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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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