I've been catching a feel for the LFS in my area, there are a few further out that I haven't been to in neighboring towns but 3 in the city that have a good selection.
Store A:
Definitely some pros and cons to each. One is closest to me, but their markup is pretty high. I assume it's due to their rent and overall sqft probably being the largest of the 3. They've got a good selection, and the employees are helpful, but something about the margins tilts me a little - for example they sell the tiniest frags at a flat $25 minimum regardless of species, and generally their fish are $5-10, or more, higher than virtually any source. They do have decent weekend sales.
But today I went in, generally I'm the type to spend some time in the shop, generally I keep to myself and inevitably start doing research while I'm there, especially when I find similar options for products I'd been considering.
Anyways, today I knew I was going to get a reef test kit very soon and went ahead and brought some tank water to get a baseline from the stores test. They offered free testings which is great. But the results they gave me were way off. The results were quite jarring, and they didn't have a complete reef test kit for <50. Luckily I was able to rush to petco and pick up one of theirs. I get home and find out they'd told me my alkalinity was half of what it actually was (they told me it was 6... It was actually 12), and they told me that my phosphates were more than double what they were (they told me I had 3-4ppm phos, I actually had .25ppm phos~). Could've just been one off but I'll be careful letting LFS run tests for me in the future. That said it was probably my fault for not already having a kit (which I now have and the levels were more or less fine), I'll be working to perfect the levels from where they're at, but it's nowhere near as jarring as LFS telling you you have deadly low alk and hellishly high phos.
Tldr; unless I urgently need something I'm probably going to go to this store less. Even if I signed up for their membership the prices are still too high - and the owner, or who I presume to be, told me once they give you a one time ticket and don't like document their members cause it's too much work (to maintain a spreadsheet?), Idk.
Stores B:
Super cool store, very unique, and I haven't even explored their outside, pond, setups yet. Store it literally divided by levels, upstairs being saltwater. Staff is always super on it and designated by section, even the employees I've barely talked to seem to really know what they're talking about. I'd emailed them a few times too, as I got my clowns here, and they've been nice and transparent.
Their coral selection is pretty amazing and they have a massive selection of $5 frags (which store A would sell for $25), I always love popping in and seeing what cool selection is in that tank, and then impulsively buying the biggest one - hah. They also have $10 tank, $20 tank and so on, the health and quality compared to store A is night and day. Wayyyy more bang for buck.
Fish wise they seem to sell a little cheaper than the online vendors, such as live aquaria - I just wish they would label their tanks and prices. I hate asking. But I also think it's good to make people inquire so they can gauge knowledge, which I think they do - I've seen them thoroughly interrogate families on care requirements and tank status. Luckily they didn't grill me much but I tend to be asking them a ton of questions about literally everything prior to actually making any purchases.
I fell in love with store B and became a ~member~ so on top of their good prices I get 15% off marine life and about 10% off other purchases. Also their saltwater is only $1/gal! Plus the discount is pretty awesome. Some.kf their dry products are marked up pretty high though, but generally more competitive than store A, and usually about the same as
amazon or just a dollar or two more.
Tldr; worth the drive down, though they don't necessarily have as wide a selection of dry products and hardware as store A for misc things. Can be a little dusty though, sometimes I want to offer to come rearrange their staging of dry products and wipe the place down (not the tanks, just the shelving and such).
Store C:
I've only been once but they're my 2nd favorite for sure. Super clean, lots of high tech. They've got less sqft but the biggest display tanks and some of the biggest fish I've ever seen. So clean. Good prices, very cool employees - we didn't talk a bunch but the vibe was nice. Their hardware / dry goods were the best pricing of all 3 shops - honestly idk how they kept pricing so low, other than I know their overhead is much less just based on location and sqft.
Their fish selection is pretty good too, similar pricing to store B/live aquaria. And their inverts were reasonably priced and a good selection of those which aren't found in the above 2 stores.
Coral wise from what I could tell their pricing is a lot like store A, kind of overpriced for what you get.
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They all fill nice niches. I wish either B or C were the closest to my place, but I'm pretty lucky having 3 shops so close. Starting to get a little aggravated with store A just because they can be a bit more dismissive/rude at times, but most of the employees are great, but seemingly much higher chance of being misinformed at store A too - which sucks when it's about your parameters z.z
Store A's overall quality in terms of coral, fish, and invert health also are bottom of the 3 from what I've seen.
Side note: store A and B need to let me redo their websites... Store A hasn't updated their website in 4 years! Store B (though it's my favorite) hasn't updated in 5 years!!!!! Scary
