FirecrackerBob's Store

SerranidTerror · #1 02/26/2007, 08:33 PM

There...a place to post ideas.

firecrackerbob · #2 02/26/2007, 10:30 PM

...LOL....

kaptken · #3 02/27/2007, 03:08 AM

how about a part time weekend store at one of the farmers markets?

gillianandjoe · #4 02/27/2007, 07:02 AM

I'll work part time, but I need $35/hr. Oh, and no weekends!

:-)

firecrackerbob · #5 02/27/2007, 08:50 AM

One step at a time.......

As things go right now, im pretty swamped with my Real Estate busienss and test engineer work. I truly love being involved in the Real Estate profession, but I think the coming years are going to be alot slower than previous.... so I have begun tinkering with a few other business ideas....

I have also developed over the years a major interest in coral proagation. We will see where it leads to. I have taken step 1 though-- I may have mentioned to some that I have a 120g fresh right now that I would like to eventually convert to a reef. A big hurdle for me to get it going is the price of livestock. So what I have setup is a small propagation unit-55g that I had sitting empty- I plan on fragging and growing out my current livestock then trading around to diversify.... we will see what happens. The setup I have going right now is a pretty low budget one, but if it works out I have plans to continually expand and reinvest in the project... With the prices of zoo frag packs that some people are readily paying on this site I think there is some real potential. We will see I guess....

As I was discussing in my post in Pumps thread though, I do believe there is some real potential for a LFS to come into the northern DE area and take the lead... im not sure exactly what it would look like-- if it would be better to go big like a tax free TPP, a super small place with minimal goods as a storefront for a mainly internet frag site, or the normal mom and pop size place that seems to dominate the hobby... I could make arguments for the first two, the third seems to be most common, but I would agrue that a store should be at least ECA or exotic aquatic size with some impressive display tanks to get people really hooked... GOOD customer service being key though.

Ok... enough rambling. The coffee is starting to kick in..
Eric

SerranidTerror · #6 02/27/2007, 09:00 AM

LOL, Bob I hope you didn't think I was picking on you with this thread. Just thought that would be a weird and quirky name for a store. I figure we could use this thread for ideas or just generally noting what we like or dislike about stores. No need to bash stores in here, just say hey, I hate it when...[example] or I love it when a store [example].

Another bit of advice I'd give on starting at store is that you'll be hard pressed to be able to do a store that is run by a bunch of hobbyists doing it on the side. The most sucessful stores have the owner very much involved in running the store, they are usually there, cleaning, watching over everything, and working with people like me and distributor reps to get good pricing and set up store events. Theres also a mix of stores in the way of who runs/owns them as well. You have your business/entrepeunuer (someone get this man a dictionary!) type, who actually generally does well in this business (I can already hear you guys forming comments about this one!), you've got your strict hobbyist who relies on their knowledge of the hobby to get them through, and this generally has mixed results (again there are always exceptions, and I can site a bunch in this case.) and then there are the in-betweeners, and these guys or gals generally do the best. The one reason it can be tough to deal with a hobbyist store owner (again please, i'm not saying its all, the vast majority, or anything like that) is they can be very stubborn. They'll assume a new product just will not work, period, or since they don't like a particular product they won't carry it, despite a boatload of customers wanting it and using it sucessfully and happily.

The other problem you may run into with having soooo many with their hand in decision making is that you are going to have conflicting ideas on how things should be done, and thats always going to be trouble.

One thing I know you guys got going for you is that you all are very knowledgeable on what you do. I would say it'd be safe to assume you guys would give decent advice to your customers (cept for KaptKen, we would keep him around for amusement! Ha! Just kidding buddy!)

I don't know what does everyone have to say? Lets keep discussing, thats what the forum is for!

mech0522 · #7 02/27/2007, 06:31 PM

i like all your ideas and want to the same in the next comin years but southern de do you know anyone i can call to get prices on dry goods ???

firecrackerbob · #8 02/27/2007, 08:36 PM

Id say your best bet for now is that pet place... they have a sale coming up in a few weeks actually... check out thatpetplace.com

kaptken · #9 02/27/2007, 11:55 PM

No problem ST.
we all have our own styles. I guess mine is simple is good as long as it dont cost too much. I like simpler filtration and lower cost lighting if possible and when i can get it to work. but then i see what some people do with all the latest high tech equipment and get excited about that style too.

so i guess a good store will have an array of the usual suspects like staples, consumables. perhaps bulk carbon to buy by the pound. IO salt and perhaps my favorite MEI lower cost salt. a practical selection of good lamps. VHO, PC, and DE AND SE MHs. with a couple of those ARO VHO kits, and DE halide kits for the DIYer or emergency replacements. all high performance, low cost sets. pumps, and filters. and a display of sumps and some tanks. with ability to custom order . a small compact store. with not more than 30 tanks for coral, critters and fish.

rather than have the same boring set of shrooms, candy canes, nemos and doris, or try to stock every species in the sea all the time, have a varried selection from week to week and seasons. with seasonal specials for tank cleanup critters when they are in season. stuff like that. when selections change regularly, I know I'm more likely to drop by each week to browse and shop. Make it like fishing in the sea. there's a season for each species. You can't catch all the types of fish off shore here 12 months of the year. they come and go with the season.

SerranidTerror · #10 02/28/2007, 08:45 AM

Ken's got the right idea on livestock (imho). Don't go overboard with all the exotics, as your gunna get stuck with a lot of these for a long time possibly and risk losing some money if you can't give them the care needed. However a lot of places make the mistake of only carrying the bread and butter stuff. You need to get the right balance in, I too like to go around and scope out fish rooms and see whats new. The key is to bring in customers on a regular basis, the more you bring them and and the longer you keep them there, the more likely they will buy something.

Actually for anyone looking to read something interesting, read "Why we buy:the science of shopping" by Paco Underhill. Its a pretty good book and just amazed me at just how much the shopping behavior has been studied.

Keep the convo up guys

One thing I never did was start keeping a notebook with all my ideas for the store I wanted to open. Thats a good way to do it.

I really wanted to go all out and open a big store. One idea I liked was having a computer or two in the store where customers could access information on livestock to see what they are compatible with and what care they need. I used to visit pet shops in Hawaii and have a whole stack of books in the truck incase I ran into something new and wanted to do some quick research. I got tired of coming home after skipping out on something only to come home and figure out I could have taken care of it or the price was a steal, or heck even vice versa-i.e. fish is tough to take care of or something like that.