Why do you prefer buying online to LFS?

[WetPets]

That's where I go, there is another one off Clemson Rd but I can't remember the name off the top of my head. I think their a sponsor here.
It's Aquarium Specialty. They have a great selection & prices aren't bad.

They are not close to me but I order from them they are great people

 

[Homewrecker]

Variety is the spice of life and once you've bought most of the things you like from your LFS you either move on or start buying random stuff out of boredom. Personally, I don't want to waste space with more common corals so I move around to different vendors.
Some are better than others and I prefer to fly out to shows and pick up new additions vs. shopping online most of the time

 

[1stNoel]

Living in the reefing community of Orlando, I'm lucky enough to have several top shelf local LFSs that are known worldwide. However, I do like surfing through the websites of non-local shops to see their selection and pricing.

 

[Richard Hercher]

I don’t like to. But my lfs doesn’t always carry the equipment or livestock I want. In 7 years I’ve not yet purchased any critters from anywhere else, but I’m not ruling it out. I always look at my lfs before buying equipment and don’t mind paying a little more or getting an equivalent item, but I won’t ask them to order equipment if I can order it myself.

 

[jgaepi]

To those who like to buy stuff online better, why?

For me personally, I save gas (my LFS is 23 miles away), wear on my car, time, and maybe healthier specimens, though shipping fee can be a lot if below $150. My nearest LFS has so few selections that I keep seeing the same specimens every time I visit. That being said driving to LFS and seeing fish in person are so fun.

My LFS is 35 min away. They are good in that they’ll keep fish for two weeks, feed and observe for me, before pick up. But then their selection is always limited and have limited supplies. If it wasn’t for the fish, I wouldn’t go.

 

[Subnautica]

you either move on or start buying random stuff out of boredom.

This is true! happened to me as well :\

 

[vetteguy53081]

Like many of us, i have a favorite LFS that is an hour drive but always enjoyed the pricing and selection making the drive worth it.
Over the last year, ownership was changed and fish selection has diminished, fish have gotten smaller in size and prices have nearly doubled. Sales and promotions have been rare and to make matters more difficult, I understand price increases on dry goods but rather than use new stickers, they have written in pen an elevated price over the old one of $4-8 dollars and when comparing the old price to BRS and others, they were already higher than online sellers and now marking it higher makes the choice for purchasing from them near impossible.
I saved $246 alone in June ordering online. $62 in July buying same frozen foods from Fosters and smith with shipping.
I owned a store and very much want to support them but cannot justify a 2 hr round trip drive and 20-30% higher price and feel I got value

 

[DibsOnMcRibs]

With everything equal, I try to opt for the LFS. When I was in San Diego, I went to Aquatic Warehouse. I think at that time @AquaSD was just opening and completely unknown to me. Each is excellent.
Now that I’m in San Francisco, I frequent Neptune Aquatics and occasionally Aquatic Collection. But the people at Neptune’s know me by name, ask about my tanks, and will order things for me.

However, as real estate in my tank is limited, I prefer to purchase many of my corals online. I’d rather spend more money to get exactly what I want than something I’m luke warm about.

Finally, I only buy captive bred fish. While it’s easy for them them to find me a certain clown or cardinal, tangs, angelfish and even mandarins require me to go online.

 

[RevMH]

Agreed, it's a distance amd the selection is meh.

 

[Thekegk]

I try and do as mush live stock from my LFS. I like to see what i'm getting with livestock first. dry goods are all online or 90%+ is. availability is the main reason, my LFS's don't stock my salt and a lot of the test kits/chems are cheaper online than in stores. I happen to be only 1 state away from BRS so I get all my shipped items in 2 days with free shipping. its really nice.

 

[Braves Fan]

I pretty much only use my LFS for frozen food ,, for the most part ,, it used to not be this way ,, but over the years ,, just seems to have morphed into this ,, my LFS is a drive for me ,,, its on the other side of town, I very rarely need to go to that side of town ,, to make the trip to the store ,, round trip takes about 1 hour of driving time plus the time I would spend in the store ,, I use Salifert test kits ,, mostly ,, the LFS doesn't sell these ,, as I need things ,, I put them into my cart on the BRS site ,, when the items build up in my cart or there is just something I need ,, I place the order and in two to three days I have it ,,

When it comes to fish ,, I am really not sure why anyone would use a LFS other than they wouldn't have a shipping cost ,, chances are you would pay more for the fish from the LFS though ,, that off sets the shipping cost when ordering online ,, my fish mortality rate from the LFS is about ,, I don't know ,, 50/50 ,, maybe better ,, but when buying online ,, I get a guaranty with the fish ,, I can get the fish I want ,, when I want them for the most part ,, I can't count the times I have asked the LFS owner to get me a fish in ,, to this day I still haven't got those fish ,,

This isn't the LFS owners fault ,, he orders fish ,, his supplier sends what he wants ,, when he wants ,, right now I am looking for a Purple Tang ,, the fish seems to be hard to get at this time ,, if the fish is hard to get and my LFS owners suppler gets one in ,, he is going to send it to his biggest customer ,, not my LFS owner who doesn't buy as many fish ,, so why should I ask the LFS to try and get me a fish ,, that I could be waiting for 2 years for him to get in ,, it is what it is ,,, I am fixing to order it online ,,

