best stores in Sacramento

[leakytank]

There goes another good report: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1194397

[wpnorton]

JoJo's has been a good store for me..although I walked out a few weeks ago when they acted like I wasn't there. Went to Aqua Workz and spent $250. Went back to JoJo's last weekend...they were very accommodating and provided good service...I spent $200 with them.

I've spent allot of time and money in O'street in past Years, but it's gone down hill recently. Prices are all over the map.

I refuse to hit Capital...Overpriced and bad service.

Exotic is hit and miss...You need to time the shipments. Prices are very competitive, hence heavily shopped making the inventory slim at times. They're hostage to their supplier too. Management has been very supportive and helpful. Unusual for a larg store.

Sea Splendor in Fairfield is just around the corner from me. I refuse to walk in the store unless it's an emergency. Rude, extremely high priced and selection is slim. I'd rather drive 45 miles to Elk Grove for snails.


With all that said. If I were a store owner, I'd be reading these threads religiously to keep tabs on what my CUSTOMER wants. IF I see that people are dissatisfied with service, I'm gonna fix it! We're not doing the LFS a disservice by being honest and OBJECTIVE about our experiences in their stores. Rather, It's a valuable tool for them to gauge their success. This Forum is like reading the other teams Playbook. Example.... The first time I went to JoJo's, they offered me something to drink and supplied free live brine shrimp with my purchase going out the door. They quickly becane #1 on my list. Second time...different guy working....I was invisible..Walked out after 15 minutes of being ignored. Third time, great service, spent money and given free frozen mysis shrimp out the door...Again in my good graces. They need to know what works and what doesn't. This forum is key to their success.

Another angle is that we support each other. If we have bad experiences, we talk to each other openly. That's a FORUM. Sharing of information to enrich our experience in the hobby. We learn from each others experiences both good and bad. We're big kids...We can weed out the BS and unreliable rants because someone was shorted a time at checkout. My .02 Cents

[GreshamH]

Do you really think LFS owners have the time to continually cruz the forums? I know Jon stops by on occiosion but most LFS owners simply do not have enough hours in the day to run thier business, let alone cruz forums.

Almost every store owner I know really doesn't like the forums. Things like group buys REALLY turn them off

[wpnorton]

Originally posted by GreshamH
Do you really think LFS owners have the time to continually cruz the forums?

I don't continually "Cruz the Forums" and I wouldn't expect that they do either. I work 11 hours a day maintain a home two kids, 3 fish tanks.ect.ect... everyones busy. Taking a few minutes (when you can spare it) to get a flavor of what their customers are saying. You bet I would think they can spare enough time for that. If they want to be succesfull...the keys right in front of their face...free of charge.

I'm also on the BMW M/C forums. You bet that every vendor out there is chiming in with advice and words of wisdom. The more they talk and are helpfull the more business they get from the members. Our most active forum member has a thriving business derived from forum/Club members. We respect his experience and opinion. I've spent more to buy from him just because of his relationship with the forum and club. IT's just smart business. If the LFS isn't reading, they should be.

[JeffReef]

Originally posted by wpnorton
Sea Splendor in Fairfield is just around the corner from me. I refuse to walk in the store unless it's an emergency. Rude, extremely high priced and selection is slim. I'd rather drive 45 miles to Elk Grove for snails.

This was the store that got me started on reefing back in 1994. I remember there was a sign on the display tank that says "Touch my tank, I'll break your face." Is the sign still there?

I have not visited Sea Splendor in years but Evan took care of me everytime I was there.

[wpnorton]

They got me started too. Evan was always helpfull. No the sign isn't there anymore...LoL! My problem with them is that the other employees act like your bothering them when you ask prices on unmarked items. I'm tired of feeling like I'm bothering them. I brought in a Large foxface that had outgrown my tank. I'd rather see him get adopted out than flush him so I took him in there. I thought they would give me a couple dollars store credit. Evan said they don't do that. He sold the next day for $40 bucks and they had the nerve to nickle and dime me on corals that same week. No discounts for volume buyers. IT just left a bad taste in my mouth after awhile. Like I said earlier...I'll drive to sac for fish now. It never crosses my mind to go there anymore.

