Posted by Schmev on March 10, 2003 at 00:46:33:
In Reply to: Another sad fish store story posted by lacie143 on March 08, 2003 at 00:00:16:
:For once this isnt about mistreatment, its about commercialization.... A wonderful new petstore-predominatly fish- opened up very near my house... the two owners, were a married couple, who i assume, opened the store as an early retirment venture. They just found out that a petco AND a petsmart are going to be opening within two miles of them... I'm very sad because they are such nice people, the store is gorgous and very clean... it never stinks! I hate petsmart and petco because you have to wait hours on end for service and they never have anything. I like to have an idea of where my animals come from... anyway, they have decided to close and cut their losses before the big bullies squeeze them off the bench. It really is sad because they said they were doing very very well, there was no competion in the area and they were happy... even if they had been a well know place open for many years they still would have had trouble making it... lacie
I make it a habit to shop exclusively at a "local" store a half hour from my house. Sure, I probably spend ten bucks of gas and an hour of my time just driving round trip, but the owners and employees are the greatest pet people I've ever met. Every one of them has a nice aquarium or two, and therefore have experience, a crucial factor for me. The level of service this store provides is above and beyond the call of duty and really makes the extra effort spent to drive there worth the visit. We have a Pet Supply Outlet a couple of miles from me, but their tanks almost always have some small amount of Ick in a minimum of one third of the tanks. I think it sucks that in the end it seems like there will only be a handful of huge retailers to serve us, and the occasional specialty niche store giving us the service and quality we expect for our pets.
