Petco buying Dr. Foster and Smith.

[therman]

allot of us dont give petco a dime now we cant even buy from dr foster or live aquaria... anyone know of a good place to order from

Premium Aquatics is fantastic, and has phenomenal customer service

 

[FLipp]

corporate money.

 

[archaic37]

I think your giving too much credit here without knowing all the details of the deal. If anything it will probably be hands off for foster and Smith and petco won't really care about their business models and will start to implement their own rules to such things.

Petco dropped millions on this merger. To go in and change the business model reducing the profit margin is something the Petco execs are not going to agree too.

There is no reason to change anything about petco, LA or dfs models for the worse. They each have their own market and in turn all three could benefit from each other. LA has more purchasing power allowing for a larger facility, Petco can increase store livestock and dry goods quality/price and dfs can also have a larger facility and begin to distribute items to petcos across the nation.

 

[Tank2379]

I don't know I think they are getting out while the industry still has some life left with all the ESA crap going on Sell now and reopen again later

 

[DFS LiveAquaria]

Greetings,
I would like to take a moment to respond and address some concerns posted in this thread.

Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith have worked incredibly hard over the last 31 years, to build an incredibly successful business, which revolves around education, pet heath, and responsible pet ownership. The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet. Understanding each company’s mission and goals are very similar, we feel this partnership and synergy is going to be beneficial to animals, pet owners, and aquarium hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

I can assure everyone, my personal mission as the LiveAquaria Director is to take LiveAquaria.com to an even higher level than ever before. The continued expansion of our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life facility in Rhinelander Wisconsin, home of the LiveAquaria.com Divers Den®, allows us to offer an even greater assortment of quality aquatic life shipped direct to your door.

Rest assured, Dr. Race Foster and I are not going anywhere, and will continue to operate Drs. Foster and Smith pet supplies and LiveAquaria.com as it's business as usual. Both Race and I are incredibly excited for the future and what lies ahead.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

 

[NanaReefer]

DFS stated that it would be business as usual.

 

[adam87]

That's good!!

 

[N1Husker]

The one thing that bothers me is, I get my Kent Reef Salt from Drs. F&S at a very reasonable cost and although Petco has the same salt, it is much more expensive. I hope I can still purchase it at the same price.

 

[Shep]

Greetings,
I would like to take a moment to respond and address some concerns posted in this thread.

Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith have worked incredibly hard over the last 31 years, to build an incredibly successful business, which revolves around education, pet heath, and responsible pet ownership. The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet. Understanding each company’s mission and goals are very similar, we feel this partnership and synergy is going to be beneficial to animals, pet owners, and aquarium hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

I can assure everyone, my personal mission as the LiveAquaria Director is to take LiveAquaria.com to an even higher level than ever before. The continued expansion of our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life facility in Rhinelander Wisconsin, home of the LiveAquaria.com Divers Den®, allows us to offer an even greater assortment of quality aquatic life shipped direct to your door.

Rest assured, Dr. Race Foster and I are not going anywhere, and will continue to operate Drs. Foster and Smith pet supplies and LiveAquaria.com as it's business as usual. Both Race and I are incredibly excited for the future and what lies ahead.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

Awesome to hear! thanks for posting!

 

[Diesel]

Greetings,
I would like to take a moment to respond and address some concerns posted in this thread.

Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith have worked incredibly hard over the last 31 years, to build an incredibly successful business, which revolves around education, pet heath, and responsible pet ownership. The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet. Understanding each company’s mission and goals are very similar, we feel this partnership and synergy is going to be beneficial to animals, pet owners, and aquarium hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

I can assure everyone, my personal mission as the LiveAquaria Director is to take LiveAquaria.com to an even higher level than ever before. The continued expansion of our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life facility in Rhinelander Wisconsin, home of the LiveAquaria.com Divers Den®, allows us to offer an even greater assortment of quality aquatic life shipped direct to your door.

Rest assured, Dr. Race Foster and I are not going anywhere, and will continue to operate Drs. Foster and Smith pet supplies and LiveAquaria.com as it's business as usual. Both Race and I are incredibly excited for the future and what lies ahead.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

Thanks Kevin.
There were no doubts about above statement what so ever.
Take it to next level.

 

[Opus]

As I stated in the other thread. If your state has a sales tax and a Petco, Drs will have to start charging sales taxes on any online purchases to that state. I'm not an expert so that may not be true for some states but I haven't seen a state that doesn't have that rule.

 

[Dextereef]

Greetings,
I would like to take a moment to respond and address some concerns posted in this thread.

Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith have worked incredibly hard over the last 31 years, to build an incredibly successful business, which revolves around education, pet heath, and responsible pet ownership. The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet. Understanding each company’s mission and goals are very similar, we feel this partnership and synergy is going to be beneficial to animals, pet owners, and aquarium hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

I can assure everyone, my personal mission as the LiveAquaria Director is to take LiveAquaria.com to an even higher level than ever before. The continued expansion of our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life facility in Rhinelander Wisconsin, home of the LiveAquaria.com Divers Den®, allows us to offer an even greater assortment of quality aquatic life shipped direct to your door.

