New shops and how we are being ripped off

Hi Slojo! The guys name is Derek and his number is ********. Majority of my fish i bought from him and every one of them are healthy and thriving. i aslo bought my tank from him which he sourced for me from cape town, I didn't want the same plain rectangular tanks the lfs sells so he got me a cool space age corner unit. Still very happy with it.

 

Good point SauRon, it's hard to accuse pet stores of ripping us off, considering the costs they incur to bring the product to us...

But I'm still sold on buying stuff directly from Derek. :smile1: For me, the pet stores are now my second option.

 

Pet stores are also my second option after Derek. He can make and source good quality stuff!

 

He's bit under-stocked on general equipment sometimes, but I suspect that is because of lack of space at Garden World. In those instances, I am grateful that we still have pet stores around.

 

Sometimes when I'm not in any rush i wait for him to source it for me because it always comes at a better price. But yes you are right Madam I'm also grateful for the lfs that are around in an emergency.

 

true . But do most lfs not make the most money from equipment rather than livestock .

 

Not always Storm. Have found that sometimes they are expensive on fish and cheap on hardware, and sometimes they are expensive on hardware and then cheap on the fishies... Guess it depends on space and lay-out of the shop

 

There is usually more profit to be made on livestock than on hardware, but this also depends on WHAT hardware.

 

Speaking about livestock and the no guarantee part.My LFS still don't see my point.
i.e.
If the fish is dead then it obviously is not livestock anymore but deadstock,falling in the same category as heaters for instance that have a 12 month guarantee.
So why dont they still not want to exchange my deadstock for livestock?:wondering:

 

Hahaha Slojo, guess it's got something to do with the fact that when you bought it, it was clasified as livestock. It changed clasification from live to dead while in your possession LOL

 

Brilliant one Slojo! I do however understand the LFS point of view on this one though ....hahahaha

 

A heater they can fix a dead fish is a little more difficult! lol!!!!!!

 

I doubt that. The markup is a lot higher on livestock however the profit is generally a lot lower than profit from hardware.

 

I was actually talking about percentage markup But yip, if we talking actual amounts of money then more is on hardware.

 

My 2c ... "You get what you pay for"... in the "fishy" business...
There is always fluctuations in prices...
There will always be "pro's and cons"...
Do research and make the best informed decision...

 

My opinion real quik.If I owned a LFS and overheard a customer telling another customer that livestock can be bought directly from my supplier for the same price that I'm paying,I'd be pretty upset.Infact I would boycot that supplier and spread the word to other LFS's.He will soon see the error in his ways when all his "big" customers dries up.

 

This is an old thread but i just ordered a tank from FFW. Can't wait till it arrives. Derek was also very helpful and really a nice person to get advise from. I was very impressed!!!

 

Ditto.
I need to visit him tomorrow.

 

Where is this based?

 

Hey guys... I don't want to burst your guys bubbles... but i have to do this to save TASA's ass!!

Derek from FFW prices are good on tanks... BUT compare them to Dolphin and you will kick yourself in the head!!

When I had my tank burst a few weeks ago, I was pretty certain I was going to go with a custom build from FFW, and went ahead with getting quotes from him. Then just out of interest sake, and because I had seen Dolphin put some tank prices up in other threads, I asked him to quote on same size tank... and Dolphin was between 15-20% cheaper!!

Dudes... all I can say is keep it local.. (I.E local to the forum.) FFW is 9/10 times unreachable via phone, and you can only visit by appointment. Dolphin is online 90% of the time, and I have NEVER had to wait longer than an hour MAX before he has replied to a PM. My money goes where the service is!