What's your favorite LFS?

[turfgrass]

I like Lovely Pets in Quincy and Tropical Isle in Framighham. What's woould you consider the best? Who has good cheap LR?

[Armando]

I visited Tropical Isle for the first time today, to buy a cube tank. Very nice selection on tanks, equipment and fish. Store is well organized. I really wanted the cute little purple tang in the frag tank but he was not for sale.

[loomisreefer]

although it isnt local... CRA but aqua dreams isnt bad.. little pricey

[Scuba_Dave]

I'm not sure I have a favorite. Each has it's advantages. Quincy is on my way home. CRA is near my mother-in-laws...honey I'lll meet you there, I have one stop to make 1st :)
Inland Reef please get livestock in!! I can't wait!
Aqua Addicts, they had my Hippo, nice place to hang out
Skiptons, love that Mandarin

I haven't been shopping a lot, the next year should help me if I lean towards one or the other. But I plan on making the rounds
Forgive me if I left a store out...Stoneham.....Tropic Isle-bought fish there, clowns & puffer

[Chris Mu.]

LSOP

[Montec24]

CRA,
Aqua Addicts
Never been to Skiptons

[stang8s]

Chris Mu- question for you. I have only been to LSOP once and it was about 1 yr ago.. Wondering if this is still the same or not.. What turned me off about the store being a newbie at the time was. 1) nothing was labeled with names. 2) Every tank was just labeled. All corals in this tank between $x and $Y. Of course every one I asked about was Y. Including pulsing xenia!! (this was before i knew about BRS and was actually going to pay $ for xenia!)

[Chris Mu.]

did you go on a sunday? .. go when i am there there.. i'll hook you up .. we're changing for the better .. we dont mark the tanks beacuse its hard to keep all the corals seperated by the denmonations that we pay .. we'd need a bazillion tanks if we did it that way .. we added a whole new row with just live rock too !

well its not wrong to sell xenia .. lol for a small rock of it i'd charge like thiirty bux prolly .. but thats just cause we pay for it .. if you have it we give store credit on it .. bring in frags of it .. we dont have very much of it right now .. call b4 you do so we know to expect it .. call on a fri come down on a sat .. im there 9-9 fri and sat ..i'll be there all this week at wed and thurdsday till about 5 at least.. and fri-sat 9-9 ...give us another shot .. sorry one of the kids obviously wasnt being nice ...

[stang8s]

Thanks for the response Chris. I just felt that being new to the hobby at the time it would have been nice to see the names of corals and firm prices. Instead i got the feeling the kid was just making up whatever he wanted out of his head.. Not sure why it cant be like other stores where you write on the glass in front of each coral with a grease pencil.. "bubble coral $Y" "green brain $x"

I think you would sell more that way. I personally dont like buggin the sales person every time i want to know the price of something. Kind of takes away the impulse buyers.. I might not be looking for something in particular but if im browsing your tanks and see "galaxia $x" and it is a nice pc and price i may grab it.. But if i see "all corals this tank between $30 and $100" im not going to bother asking how much is this galaxia..

And its worse when your new and you dont even know the name. Now you have to ask "how much is that coral over there in that tank, you know in the back." and get the guy to come over so he can give you a price.. After asking about 2 or 3 you feel like a moron and just leave.. which is what i did. It was too much work pulling the guy away from the puppies to ask about a coral only to find out it was more the i wanted to spend on my 1st coral.

Just some helpful advice.

[Chris Mu.]

First off .. i get paid by the hour .. take all the time you need from me .. secondly .. we dont want people to impulse buy with corals .. you end up with alot of people buying stuff they dont know about or might not want later on.. Yeah .. im not to keen on the puppies .. And dnt feel bad about asking lots of questions .. i dont mind one bit .. point and ask .. thats how i learned .. i can tell you lots about pretty much every coral we have ...

[Scuba_Dave]

I have to agree w/stang. If the prices aren't on the tank, I almost never ask, and never buy

[etszoo]

Cool avatar Chris.

[stang8s]

imagine going into bestbuy and the sign on the huge tv wall said "all tvs between $29.99 and $1999.99. You see one that looks nice and get a salesguy over.. How much is this one? he sits there and is like ummm hmmmm yea that one oh yea that one is $1700.. How fast would you be out of that store..?

Not trying to bash the place,just giving a perspective..

[Chris Mu.]

i understand .. just we order from a variety of suppliers and we pay different amounts every week .. so we setup the store like that .. think of it as a huge coral yard sale ..there is some room for movement on price and if you buy more you can sometimes get better deals depending on what we paid . i usually know what i can do and try to be as fair as possible .. most people even on things that are marked ask the price .. cause they want a better deal .. personally most other places that i have gone .. thier marked prices are a little too high for my taste .. i think its funny what some of you pay in MASS fish and stuff are quite pricey there .. although i hear aqua attics is pretty fair .. And agian .. dont worry about taking our time .. thats what we are paid to do ... i gtg to work .. bbl tonight

[littlep93056]

sea creature n. prov. ri his prices are super

[moe_k]

Here are/were my favorites (in no particular order)....
Skiptons - it was so close to me when I lived in Southie, good to drop by and see Steve (Aquariumnut) and Leo (Greypet).

Inland - in the old location the outer portion of the store had such a fantastic aesthetic appeal. Nice to see tanks set up and running the way I always dreamed. The new place looks fantastic - cant wait for the fish room to open. Try and stump Matt with trivia. ;)

Aqua Addicts - so nice to drop by and have a beer with your pals. No stress, hang out, talk fish... "Oh you know what I need..." and eventually, "OK, I'll take that one."

Aqua Dreams - long ride, but nice store. Chris and Monkeyboy know their stuff. Some interesting and rare stuff.

