Crappy retailers

[Parzival]

I popped into a pet store in League City this morning and saw three blue discus (about 2.5-3") crammed into a murky 10-gallon tank. I think they wanted $45 each for them. Every tank in the place had filthy glass, murky water, and little to no filtration, save for a few that had canisters or HOB's... It was sadness. I wish I could have rescued them!

[ScorpiosWife]

We have one here in Tomball like that. Filthy tanks, fish not moving around, some dead. I stopped in a few months ago to see if anything had changed but it hadn't. It sad & it happens a lot all around town.

[mistahoo]

Re: Crappy retailers

Yup. Some people are just in it for the money and they don't care. Sadly, I'm glad we have so many stores in Houston, crappy or not. Compared to Louisiana where there's only one or two stores within a stretch of cities and those are crappy. Makes you think how lucky we are.

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[Andy Bauman]

I'm guilty of not buying locally. I know I should but buying from mail order or friends seems to work for me. Feel kind of guilty as some stores are struggling. However it keeps my temper from flaring. I'm not into anything special, rare or costly. Keep mainly freshwater popular types and do some travelling by car. That helps not having to deal locally as an only resort. Houston as a big city does have a lot of choices thought. Too bad they are not all good. I've never picked a favorite store so no store owners really know me. Maybe if I gave one all my business there would be some benefit. As it stands, I just bounce from here to there doing my own thing. It is sad to see a great fish such as a discus being treated as you describe. Kind of a waste as they probably will die rather then go to a hobbyist who would take good care of them and enjoy them.

[fshfrk]

I'm guilty of not buying locally. I know I should but buying from mail order or friends seems to work for me. Feel kind of guilty as some stores are struggling. However it keeps my temper from flaring. I'm not into anything special, rare or costly. Keep mainly freshwater popular types and do some travelling by car. That helps not having to deal locally as an only resort. Houston as a big city does have a lot of choices thought. Too bad they are not all good. I've never picked a favorite store so no store owners really know me. Maybe if I gave one all my business there would be some benefit. As it stands, I just bounce from here to there doing my own thing. It is sad to see a great fish such as a discus being treated as you describe. Kind of a waste as they probably will die rather then go to a hobbyist who would take good care of them and enjoy them.

We have some great stores in this city. Houston Aquarium Warehouse and City Pets are my favorites. A couple of others are legit too. I can't go in the *hitty stores. It's depressing...

[crazy42bmx]

I travel around to all the shops. Its fun really. U get to socialize with the people and make friends. The workers begin to know you and become vey helpful when u need something or trying to locate an odd part or fish. Yea some shops are more pricey than other or not as impressive. But the retail market is tough and at least we are fortunate in Houston to have as many good shops as we do.

[Andy Bauman]

I have to agree there! I sure would not want to try and make it in the fish business myself. What makes it tough sometimes is people get into a business along the lines of their hobby. Many times they know nothing about how to run a business. That can be a brutal experience and learning curve. I can imagine the overhead costs and stock costs are outrages too. There would so many things to stock, you could spend a lot of money before taking in a dollar. I'm sure the economy with a lot of people out of work doesn't help either. At least employment in Houston is doing pretty good. I think making a living in any hobby would be kind of tough.

[fshfrk]

I have to agree there! I sure would not want to try and make it in the fish business myself. What makes it tough sometimes is people get into a business along the lines of their hobby. Many times they know nothing about how to run a business. That can be a brutal experience and learning curve. I can imagine the overhead costs and stock costs are outrages too. There would so many things to stock, you could spend a lot of money before taking in a dollar. I'm sure the economy with a lot of people out of work doesn't help either. At least employment in Houston is doing pretty good. I think making a living in any hobby would be kind of tough.

Yup, I agree 100%. But some stores are Hobby friendly. Others are Newbie oriented.

Not taking advantage of newbies and making money of of us pro's, I will give the hobby stores my money every time.

[charles-n-charge]

I don't have any real fish stores out where I live.

The Fish Keeper is the closest store to me, and it's an hour away, all the way in Humble.
Sadly, it's also a very crappy store with the worst customer service and treatment I've ever seen.

[digitallinh]

Yep, there are many stores here in Houston, but it's probably a product of being in the 4th largest city in the nation as opposed to luck. Having a significant Asian population sure doesn't hurt either. I am guilty of doing a Southwest Houston LFS (city pets, gallery, ranch) circuit at least once a week.

I feel bad (both as a fellow small business owner, and nice person) for many of the stores in and around Houston, mainly because what started out as a decent idea 10-15 years ago has been torpedoed by Amazon.Inc. Who can beat 2 day free shipping and 30% price reduction? Now just wait until they build brick and mortar storefronts to accept returns....

Either way, merchandise and maintenance services drive more profit/margin than livestock (primarily because they don't die), so I personally try to buy as much equipment as I can locally, even if it costs much more and is less convenient (imagine buying something locally being less convenient!) Paying 160 for a 2217 instead of 120 on amazon? Flushing a weak fish instead of going back for a refund? Sure if it helps our local economy. What's this money concept, and we can make more right??

I also don't think they're only in it for the money, because well... if they were, would it not be obvious that they clean their tanks! This is like owning a restaurant and not cleaning the restrooms, because if these people don't care to clean the restrooms where customers frequent, I wonder how the places we never see look!

a more likely scenario is that many of these stores are either understaffed and bleeding (outside of their profitability window, and waiting out their lease while recouping what they can), or they simply don't care for selling livestock. Or as someone above stated, they don't know how to run a business.