(Evan......IF your reading this Brother .....A few minor adjustments and I'll be back dropping loads of cash in your store!!!)

[JeffReef]

Originally posted by wpnorton
They got me started too. Evan was always helpfull. No the sign isn't there anymore...LoL! My problem with them is that the other employees act like your bothering them when you ask prices on unmarked items. I'm tired of feeling like I'm bothering them. I brought in a Large foxface that had outgrown my tank. I'd rather see him get adopted out than flush him so I took him in there. I thought they would give me a couple dollars store credit. Evan said they don't do that. He sold the next day for $40 bucks and they had the nerve to nickle and dime me on corals that same week. No discounts for volume buyers. IT just left a bad taste in my mouth after awhile. Like I said earlier...I'll drive to sac for fish now. It never crosses my mind to go there anymore.

(Evan......IF your reading this Brother .....A few minor adjustments and I'll be back dropping loads of cash in your store!!!)

I hear you. This is the same reason why I don't visit "O" Street for corals. I'd rather look up the prices myself and not have to bother anyone. The worst part of it is that the quoted price varies depending on who you ask.

"O" Street have good prices on salt buckets and that's where I usually buy mine.

[jfred90]

Originally posted by JeffReef
This is the same reason why I don't visit "O" Street for corals. I'd rather look up the prices myself and not have to bother anyone. The worst part of it is that the quoted price varies depending on who you ask.

This is also why I will look elsewhere before I go to AquaWorkz. I bought a piece there and wanted to buy another exactly like it and was quoted a price 50% higher than I bought the first one for. Then they told me there was no way I had bought the first one from them for cheaper.

I've also got a price quoted by one person and when in later or the next day only to find out they want significantly more for it. It's very frustrating.

So when it comes to corals, I think I'll stick to places like Your Reef where the frags are sorted by price. I've never had any questions about what their pieces cost.

[KMP]

Do you really think LFS owners have the time to continually cruz the forums? LFS owners simply do not have enough hours in the day to run thier business, let alone cruz forums. Almost every store owner I know really doesn't like the forums.

Problem solved! No need to be so guarded, as LFS owners don't cruz/read/like the forums anyway

[natomasreefer]

Looks like this thread is dead, just when I showed up to read it!

It was terribly entertaining! Sheesh, drama drama! But that looks over now.... so for the most recent postings, I'd like to chime in:

I've been the owner of several companies, and I have found it VERY helpful to see what my ACTIVE and OBJECTIVE customers are saying. If I were a lfs owner, I would consider it part of my job to check out the local forums for an hour a day.

But a couple posts pointed out some valid issues about criticism: If you go once and hated it, don't even THINK about posting your opinion here... that's just silly. But if you have been there 3-4 times in the last 3-6 months, I'd say you have a pretty well rounded opinion of the general state of affairs of the store RECENTLY.

On the other hand, if you comment here about your negative experience, and you've only been there once, AND you mention that fact..... then most of us here (I would imagine) are smart enough to realize that such a comment isn't valuable, and we can just ignore it... versus taking it personal, or trying to 'correct' that individual.... the one or two people on here that would take such a comment and run with it, aren't really going to learn anything by someone else trying to correct that poster. (was that a little scattered?? sorry)

umm... one more thing, and this is probably where alot of people on here got stressed: I would imagine there are more than a few people on here that only go to ONE store, and live and die by that store... these people (I'm one of them) shouldn't really offer an opinion... cuz guess what?? They're opinions are almost as bad as if they were an employee of said store.

I ONLY go to exotic... but honestly I've only been to a couple other a couple times. I like Matt.... and I like the "cheers" feeling of showing up there, (..."where everybody knows your naaaame...") and I don't make enough money to frequent more than one shop and get that "Hey Norm!" feeling at ALL of them.

Newsflash: You get better deals at a particular shop the more you shop there!

Okay.... I'm done I think??

[surfsharkus]

agreed, Keep up the good work Matt! BTW (the tanks are doin great!)