Re: NANFA-- Black Hets./Black Mollies

Ty Hall (tyhall-in-mia.net)
Sun, 16 May 2004 06:47:43 -0500

The problem with this is simple; Greed. Once a product line really takes off, then
the huge offers roll in from the big distributors and retailers. They promise to
quadruple (or more) a company's sales. It's hard for them to pass that up. Look at
Hill's Science Diet and IAMs. Both used to be really high-end dog foods that you
could only get-in-your vet or specialty retailer. Now they are mediocre foods you
can buy-in-Walmart. Let's face it a single order from a store like Walmart can be
larger then all other orders combined. That's hard to ignore, regardless of your
honorable intentions. The worst part is that most of these types of products have
changed their ingedient make up to meet the price expectations set by the large
retailers. The consumers are completely unaware that their once high-end product now
features inferior ingredients.

As for the fish, properly managed you should be able to make a profit on fish alone.
Granted there are larger profits to be made on the supplies. Here in the SE
Wisconsin area, we have several really good independent fish stores, not to mention
several good independent pet stores. The best of these, fish only places, makes most
of his money off of the fish.

Ty

> One can't blame the chain stores, - it's the people who shop there who are
> responsible. There IS a viable niche for the LFS: marines and oddballs. The
> big boxes won't touch 'em. The problem then is this: Most LFS's just about
> break even on their fish, when all is said and done. So where they make money
> is on supplies. And guess where people buy their supplies?
>
> There are certain manufacturers which cater to independent shops. I'm not
> familiar with any within the pet industry (I think even Bil-Jac sells to the big
> guys now), but they will not sell to chains, or sometimes even to distributors.
> What the pet industry needs is for some enterprising soul to come up with a
> product line that aquarists love, and then distribute it only through
> independent shops.
>
> So put your thinking caps on, guys. What features do you want to see in a
> filter that nobody is offering? Or an air pump? Or a simple net?
>
> --Irate
> Charter member, DNRC
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