What do you enjoy about your LFS?

[Palegic]

Honestly I'll say it no matter how many people disagree. Even the best LFSs in my area leave a lot to be desired. Staff is hit or miss and livestock leaves a lot to be desired in MY opinion. I know a lot of times it's difficult to justify the cost of training and paying staff well. Especially considering as a business owner and reef keep you may think you know it all and can teach and or over see but it's just not realistic. If you want to run a high quality operation you need to pay your staff appropriately for A. Their experience and B. Their effort. In NY that's extremely difficult. Your staff should be your partners not your employees. You want to minimize turnover because that is your enemy with hobby based operations. Highering a college kid who will work part time for 15 bucks an hour and then leave I'm 3-4 years is just not appropriate especially when considering the salary of some or majority of folks that are involved in this hobny. That being said even with some of the "better" LFS in my area I would much rather order from online boutiques out of state.

 

[blasterman]

I'm fortunate to have a couple very good reef shops within an hours drive with one being one of the top ranked pet stores in the country.

A good selection of frags is uttermost in my book. Reef shops that only sell retail coral which is over priced and often wild caught is bad news. LFS stores can make good money moving frags if they do it right benefitting everybody.

Clean tanks are a must.

Don't be like my local reef shop where the owner is a paranoid hypochondriac, lines customers up outside his store and only allows a couple in at a time while locking the door behind each one with a dirty look. A wasnt aware Covid 19 couldn't spread if you are in groups of 2.