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Re: [Killietalk] Nostalgia, et...now LFS industry evolution
I am undecided if it is a good thing or not. Although I am just a
hobbiest I produced 3000+ discus last year and my 12 year daughter
produced about that many angelfish the year before. The chain stores
will not buy from us. It is the small mom and pop stores that will. I
value the small stores so I make a rule of not buying from the big boys
or online if I can help it. I may pay a little more for each item but
I feel it is worth it. Also I have sold nothos to a couple of the
local stores around here a few times. While I will never get rich
doing this it helps get the word out about the local Dallas club. I
doubt the big boys would bother doing such.
-john
--- David sanchez <barbax66 at peoplepc_com> wrote:
> I have a different take on the LFS thing. In Orlando there used to be
> so
> many Petshops that the phone book had several pages to list them all.
> Today
> we are way down to very few and specialized shops. My feeling is that
> this
> is far better then when we had 20 shops and most of them were filthy
> with
> dead fish everywhere. Looked more like a dirty fishroom then a
> petshop.
> Today I see very clean professional fish stores that have high end
> equipment
> and the fish systems are state of the art for the most part.
>
> It seems to me the dirty mom and pop stores could not compete but the
> niche
> stores, saltwater, high end specialized freshwater ones came to the
> forefront. I have discussed this very topic with Elwyn Segrest the
> owner of
> segrest farms and he pretty much has seen everything in the industry
> for the
> past 30 plus years or more. He pretty much echoed what I just said.
> The bad
> stores all died out, the good ones got stronger and better. From what
> I have
> seen I think this is the case. This is capitalism at work . There are
> 4-5
> very good stores in my area and you have a petsmart and
> petsupermarket at
> every corner. Survival of the fittest I suppose. BTW FYI Both
> petsmart and
> petsupermarket carry box filters in my area and the cotton to fill
> them. Go
> figure.
> As far as the big store no longer carring the stuff we hard core guys
> use I
> think in the long run its a good thing because we have a few
> specialty
> outlets like jehmco tha thave filled the bill nicely. Our hobby has
> just
> evolved nothing more. I also think more and more we are getting fish
> online
> and through club auctions.
>
> "I have watched the business end of the
> hobby go to hell. Large corporations bought up
> distributors and also manufacturers"
>
> I think business is better to be honest. Where we use to have
> unreliability
> from distributors it seems you have a wider range of supplies and at
> better
> prices. For example Central pet is the big player as far as pet
> supplies go
> and they are big time Corporate and all over the USA. This is like
> buying
> from Wal-Mart Vs the corner store. The prices will always be better
> at
> Wal-Mart because of their buying power.
>
> The industry has evolved quite a bit and for the better in my view.
> Of
> course we will always have pros and cons but for the most part I
> think the
> changes have been good. For one thing there is a shortage of many
> fish so
> fish sales are up nationwide. This is a good sign for our hobby.
>
> Dave
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <lonlangione at suscom_net>
> To: <ken_combs at sbcglobal.net>; "killifish discussion list"
> <killietalk at aka_org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 1:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [Killietalk] Nostalgia, et...
>
>
> > Ken,
> >
> > Ich is still around, as a matter of fact it has
> > "mutated" to what some call "super ich". Having owned a
> > LFS for 12 years and having to close it in 1996 because of
> > the superstores, I have watched the business end of the
> > hobby go to hell. Large corporations bought up
> > distributers and also manufacturers. And they moved out
> > the "slow" selling stuff that hobbyists used to use. I
> > have started to work on an article to submit to TFH or
> > someone titled, "Where have all the shops gone..."
> > This is how bad it has gotten. I'll be 50 this year.
> > I've been keeping fish since I was 15. I walked into That
> > Fish Place the other day and asked a young clerk where the
> > box filters were. He took me back to the wet / dry
> > filters. I said no, I'm looking for box filters, little
> > plastic boxes that you put into a tank and fill with fluff
> > and charcoal. He looked at me and said," Oh yeah, I heard
> > of those, they used to use them in the old times....."