CRA - another long drive for me. Good to get a look at the latest technology. Nice corals etc. The livestock is worth the drive.

I've not been to Living Sea. I may get out there some weekend soon.

[drmooncricket]

living sea... help is kind of short bus, but they try... j/k

but, i do feel like most of the days they lack inventory... need to spend money to make money...

[drmooncricket]

Chris... I do like your store and my friend Brian c. works there on Saturdays... u need to pass on that (1) no one is going to impulse buy on corals just because they have a price tag (2) I’m almost sure that in NH every product sold in a retail store is required by law to have a price tag, and it is regulated by the DOWM (3) labeling a tank with prices of corals ranging from x to y, and NOT having an x in that exact tank is called bait and switch, and is against the law in every state... but I do like your store, have for years... even in its old location...

[gumhead]

Favs... CRA, Aqua Addicts and inlandreef (god I hope they get live stock soon)


I'm with Jeff and Dave if theres no price on the item I will pass before having to ask. What is it market price??? LOL! I once (and only once) went to some guys shop (newly constructed shed next to his house) in Westboro. He had lots of tank and corals, nothing had a price marked. Everything I asked about he seemed to make up a price. No thanks! Price everything let me go in and decide for my self if I want to buy it, having to ask someone what everything cost is just a pain. I would just pass....

[stang8s]

LOL Dave! I got ALL My live rock and live sand from that guys shed.. He was going out of business and had nothing left but his show tank and rock. Gave me a good deal at the time. reefgar he called himself

[gumhead]

reefgar ya that was it! That guy was a jerk LOL

[redpaulhus]

CRA - bit of a drive for me but always worth it.

Skipton's - I love to go in and chat with Steve (aquariumnut)... shorter drive but I spend so much time yakkin with Steve I'm in there forever...

Inland - never been there, but I ordered my Remora and SCWD from them online ... awesome service, excellent prices

Uncle Ned's - mostly for the FW stuff...

Aquatic InXteriors (Stoughton Ma) - new store with tremendous "upside" - kinda like a rookie in the Pats secondary - they may become elite or may get cut - too soon to know yet...

CRA and Skiptons tend to be the stores I send people to (unless they live way up north, then I send them to Inland...)

[turfgrass]

redpaulhus,

Agree with the Stoughton comment. They need to lower their prices. I've been there twice and I was the only one there.

[turfgrass]

Where are these places? Skiptons, CRA, Inland and Aqua Addicts? Thanks

[Chris Mu.]

DrMoonCricket

i dont think its bait and switch .. we dont present a price and charge you more .. if we priced everything still no one would pay the price .. that happens n many places . if you go to the car dealer and they mark a price you can beat em down ..

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff52660.htm

we dont present a price then charge you more .. thats what bait and switch is .. jsyk

the definition

"Bait and Switch Pricing - advertising an item at an unrealistically low price as "bait" to lure customers to a store or selling place and then attempting to steer them to a higher-priced item."

if you want to know the price jsut ask .. we arent trying to screw with your head ... i really dont care what you buy i dont get anyhting for it .. we have more than fair prices on all of our stuff .. things at our store would be twice the price in other stores .. even petco is more expensive on some fish ..

im not mad just have to defend the store .. been there 10 years its a part of me so i must say something in defense.. heh heh

[Kevk]

Little Shop of Pets Best quality, cheapest LPS, you do have to ask the price, but I'm always happy.
Inland Reef
Fish Nook in acton, very small place, limited selection, but he holds all fish for about two weeks before he sells it.
Tropic Ilse and Seaworld have a great selection of fish but............
Only went to Aqua Addicts once, the day before stocking. I haven't been to CRA or Skiptons.

[Chris Mu.]

i'd like to hit up some other stores some time .. i'l lhave to go on a field trip with you freaks sometime ... I prolly know most of you anyhow .. honestly i've never been to anywhere other than my place and petco/pet quaters .. i've never had a reason too.. im working on ordering more sps and things that we dont normally have ..Or.. find me some investors and i will open my own shop, and i'll actually carry stuff people want ...

[peacock79]

:furious:

[stang8s]

Originally posted by Chris Mu.
DrMoonCricket

i dont think its bait and switch .. we dont present a price and charge you more .. if we priced everything still no one would pay the price .. that happens n many places . if you go to the car dealer and they mark a price you can beat em down ..

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff52660.htm

we dont present a price then charge you more .. thats what bait and switch is .. jsyk

the definition

"Bait and Switch Pricing - advertising an item at an unrealistically low price as "bait" to lure customers to a store or selling place and then attempting to steer them to a higher-priced item."

if you want to know the price jsut ask .. we arent trying to screw with your head ... i really dont care what you buy i dont get anyhting for it .. we have more than fair prices on all of our stuff .. things at our store would be twice the price in other stores .. even petco is more expensive on some fish ..

im not mad just have to defend the store .. been there 10 years its a part of me so i must say something in defense.. heh heh

If a tank is marked "all corals this tank $29.99 to $99.99" and there are no $29.99 corals in that specific tank, that is bait and switch like Drmoon said. Sorry but its true.

[seasno]

In no particular order....
CRA....great variety and pricing on both live stock and hard goods
Aqua Addicts.....nice guys to hang and chat with if you hit the store when it isn't packed. Get ther quick...the weekly specials don't last long!
Inland Reef......top notch products ....really miss the tanks Matt, can't wait to see them back.
LSOP...nice ride over to the seacoast, usually have some different items, but I agree with the others....price the stock....maybe the intent isn't there to rip folks, but it does give you the feel.... like to visit and buy from all of them because they are all different.

[Scuba_Dave]

hmmmmmmmmm Chris Mu has moved on....

[gumhead]

What the????

Why? They banned him????