New Fish Store
 

Someone was asking me about locations for a possible new store in town, so I thought that I would talk to the masses. Here are a couple different possibilities:

Golf Links and Pantano
Escalante and Kolb
Plumber and Broadway


I know that a lot of us are from the northwest side of town, so I don't know how these areas will fare. In my opinion we could use something up here.

I vote Ina and thornydale

2nd the motion

I agree with gary

I am looking at a 2nd location on the NW side, and eventually Chandler for long term goal. I am remodeling the shop now and once thats done on to the next idea...........

Marrana, Ina is hot, get out of Tucson for less sales tax and restrictive ordinances. Ina and Thornydale area has some low rent sites with good access.

Zach, if you run the store, it won't matter where it is, I'll come:D

Hell,. you can put it in Green Valley, those ol timers need a reef shop! :p

Hey now im 15min away from green valley lol.

I like the idea of an east side or southeast shop. And wouldn't that be more convenient for the Sierra Vista folks?

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7566990#post7566990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kscrimshaw [/i]
[B]I like the idea of an east side or southeast shop. And wouldn't that be more convenient for the Sierra Vista folks? [/B][/QUOTE]

For that matter, maybe Benson? :D

We thought about opening a shop in Oro Vally area, but wasn't sure on what kinda need there was for that area, + the rent was killer. So we ended up opening a coffee house instead. better this way more of a steady income.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7567838#post7567838 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AZreefkeeper [/i]
[B]We thought about opening a shop in Oro Vally area, but wasn't sure on what kinda need there was for that area, + the rent was killer. So we ended up opening a coffee house instead. better this way more of a steady income. [/B][/QUOTE]

preach!

So coming from Ca. where does one go to get quality corals and fish in the Tucson area?

I've seen a few stores where quality and pricing don't match. No names will be given, I think most can figure that out for themselves.

Anyone know of any nice stores like the ones in Phoenix.

New store in town
 

AMEN to an east side store! I'm not sure how much success you would have at Golf Links/Pantano as there is not much around there. The rent would be decent and there is easy access. Both the Golf Links and Kolb road option will catch the Rita Ranch, Vail, and perhaps Corona de Tucson people. I don't know what the rent would be, but the new lease spaces at Pantano and
Broadway, behind Yokahama Rice Bowl will catch lots of traffic. Remember that Petco is coming in on Spanish Trail by Target. By the way, did I mention AMEN to an east side store?:)

[QUOTE]Anyone know of any nice stores like the ones in Phoenix.[/QUOTE]

Vince, I think the problem is that the market in Tucson is not even 1/3 of that in Phoenix. Tucson has about 1/5 the quantity of stores and even still, whenever I visit the local shops they are rarely busy. The phx stores always have people in them and each store has about 5 employees or more working at any given time.

With this in mind, I think the shops here do a fair job with price and selection, but are defineatly limited by the lack of business.

Another observation: 4 years ago when I drove up to PineTop for an annual fishing trip their was a new saltwater fish shop in town. I was excited and stopped in. The store was small, but nice. Nowhere nere the selection of Tucson stores, but prices were good. The next year when I went up there, it was closed.

I think the hobbyists/customers dictate the quality of stores. That is why Phoenix is better than Tucson and California is better than Phoenix.

So, if we truly want better stores in Tucson, we need to recruit more hobbyists.

Well scott,

I dont have to wait for stores in tucson. Ill be moving to PHX in less than 2 months. And now am looking for ppl to hold my corals and fish lol.

~Brian

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7571894#post7571894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cerreta [/i]
[B]

So, if we truly want better stores in Tucson, we need to recruit more hobbyists. [/B][/QUOTE]


Ain't that the truth...

Scott, Mike
I am all for recruiting more customer for the local stores. Like you said the customer base is not quite here. I am sure most of the shops survive on serviceing systems and not overall retail sales.

I get alot of people asking me where they can get a system like the one in my shop, unfortunetly most are just curious and are not really serious about getting one. Especially after I tell them the cost involved.

I just PM a reply to Rob from SWsaltwater. I think he is doing things right as far as asking for customer feedback. I have not been in that store for about 4-5mos. and I quess he is the new owner, I really hope he can clean it up.

So where are the good stores? I guess I will have to go to Phoenix or like I told my wife I will just fly to CA and do my shopping......
Vince

This is not a cut at present LFS owners. I have been here Sierra Vista/Tucson since 73, in the 80-90's we had great, cutting edge stores, then divorce and cut throat broke them up. Tucson has always been stone age for fresh water, no imagination. With Salt water, I can not talk about Rob's store since his remodel, but the general market is unimagnative, softies, mushrooms and my favorite the "ACANS"( an artificial market simular to what DeBeers does for diamonds ). No real SPS, Calcium Reactors, MH, some are still recomending canster filters. If a LFS came along and carried the newer trend items and educated people about SPS, and newer methods the people would come out. I quit going around because after a few weeks I know what they get in so why bother. then theres my other favoite LFS that I quit going to about 3 years ago with the $55 cleaner shrimp, they carried SPS but it would have been cheaper to fly to California. Zach, you were always open to take a chance, hope you jump back in, but remember its 28 hours a day 8 days a week. You and Rob might pull it off, if you open close but not too close to him, so folks can get out weekly and see what each of you got in. Thornydale and Ina please.

Hey, what about the east side? In 18 months I've gotten 3 people to start up salt water tanks, all east side! And my friend in Marana's thinking about it. The stores here will order anything I might need, and will take the time to help me, also. I think they don't carry newer or pricier items because so many people order those things online. Plus, we don't have to live in Phoenix of Cali- all in all a sweet deal, I think.

I can think of two different stores that have opened and closed on the East side of town. One was on Speedway and Craycroft, and the other was on Speedway and columbus I believe. Not sure if location or owners caused their demise, but East has already had their chance, and you have Southwest which is more East than North.

Dont do SW side. Only 2 reef ppl that i know of and not a good area.

A store with a knowledgeable staff, good selection and fair prices, it wouldn't matter where in Tucson it was. I would drive 2 hrs. all over So. Calif. on some weekends just to see what I could find.

In CA, just because there are stores, doesn't mean you actually want to go to them. Be it selection, service or cruddy systems, these are the reasons for going to the store. It really doesn't matter that Phoenix has more stores and they do, but if you read the frag forum you discover that the talk always returns to the same 4 stores for the most part. Aquarium Arts, About The Reef, Aquatouch, and occasionally Ocean Arts. The rest of the stores do get mentioned, but it is usually for a sale on drygoods or the bad selection. As recently as 1 year ago there were 6 or 7 stores that were dealing with saltwater to some extent. Now there are 3 that are purely salt and the rest are chain stores for the most part. Who knows the true reasons why they left the business, they just did. We can continue to support the stores that are still here, or not. It is your personal choice.
As to the stocking of drygoods/SPS, the stores can barely compete profitably with the on-line retailers, and they will never be able to stock as many lines as the on-line guys. It is silly to think they would or should. The cost of that equip would tie up so many dollars on the shelves, we would end up complaining about their lack of selection or cheap selection. Ask Zack about buying large quantities of SPS. I think you may find the answers to your lack of SPS retailing.

Also, please be aware that Scott at ATR also acts as a wholesaler as well as a retailer. This allows him more leeway in terms of variety of drygoods.