> > Well I finally found them, they only had 4 on the shelf.
> > I'm hoping these aren't the last four...
> > And yes, Metaframe once owned by toy great Mattel
> > is gone. I was driving a back country road the other day,
> > and I passed a pile of junk the homeowner had out for
> > trash. On top was a Metaframe, 5 gallon metalframed tank
> > with slate bottom. Looked like new, had a small crack in
> > the one side. It is in my fishroom now ;)
> >
> > Lonny
> >
> > On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:58:08 -0500
> > "Ken" <ken_combs at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> > > Just musings while stuck in phone menu world....
> > >
> > > -Remember the 70's?...whatever happened to ich? Where
> > >the h*ll did it go and
> > > when was the last time you've seen it?...just dawned on
> > >me; Ich isn't reared
> > > it's ugly head in my tanks or at the LFS in a looong
> > >while (remember?; you
> > > could bet on seeing "speckled" gouramis at Wal-Mart,
> > >something's amiss as I
> > > doubt they've cleaned up their act that much already
> > ><chuckle>)
> > >
> > > -remember "hole-in-the head"...is that still around? Or
> > >is it just renamed
> > > "Hex"?.. ain't heard from that one either in a while;
> > >might be the circles
> > > one hangs in, kind of like a non-killienut almost never
> > >see's velvet...
> > >
> > > -no scientific revelation here; but seems these aquatic
> > >diseases change over
> > > the course of the decades...seemed as you visited the
> > >LFS circa 90ish, you
> > > started seeing "wasting disease" all of a sudden about
> > >90ish...personally,
> > > never saw a single fish with it before then, now seems
> > >it's pretty common
> > > (esp. amongst danios & livebearers)
> > >
> > > -Same goes for the larger gill parasites & anchor worms,
> > >et....used to be
> > > "Lifebearer" & "Clout" were once common stock items at
> > >most LFS, not sure
> > > they've been adequately replaced those products, as you
> > >still see them,
> > > just not 4 "pegboards" worth anymore...in days of yore,
> > >you could count on
> > > seeing at least one anchor worm hanging off a feeder
> > >goldfish...I'm
> > > speculating the outdoor farmers may have done something
> > >to lower the
> > > incidence
> > >
> > > -Whatever happened to "Aquatic Warehouse" (or whomever
> > >had those 2 page ads
> > > in FAMA)
> > >
> > > -Is Metaframe defunct? O'Dell Aquariums? Any of you old
> > >geezers still got
> > > one of those 4-siphon "Super king" filters? "Silent
> > >Giant" air pumps....(oh,
> > > how far we've come...makes you chuckle when you think
> > >about it)...BTW,
> > > AquaClears ain't changed much...still gotta run em
> > >underwater to kill one
> > >
> > > -Boy has the aquatic stock in the LFS changed also...you
> > >could count on
> > > finding Firemouths, kuli loaches, severums, convicts,
> > >blue gouramis,
> > > et...seems our Swords and mollies have not only shrunk,
> > >they are sorrier to
> > > boot...anymore, you are lucky to find females amongst
> > >the "color enhanced"
> > > Asian import stuff..what gives? What's weirder is seems
> > >fish prices are
> > > "inflation proof"...sure discus are cheaper, but most of
> > >the "bread &
> > > butter" are still about 1-2 bucks
> > >
> > > Just offering up sumthin to ponder about (I'm currently
> > >stuck in "voice menu
> > > phone world", and typing this while I'm waiting
> > ><LOL>)...NTM, thought I'd
> > > jinx the list by discussing a few of our long lost
> > >protozoan friends...<LOL>
> > >
> > > Basically Friendly chat/rambling to stir the list
> > >lil...Ken
> > >
> > > Join the AKA at
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> >
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>
=== message truncated ===
John Nicholson
Caddo Mills, TX
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