Opening a aquarium store & looking for opinions

Isoprene · Jan 21, 2013

I am in no way anyone to put my 2 cents on how to run any type of store but I will give you feedback on a purely customer point of view and my experience with the LFS in my area.

First thing is I started the hobby not knowing a freaking thing. The owner of the store basically held my hand helping me get my first tank and corals, now a year later he lets me bring in a notebook once every Tuesday, like clock work, and he tests my water for everything right down to salinity for free. I bring him my old starter colonies and he frags them up and sells them to other customers and gives me store credit, or just trades for frags of the newer cooler looking stuff. He even helped me get on a dosing schedule. His employee, who works part time during the weeks, built me my LED's and charged me incorrectly, he ended up building them free by accident and said "ahh don't worry about it". All I did was buy the materials off rapid LED's. This same employee has even offered to hold my hand through wiring LED's up if I bring the materials in so i can DIY. These guys are amazing. I could writing paragraphs about the amount of questions and time these guys spend helping me with the hobby I have completely fallen in love with. In all honesty would it have happened without this experience? I'm not even sure, most likely not. I am now keeping acros and sps and I am working towards plumbing in a refugium and a 30 frag tank. Im comfortable doing this solely based on the experiences and information I have learned from one store here in town. I'm looking to put a regal tang in my tank, he ordered one and held it specifically for me, it died, he didn't blink and eye and he is ordering another one hoping it wont die for me. He wont sell me a fish that he knows isn't good for my tank or could potentially harm the fish or my inhabitants. He is extremely knowledgeable and polite and I could honestly spend 4 hours in that place, not buy a thing, ask 100 questions, and the guy never seems aggravated or annoyed.

He even has helped my girlfriend buy me christmas presents, even got on his computer behind the counter and walked her through the checkout to buy me an ATO from my tank this past christmas. He also showed her what camera to buy online so I can take photos! The guy really cares about his customers experience with the hobby.....the results?

I spend over 100 a month in his store on a cheap month. I browse his corals 4x per week usually buy 1 frag per week. Ive dropped over 300 bucks some months on just rock and materials and coral. I don't mind paying 5 extra dollars to buy salt and carbon from him and not get it on BRS cheaper because I'm supporting the business that supports my addiction. This guy bends over backwards to help me out, along with offering completely reasonable prices. His store is clean, efficent, and you can see everything. He hides nothing and has a minimalistic approach, nothing super fancy, nothing ridiculous. Customer oriented and has sales frequently to attract business. He dosent try to sell to you he just lets you ask question and points you in the right direction. If you were going to model your business after a store in my opinion this guy has it right.

That just my experience as an extremely satisfied customer, I will buy from him until the day he dies or closes up shop.

ReeferBob · Jan 21, 2013

I also thought about opening a store. Part of my plan was to have a bank of tanks with fellow reefer's/customers' stock. You'd let your customers sell their fish in those tanks and you take a cut like 50/50.

steamer51 · Jan 21, 2013

The LFS I worked for part time many years ago had "turnkey systems" (freshwater) that were price motivated. Tank and the cheapest (not best) equipment for the lowest sale price. I always let the customer know it was better to buy better equipment at the beginning. Much easier to be successful with a 10 gallon with enough filtration for a 20 gallon than one that has the bare minimum. The owner would let the customer build their own system with what they wanted. Buy the tank at regular price and all accessories and equipment were 10 percent off at the time of purchase. In today's reefing world a newbie who has done his research can get exactly the equipment and brand they have decided is best for a package deal price.

robf · Jan 21, 2013

steamer51 said:
The LFS I worked for part time many years ago had "turnkey systems" (freshwater) that were price motivated. Tank and the cheapest (not best) equipment for the lowest sale price. I always let the customer know it was better to buy better equipment at the beginning. Much easier to be successful with a 10 gallon with enough filtration for a 20 gallon than one that has the bare minimum. The owner would let the customer build their own system with what they wanted. Buy the tank at regular price and all accessories and equipment were 10 percent off at the time of purchase. In today's reefing world a newbie who has done his research can get exactly the equipment and brand they have decided is best for a package deal price.

Good point. I see such systems in the big box pet stores offering freshwater systems knowing and not caring the components are not up to snuff. If a saltwater store did the same the unknowing customer would be very upset indeed. To do an sps saltwater tank correctly requires a substantial investment in both time and money. Cheap skimmers can still cost hundreds of bucks and the same for lighting. They look like perfectly fine gear to the inexperienced eye. By the time you realize it's not up to snuff it's used and worthless. I would guess most who try saltwater eventually give up. This is too bad. Hundreds of bucks get wasted.

