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[APD] (no subject)



Jerry Baker wrote...

...<snip> 
I'm going to vent some frustration here...


<RANT>
Man, you'd think living in the second largest metropolitan area in the 
United States would allow you access to supplies more easily than most. 
You'd be wrong if you thought that. I have already written here about 
the total lack of availability of substrate material here, and written 
about the fact that it has taken me a grand total of 4 months to get a 
satisfactory aquarium stand for a standard 125-gallon tank. Well, 
having 
just purchased a conductivity meter, I figured I would get some 
calibration solution. Have you ever tried to buy calibration solution 
for a conductivity meter? First, not one fish store within a twenty 
mile 
radius sells it. There were about a half dozen who obviously struggle 
with English and told me they carried it only to have it turn out that 
it was pH calibration solution when I got there. I have spent the last 
two hours contacting every single yellow page listing for chemical and 
laboratory supply companies in the Los Angeles basin. I found exactly 
*one* that sells a conductivity reference solution -- it's 45 miles 
away 
and only open during my work hours. Most won't sell to the public 
because "government regulation," as they put it. I can purchase 
potassium chlorate (a component of plastic explosives) online, but they 
claim they can't sell me salt water. I'm going to have to buy it from 
the manufacturer and pay $2.50 for a small bottle and $7 to ship it.
</RANT> 

....</snip>...

Jerry,

I too share your frustration - however on a slightly different level.  
I am just into my 3rd year in the fish industry as a career choice.  I 
can tell you that here in the detroit area - also a fairly sizeable 
metro area AND a pretty big fishkeeping market - we expierence many of 
the same issues as hobbiests and also as businesses (but on a supply 
chain basis).

  Many of those speciality items that we're all searching out just 
arent available through standard supply chain routes.  We're constantly 
searching for many MANY items that our customers (and us) would like to 
have on our shelves. Our current base is about 23-25 UNIQUE suppliers 
that we use regularly and we can STILL have problems acquiring a lot of 
the little (and sometimes big) things that we search for.  Just a small 
example - Flourish Iron.  Yes... something that simple - yet all our 
sources were out of this product for almost 3 weeks and we had to have 
an entire case drop shipped from seachem (THANKS Greg and Crew @ 
Seachem!) just so we could put stock back on the shelf.

I guess we should all be thankful that we at least have the internet to 
track some of this stuff down or we probably wouldnt be able to get it 
at all sometimes.

Just my $0.02 USD :)

-- 

-Berne Kairunas
Aquatic Plant Specialist
Choice Aquariums Sales Team

PS - <--- this is what part of the alphabet would look like if we got 
rid of 'Q' and 'R' ;)
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