Re: [Killietalk] Fish hobby in general

[ROBERT ELLERMANN <ruevenm at sbcglobal_net>]

Hi Bill,
   
       I agree that the hobby when compared to years past looks iffy. But we are no longer talking about the US alone. The hobby is international and the rest of the world has expectations that might indirectly aid us. The hobby is newer in those places than it is here and seems to have taken a place along side other serious hobbies. Maybe the day of the all-purpose shop are gone and maybe a large city will only have a few -- or even one --TRULY specialist aquarium stores but I think other hobbies function just fine in such conditions. Plus, there is the Internet. It seems to have taken over some functions of shops. Consumers may no longer need a mom and pop shop. As far as products, maybe the selection will go down but then do we really need 25+ filter choices or 30 brands of basic flakes? A little selectivity might actually help the hobby in the long run. Look at the growth of the saltwater section of the hobby or the aquarium installation business for that matter.
 Aquabid has probably spread more rare fish around than the specialty societies or even the LFS. If the interest dies then the hobby will die but I don't know if fewer small scale stores means trouble. Before WWII the hobby was concentrated in the NY/NJ/PA area and maybe CA and Chicago/Midwest. People ordered from the big mail order firms -- Aquarium Stock, Beldt's, Eastland, etc... Florida farms were small, Asian farms didn't exist and Paramount Aquarium and Aquarium Hamburg pretty controlled the import business. Those are considered the golden days of the hobby and the scale was much smaller than today and with only a few large players. Probably the best thing that could happen to the hobby would be to convice Discovery Channel or the like to do a series on aquarium keeping around the world. It always amazes me that National Geographic has never done a program on annual fishes -- its a natural -- but nothing. Who knows, maybe Nature is about to make a comeback as a hobby.
   
  Bobby

Bill Shenefelt <william_shenefelt at verizon.net> wrote:
  I think most people are starting to see it now, but in case you have not, 
the aquarium hobby is in trouble. Local small shops are dieing. The big 
Petsmart, Wal-Mart Petco etc are dealing directly with the major 
manufacturers. The middle man is getting cut from the picture. (Just ask 
Ray Lucas-Kingfish services) A big outfit can sell an item for less than 
the local shop can buy it for. Sure, great for hobby prices, right? Sort 
of, but not for long. A small private company is in need of profit but not 
always solely profit driven. They like what they do and if the profit is 
reasonable they keep going. A big company owned by stockholders is only 
interested in maximizing profit. If one item is not as profitable as 
another, they dump the item and go to a new line of goods. A fair analogy is 
a company called Heathkit. They were a great little company selling all 
sort of electronic kits. They got bought out by a bigger outfit and 
eventually were bought by Zenith. They were told "no more TV R&D. Sell kit 
forms of our product ,period" soon they disappeared completely. This is 
where we are headed. Once the big outfits find that profit is bigger in 
dogfood (safe stuff I hope) they will cut, cut and finally dump aquarium 
supplies and fish to make more room for dogfood, and an in-house vet, 
dogsitting etc. All the small shops will be gone by then and the hobby will 
be extremely limited in available products. ( A neat example is a friend 
who owns a local shop got a call from the local Wal-Mart asking if he wanted 
to buy out their fish stuff. They could not even wait till they killed him 
to get profits from fish. ) Small shops today still try to keep a few 
unusual fish to draw in customers, if only to look. Petsmart could care 
less. They guarantee their fish since if they die, you will be back and they 
have data that shows every customer spends an average of almost $20 if they 
just walk in. So they are more than happy to replace a fish that cost them 
about 10 cents if they can get $15 or $20 from you. I am not talking about 
that specific firm, just the big companies in general. Wal-Mart first kills 
competition, then thins out their outlets and will eventually increase 
prices. But with fish, they may just dump fish since that is not as 
profitable as other things that can use the floor space. The personal 
attention you get at a small shop (assuming a good one) as well as fish will 
no longer be there. We as killiekeepers do not use a ton of equipment 
compared to the hobby in general but this is food for thought.

A similar analogy for us is in imports and new fish acquisitions. If nobody 
will bid high on new fish the local club brings in for either a National or 
a Local show to help at least cover the acquisition cost, they JUST WILL 
STOP COMING IN! See ya at the National and don't forget to bring out your 
fish and bid and support the local club sponsor. Remember fish you get 
there have FREE postage! I don't have many fish to bring this year but will 
have saved up some $ from retirement checks and I will be fishroom buying 
and bidding.

Most important though, be prepared to have a great time!

Bill Shenefelt
http://sheneskillies.com 


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