Squishie89 · Jan 22, 2013

Due to a recent post, I suggest you also have a great network of video surveillance in the store.

wicked2na · Jan 23, 2013

Yeah unfortunately surveillance is a must have, but maybe we will use them for live webcast of the store just for fun. I agree that customer service is the key to any successful business and we will try our hardest to keep everyone happy. My greatest hurdle a year ago when I dove into reef keeping was my LFS pushing in stock products my way even if they didn't suit my needs. We all know this hobby is not cheap and like a few people have mentioned costly mistakes can add up. I really think honesty goes farther in the long run and if we don't have what you need we will try to guide you to someone who does have it at a good price. It will be about a year after water starts flowing, but we do plan on competing with the "big guys" on the internet. I strongly believe it will be the only way to successfully offer low pricing across the board on products and livestock. The internet is the way a majority of people are shopping these days and eCommerce is my specialty. Our doors will always be open to our local community and our prices will be the same in store as they are online. We will offer local pick up as well, I can't think of how many times I called my local LFS about a product and then drive there to find out they sold it 2 minutes ago, at our store you can buy it online and pick it up tomorrow or have the wife or kid pick it up on the way home. 90% of livestock will be wysiwyg, we can't take pictures of every little crab and shrimp, but who knows my business partner gets bored. I just want to thank you guys again you have no clue how many times we have changed our outlook on our store since we posted this thread.

KJAG · Jan 23, 2013

I can't walk into my LFS in Ventura without seeing something atrocious. Id say rule 1 would be making sure you're extra vigilant to see if a fish is getting bullied in holding , and if so, already have enough seperate systems/sections to relocate. Good luck

moreef · Jan 23, 2013

Shores805 said:
I can't walk into my LFS in Ventura without seeing something atrocious. Id say rule 1 would be making sure you're extra vigilant to see if a fish is getting bullied in holding , and if so, already have enough seperate systems/sections to relocate. Good luck

+1 on this one. I don't know anything about running a store and nearly nothing about this " hobby " but I hate it when I see many dead/dying fish in multiple tanks. I lost count after a dozen or so dead one day at my lfs. They also waaayyy overstock each tank that I think im watching tanked, lol. They even put sharks in tanks so small they can hardly turn around. I haven't bought any fish/corals since and only some frozen food,filter socks etc. I now drive 40mins to a smaller but much better store and will continue to support them.

steamer51 · Jan 24, 2013

"I really think honesty goes farther in the long run and if we don't have what you need we will try to guide you to someone who does have it at a good price."

I agree with the honesty but not with sending your customers to the competition. I am a firm believer is supporting an LFS. As I mentioned before I worked part time at one years ago and the owner shared with me some of his financial information. I understand how tough it is to stay in business and if it costs a little more I pay the price so they will be open the next time I want to look at all the cool stuff. When I decided to buy an RO/DI my favorite LFS did not stock them. Instead of going on line and buying something cheaper than the LFS could afford to sell it for I suggested they "special order" one for me. The owner advised me on which unit to buy and since it was a guaranteed sale (I paid in advance) that he didn't have to worry about over a hundred dollars of his money sitting on the shelf for a long time until it sold, he was able to discount the price to me so I paid about what it would have cost on line. My point is don't send a customer somewhere else, get them what they need if they will wait until it comes in. Get the money before you order because unfortunately there are some people who want something and change their mind when they have to pay for it which leaves you with an item you don't stock to get rid of.

wicked2na · Jan 24, 2014

It's been about a year since I first posted this thread and we have been extremely busy building the store. I had plans to keep updates coming in, but we have barely enough time to sneak in sleep let alone time to post pictures. Here are a few pictures from the past year. More to come soon.

wicked2na · Jan 24, 2014

Here are some pictures.

wicked2na · Jan 24, 2014

A few more pics.

wicked2na · Jan 24, 2014

Salt side, coral islands.

Mike in CT · Jan 24, 2014

Looking great....congratulations!

miyags · Jan 24, 2014

Here I thought this was a new thread, I have to start looking at dates.Your store is Looking Good !!!. I see you scrapped the bare bottom idea? We have 2 LFS in erie,pa. one nice and clean and the other one, went down hill in the worst way,dirty and dying stuff.