OTC March, 2004

There's a new fangled invention being hyped in the trade magazines lately that made me revisit one of my age old prejudices. Over the years in retail, one of the items I always refused to carry in my store was painted fish. I had formed objections to these abominations on several fronts. Upon reading how these fish were created, my knee jerk reaction was "Ouch! Those poor fish!" (yes, even aquarium store owners occasionally anthropomorphize). When looking at all of the beautiful, naturally colored fish available without undergoing unnatural human "improvement", I thought "Where is the need to do that?", and when I had a customer react with disbelief and disdain upon hearing the fish they had bought at the 'mart didn't fade because it was sick, that the artificial color stripe had just worn off, I thought "is fooling the public and making them feel like chumps really good for business?" If you're reading this magazine, you probably know the proper answer to those questions.

OTC February, 2004

So, you've gone out and scrounged up the numbers you needed from last month's column, right? Well, do it now, then, and when you get them, this is how to use them. Again, remember this disclaimer, stated in anything but fine print: The numbers I am going to use in these examples are made up - they are not right. I will in fact be lazy and pick numbers that lend themselves easily to division, etc. As they say in textbooks, obtaining the actual numbers will be left as an exercise for the student.

January, 2004

Last month I started explaining one way to do the feasability study required to make a knowledgable decision on where or even if to start your own aquarium shop. Two forces prompted me to revisit this topic from years gone by - it is one of the main topics I tend to receive reader mail about, and in my wanderings, I continue to be disappointed in the quality of many of the stores offering tropical fish for sale. It is my hope that by taking some of the mystery out of the process, maybe some of you dedicated hobbyists that dream of owning your own store will decide to take the plunge, and the hobby will be better for it. Anyway,...

December, 2003

There was a common thread in some of the emails I received in response to the articles on used equipment and opening an aquarium store. It went something like this: "I was wondering if you would be willing to share what worked and what didn't with regards to opening a store. I too have more time than money. I am having sticker shock on store setup. I am looking at a 4,000 SQFT store, but initial store setup costs are in the range of $125,000 to $150,000. Wow." This particular writer showed he was on the right track by finishing with the request "Do you have any info or recommendations or a demographic calculator that I could use to see if my area can support another large fish store? Any info would be greatly appreciated."

Just realizing the need for a feasibility study before plunging into the unknown puts this person ahead of some folks I've talked to on this subject. I have dealt with folks who bet the farm on their love for fish and asked for help only after they were already committed and things were obviously not living up to their dream expectations. That he has done enough homework to actually have a handle on startup costs is good, although the estimate may even be light. When doing the background work for opening my first store in 1980, the cost per square foot to open a store was just over twenty dollars. Given 23 years of inflation, I'm not sure what today's cost is. In textbook fashion, that problem will be left as an exercise for the reader, but for now, let's assume the thirtysome dollars a foot is close, so he has a handle on what it costs to buy into the game.