I will tell you a story here ,, I am retired so I have nothing better to do

When I first got into the hobby ,, I had my first tank set up ,, your standard 125g mixed reef tank ,, I didn't know at this time about ordering online , I bought everything from the LFS the day came for my first tank upgrade ,, I wanted a SPS tank ,, So ,, I used and still do to this day GFO in my system ,, I was just learning ways to keep phosphates down in my tanks without using as much GFO as my main way to fight Phosphates ,, I factored in the cost of GFO from the LFS when I figured in the size of the tank I could upgrade to ,, GFO from the LFS back then ,, and to this day ,, is expensive ,, I ended up only getting a 150g tank ,, the dimensions front to back were a lot better than the 125g tank though ,, the point is ,, I couldn't upgrade to a bigger tank because of the cost I would have for GFO ,, after the tank was bought and set up ,, bought the tank from the LFS also lol that's another story I learned about shopping online for the hobby ,, I could buy 10x the amount of GFO online for what I was paying the LFS ,, had I known this at the time ,, I could have set up a much larger tank ,, to this day ,, GFO from the LFS is still way more $$$ than online ,,

If you are just buying one or two items from the LFS ,, no big deal ,, but if you make a grocery list like I do and I am sure most reefers do ,, you will save big $$$ ,, I jmo think most LFS don't make their living selling out of their stores to reefers like me ,, they make their living on tank maintenence ,, its just the way things are ,,

 

[Onewolf]

I live near Orlando which has several really nice LFS with large web based operations and since I'm a newbie I like to see/touch/feel/lick the 'stock' in-person.

 

[Jeff Jarry reef]

Sad to say the reason I don't buy from my LFS because there fish always look sick and I have seen ick on their fish and pointed out. And there answer was we run copper through the whole system. And they have alot of fish. So that tells me everything is contaminated. But there corals are on different system. I wish I could support them but I'm not taking any chances. It's like they don't care about the fish. Sorry to say that. that's why I buy fish online.

 

[Braves Fan]

I live near Orlando which has several really nice LFS

That's a understatement

 

[Hannahrain]

All of our livestock we buy from our LFS along with RO/DI water and frozen food. Most equipment and other supplies are bought online, as it's much more affordable and more to choose from. I understand our LFS (which we love) has to mark up prices to make $, that doesn't bother us, we just have to save anywhere we can.

 

[RMS18]

Online has a better selection, guarantees, healthier corals and lower prices. This is at least my experience. Some folks have awesome LFS. I live in Central NJ by the shore and the 3 LFS within 20-60 min drive stink. Fish are sick, their low meds levels hide issues until you bring them home 3-4 days later. Corals are just hanging on and prices are high as they try to play the name game.

 

[JonGrog]

I'm in Central Jersey too. I buy almost 100% online at this point. All of my equipment has come from online retailers (brs mostly). And the two LFS's that are "near me" charge OUTRAGEOUS prices and don't carry the livestock that I like.

In fact the last time I shopped at the one LFS I bought out their entire supply of SPS frags...a single teeny tiny birdsnest

 

[Dkeller_nc]

I don't buy corals or fish online. That's because I've a very high functioning salt-only LFS near me (ReefKeepers in Clayton, NC). The owner knows his stuff, and his acropora in particular aren't sold with comic-book names or "pedigrees", which I have a fundamental objection to. And it's far cheaper to purchase the acropora colonies that he sells as baseball sized colonies than the 1/2" frags from on-line sellers.

Another attraction is his fish selection. He's into unusual and (sometimes) rare fish, and because he gets these shipped directly from the collectors in a lot of water, they're extremely healthy.

I realize that not everyone is lucky enough to have such an LFS to purchase from, but for me, there's just no reason to purchase from on-line sellers, particularly considering that I'd have to take time off of work to receive a morning-delivery overnight shipment from an on-line seller.

 

[ruegaroo]

I think I like the idea of supporting local business more than the actual practice of it. In reality, I have purchased 95% of supplies online and 100% of livestock online as well so far in my experience with the hobby. It is often difficult to find a convenient time to drive 30min to an hour one way to get to the LFS and then drive another 30min to an hour back. That seems to be the consensus for a lot of people in this thread.

I keep telling myself I am going to go buy more stuff from the LFS but then the weekend comes around and I just feel like chilling out and NOT driving around for 1.5 hours.

I do support my local pet store for my dog though. That's a 10 min drive so it's not inconvenient and they always have what I need, even if it's a bit cheaper to buy online. I probably buy 90% of the stuff I need in store. I think if a LFS was closer I would be more of a regular there.

 

[falconut]

Just about all my livestock has been purchased locally. I'm lucky that it's only about 5 minutes from my house and brings in new livestock every week. Corals were a mix between LFS & local reefers.

I have ordered online about three times since 2004 and had mixed results, so I just resist the urge & wait for my LFS to get it in stock.