Conversation At Lfs

[KathyM]

The tanks were nice and clean and fish seemed healthy. He did have some nice plecs with a big sign on the tank saying "these fish will grow very large, if you want to buy these, make sure you can cater for their needs".

Well there you go, doesn't sound that bad to me.

Completely agree with andywg's post too.

 

[fenwoman]

Hell, the way I'd look at it is that if he couldn't be bothered to give a shi... then why on earth sould he expect his (lack of) customers to? Businesses like that are simply asking to go bust beceasue of their inherent ingorant arrogancy.

Supply and demand. If you have a potential CUSTOMER with MONEY in your SHOP, then it does not take Sherlock bloody Holmes to conculde the SUPPLY bit!

...

Andy

However, with supply and demand you may have hit the nail on the head. If the OP's fish store has survived for 35 years selling stock community fish and plastic plants, why would he want to change a winning formula?

Essentially, he has had customers coming in with demands for community fish such as neons and guppies for years, so he stocks those fish that he knows he has a demand for.

Remember that he runs a business, not an attempt to become well known on a fish forum for stocking rare fish. The fact he has been in business for 35 years would appear to indicate he actually has a pretty good grasp on what his customers want.

You seem to be upset that he isn't stocking what you (one customer) wants because he is catering to all the other customers who do want those items he stocks.

not upset at all. Just not impressed with his attitude. He may well have been there for 35 years, but I doubt he will stay that way for many more. He gets by from renting space to other businesses I expect, the fish shop is behind his house on his land so he has no rent to pay. No doubt he can afford to just tick over. I don't really care one way or the toher. I was just surprised, given that he doesn't seem to have as many customers as other places, he can afford to have his attitude which seemed to be unhelpful and disinterested and unwilling to make an effort to keep a potential customer.
I must admit, he does have rather a reputation for being unhelpful, and even rude. As I said, no skin off my nose. I will simply shop elsewhere and advise others to do so too. Businesses stand or fall on reputation.

 

[andywg]

Fenwoman, I was not criticising what you said, but (as indicated by my quoting) responding to comments made by Underwurlde.

A Business will stand and fall on far more than reputation. I would say that profit margins are more important, and I would wager that more exotic fish will require more care and carry less profit than the stock fish, not to mention they have a lower demand than the more common fish.

As mentioned, he has survived in the trade for 35 years, so he probably has a better idea about what the buying public want than most of us here. Remember that the majority of people who buy fish do not come on to forums such as this and as such are probably more than happy to keep the fish they are aware of that are nice and bright colours.

I think a few too many people on this forum bash the way a lfs is run because it is not run how they would like a shop to be run without consideration for the fact that it is a business and not a hobby.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Eyerolling, muttering, not exactly appealing to a customer. And with the plants, there was no call to just blow Fen off. I don't care if a store has what I might consider a plain selection, I don't want to do business there if they are going to act high and mighty about it and treat me like I'm stupid. Ignoring the fact that the guy sounds somewhat unkowledgeable (java and moss balls a fad, male and two female bettas in a tank, and saying that a yoyo loach, which he had just admitted he never heard of, is interchangeable with a clown loach) he was rude, plain and simple.

Andy, yes, it may be a business, but when a person walks into a business as a customer, they expect a certain amount of professionalism from the staff. I don't walk into a fish store and expect them to know about the wilder side of the hobby, or even the ones where they couldn't tell you the male guppies from the females without looking at the label on the tank, but I do expect them to treat me civilly. I went into a guitar store once for a simple thumb pick, got read the riot act by the owner when he found out I was teaching myself, basically told me I couldn't play if I didn't have lessons, and I walked out without the thumb pick. He may have had that store for years, but I'm not shopping there again.

 

[andywg]

Let us not forget, before we gripe too much about this lfs that we only have one side of the story on how nice or otherwise he was. We are without locus standi to actually state whether the lfs was rude or not, wouldn't you say?

I know for a fact a fair few people from this forum learn a little knowledge and then go in with an 'I know more than you, puny lfs owner' attitude and completely close their minds to the fact that there are different ways of doing things than how this board advocates. I am not saying that Fenwoman did this, but some can.

And so what if he keeps a male betta with two female ones? I know that there are people from this forum who have kept a male with one female, and even multiple males together. While it may not work for everyone, it can work for some.

 

[Underwurlde]

Well put.

 

[PoPoV]

I try to stay out of the Anti-fish store threads. Im one of those lucky people that have alot of good LFS around. Sacramento area is great for the aqarium hobby. I feel sorry for the LFS employee's on the forum

 

[George Farmer]

And another anti-LFS thread!

Vote with your feet (or PC), shop elsewhere if you don't like a shop.

All very well if you live in a city with plenty of good shops about. But if you are in an area where you have to do a 15 mile round trip to get to one, it is a pain.
I may come over to Peterboro' one day to have a mooch around the lfs over there when I have a spare day.

On-line is good too IME. No experience of buying fish this way though.

FYI my round trip is 30 miles to my nearest decent LFS.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Well, unless the guy gets on here, and we have his side, I, like everyone else, am going by what was stated in the post, and from the post I concluded that the guy sounded rude. If one of your friends said 'yeah, the cashier was completely rude' about a store, you'd probably take their word, not grill them and then go ask for the cashier's side of the tale. It's a forum, most of the crap on here will never have the other side saying anything, or even knowing about it. The guy could be the sweetest man on earth the rest of the year, and Fen caught him on a bad day, but still, it sounded like he was unprofessional. Take it or leave it, I don't care, but from a strictly business stand point, based on a one-sided post (much like a complaint letter to the boss) he sounded rude. What ever happened to just saying gee, doesn't that suck, life goes on, la dee fricking da.

 

[andywg]

What ever happened to just saying gee, doesn't that suck, life goes on, la dee fricking da.

What happened to that indeed?

Rather than anyone saying "Wow Fen, you had a bit of a bad time in that shope" people start slating the shop and saying he deserves to go out of business for not stocking exactly what one customer wanted.

Instead this turned into another anti-lfs thread.

 

[confusion]

Most likely the shop owner was speaking from experience. If you plant your 55G tank using the standard 2 18w lights, don't fertilize and don't use CO2, then you're going to have lots of dead plants that do pollute the water.