my suppliers. And I also check references - I've called a few stores to ask about a given supplier and their experiences, and if I get positive feedback, I give them a try.

HTH

Jenn

 

[ampresearch]

JennM,

Thank you so much for the warm welcome, I was a bit weary of posting after reading some of the posts on the forum.
We are located in Fl (Tampa Bay area) and do NOT have a retail storefront at this time (which I know is a no-no with some of the wholesalers)
We have been in the hobby for several years and have been propigating corals and breeding clownfish on the side to offset the costs of the hobby. As time passed we have acquired many more customers than we expected and have had hard time keeping up with demands. We have decided (for tax purposes) that we must make it a legal business. Although were not ready for a retail storefront, It may not be that far off.

I have a list of U.S. wholesalers (so-called wholesalers anyway) nearly 100 of them are in FL- but as I said before, I just do not know their reputations and I am weary of placing a large order with someone I know nothing about.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

 

[JennM]

Well, you're correct in your assessment that we brick and mortars don't appreciate home-based operations if they're competing with us for the "good stuff" with wholesalers. Having said that, the places I deal with don't sell to non-storefront clients, so to that end I have no worries... and I don't mean that harshly - just the fact is if I told you that I use wholesaler X and love the stuff I get from them, it would be a moot point because they won't sell to you anyway.

At this point, it may be a mutually beneficial arrangement for you to work something out with a LFS... perhaps they will help you procure mother colonies for your propagation efforts, and take some of your frags - speaking for myself, I don't have any customers trying to prop on a commercial scale, but I do take in a lot of nice frags on trade, and they are good sellers - there's a lot of "curb appeal" for smaller frags (more affordable, and suitable for smaller nano tanks) as well as colonies that have done well in captivity - better odds for a frag off a colony that's been in captivity for a year versus a newly harvested colony.

Don't know if you have that as an option or if you've considered that but it may be a good interim move until you get to the storefront stage.

HTH

Jenn