Rest assured, Dr. Race Foster and I are not going anywhere, and will continue to operate Drs. Foster and Smith pet supplies and LiveAquaria.com as it's business as usual. Both Race and I are incredibly excited for the future and what lies ahead.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

This is reassuring because the Petco's in the my area (Cincinnati) have a terrible reputation.

 

[Dextereef]

As I stated in the other thread. If your state has a sales tax and a Petco, Drs will have to start charging sales taxes on any online purchases to that state. I'm not an expert so that may not be true for some states but I haven't seen a state that doesn't have that rule.

Here's a good link to sales tax rules by state.

http://blog.taxjar.com/charging-sales-tax-rates/

 

[hart24601]

It's great that LA took the time to respond. I love liveaquaria but like most am concerned. I have been in a company that gets bought by a larger one. We were very profitable so we got left alone for a while, but as time went on the main company started wanting more and more money from us and started to pick apart everything to try and get even more profit. I worry the same thing for liveaquaria - over time the larger company (petco) will start wanting a better profit margin and will start bleeding LA dry. I sure hope not...

 

[Opus]

Here's a good link to sales tax rules by state.

Origin-based and Destination-based Sales Tax Collection

Interesting article but I believe that only applied to in-state sales.

 

[N1Husker]

I agree our Petco here the fish tanks are not kept up very dirty I would not buy anything from that store when it comes to fish or corals but I think it is just the people working in that store not doing there job just saying.[/QUOTE

If you experience a Petco that has dirty tanks, sick looking fish, lousy selection, just go to their webpage and go to contacts and write them. They will respond back to you, they called me back to discuss the problems that I reported. I contacted them on a Tuesday and they called me back on Wednesday. He was a very nice person, gave me his personal number to report any discrepancies at any of the stores in our area. When I went back to the store, it was all cleaned up and has been every time I have went in there since. This might not be such a bad thing.

 

[Dextereef]

Interesting article but I believe that only applied to in-state sales.

Correct. This is what you can probably expect with DFS for the future

 

[Kyuss414]

Greetings,
I would like to take a moment to respond and address some concerns posted in this thread.

Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith have worked incredibly hard over the last 31 years, to build an incredibly successful business, which revolves around education, pet heath, and responsible pet ownership. The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet. Understanding each company’s mission and goals are very similar, we feel this partnership and synergy is going to be beneficial to animals, pet owners, and aquarium hobbyists and enthusiasts alike.

I can assure everyone, my personal mission as the LiveAquaria Director is to take LiveAquaria.com to an even higher level than ever before. The continued expansion of our Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life facility in Rhinelander Wisconsin, home of the LiveAquaria.com Divers Den®, allows us to offer an even greater assortment of quality aquatic life shipped direct to your door.

Rest assured, Dr. Race Foster and I are not going anywhere, and will continue to operate Drs. Foster and Smith pet supplies and LiveAquaria.com as it's business as usual. Both Race and I are incredibly excited for the future and what lies ahead.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith

This is somewhat reassuring, I'm trying to stay optimistic, but....

It's great that LA took the time to respond. I love liveaquaria but like most am concerned. I have been in a company that gets bought by a larger one. We were very profitable so we got left alone for a while, but as time went on the main company started wanting more and more money from us and started to pick apart everything to try and get even more profit. I worry the same thing for liveaquaria - over time the larger company (petco) will start wanting a better profit margin and will start bleeding LA dry. I sure hope not...

This. I've worked with for two different companies that got bought out by big corporations. The first one the big corp that bought us out tried filing bankruptcy with us 3 or 4 years later with about $800M (yes, almost a billion) of their debt. When they bought us we had absolutely 0 debt, the previous owners prided themselves on that. The government actually stepped in on that one, but I left shortly after while they continued to run a once great company down the drain.

The second one gave me a promotion. then cut our wages before my first review (which I never ended up even getting in the following 2 years) so I was barely making any more than the previous position with waaaaay more responsibility and workload. Then they demanded that I move to Europe for 2 years, in 3 weeks time, and no I wouldn't even get a raise. When I said no, that was my last day there. They ended up closing up the place and moving operations elsewhere a year and a half later - ie. when I would have still been in EU, and of course they never told me about plans for that either.

So yeah, it's difficult to be optimistic on acquisitions like this. I wish all the best for DFS none the less.

 

[Rob Top1]

Had to read the whole thread before replying. As I did, Kevin you were on my mind. I couldn't imagine a compromise of values. This had to be good. Your passion for this hobby has been an inspiration to thousands, if not tens of. I look forward to seeing what you do with new resources. Thanks for chiming in, as I expected you whould as I was reading page two of this thread. Just another example of your commitment to quality information

 

[Ike]

The Petco mission is elevating the lives of animals and enhancing the connection people have with their pets, with a commitment to the highest standards of social responsibility, while continually striving to make things better for pets, people and the planet

You lost me here... Have you ever actually been in a Petco? From the several stores I've stopped in, they're little more than a disgrace to the marine aquarium industry... Sorry, but little chance DFS is getting my money ever again due to this association.