[Pandora]

I didn't read all the pages of replies... but on price hiking & gouging, I agree with this to some point. I can say though, that having worked for an LFS, there is a large overhead to running a store such as this--because you keep livestock, there is more cost than just your typical brick and mortar store. Large energy bills for heating, circulating, and lighting the water. Most of your stock is not going to have much of a long shelf life. Some of this cost is passed on to the hardware and non-live goods, and in exchange you get a human being who is able to talk you through the process and answer your questions in person (how good this advice turns out to be varies considerably from place to place). The live animals are the "draw" that brings people into the store, but typically not what bring in the profits, so many times equipment prices are raised to compensate, in exchange for a personal touch when customers need human interaction.

Personally, now that I'm more experienced, I can do a lot of online shopping and get free answers from trusted friends or people here on RC. But not all newbies are familiar with the resources out there, or may be shy and want personal attention with someone in real life to guide them (again, the quality of that advice is not the same everywhere).

I can say that running an LFS is far from a get-rich-fast-scheme and that making good money at it is far from easy because of the other costs involved. I have seen several LFS go out of business in my area, sometimes in the course of a few months; the owner of the one I used to work for has had his store for more than a decade (maybe 2 now?) which is rare, but even he struggles quite a bit to make ends meet. This business certainly didn't make him a millionaire.