Re: Loyalty vs being robbed

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Dave Gomberg responded to my comment, "<But, in general, I wouldn't say
that they were robbing anyone." with this:
 
> Scott, my best lfs has about 15 employees and over 100 tanks and
> thousands 
> of square feet of dry goods.  They will buy stuff from hobbyists only
> for 
> store credit and charge 3-4 times as much as the mail order 
> places.   Sounds pretty close to robbery to me.

That's your best?  Ouch!  I thought you were out there somewhere near
the general vicinity of Albany Aquarium.  

Anyway, general comments allow for exceptions :-) and your lfs sounds
like one -- maybe not because of not buying from hobbyists, but because
of charging about double the normal retail mark-up -- they should only
be about double mail-order discount, on average, given that mail order
joints average about 40% discount on retail prices.  Of course
individual prices are all over the page in this rather competitive
business.

So yours is good reminder that abominable activity exists.  I'd ask you
to post the name of the store but why risk more law suits in the hobby?
:-\r

At first blush, one might think that people who rob won't stay in
business long -- but we know that isn't so.  As Adam Smith was so keen
to point out, the market place isn't perfect.  In economic terms, that
means there are some real bast---s out there there.  But that's true in
just about any business.  So you have to watch out for crooks,
sleazers, and smarmy charmies.

Still, I think lfses, in general, aren't crooks; they're just
reflecting
the business conditions they face.  Robert H said it much better than I
have in his post in this thread.

Scott H.

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