Now this was interesting

[stephish]

I purchased the rest of my lr yesterday at the lfs and as always they bagged it with water and put it in a styro and then in cardboard. I got home and went to unpack it and discovered I had an extra hitchhiker, the packing list and invoice for the order they had received 2 days prior.
fish get an impressive mark up over cost!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by stephish
I purchased the rest of my lr yesterday at the lfs and as always they bagged it with water and put it in a styro and then in cardboard. I got home and went to unpack it and discovered I had an extra hitchhiker, the packing list and invoice for the order they had received 2 days prior.
fish get an impressive mark up over cost!
Well what did you get?lol

 

[greymach]

give us an example of what you saw. im curious

 

[mandarin w]

I can tell you, it is quite a high mark up. But then consider that many of the fish they get, doesn't make to the sell. Then think about the water and electric bill they have. Rent on the building, insurance they got to have, just incase you slip on a wet spot. Employee if they have any. Then they have to have a profit. That is how they make their lively hood, so they need money to take home so they can pay their house payment, car payment, feed thier kids. Now you get the ideal of the mark up on the fish.

 

[bronco300]

plus any loss in their order they have to just suck it up usually......this isnt livegoods, but we sel maxijet powerheads for 19.95(the 1200)...now i just went to another lfs around here, some uncle and saw the same pump for 43! now you know our store has to make some money at least...just think what they are making.

 

[cannonman]

I understand their need to make money but I'm still curious as to specific examples of their cost of fish*

 

[chipmaker]

Yea, clue us in. I know the lfs here doe snot get all that many customers in or at least not all that many to suport what it costs to operate the place, pay two or three emoployee wages, live inthe ultra high rent district, go on two weeks vacation to the bahamas 3x a year and spend the majority of the winter months out in the rockies skiing or in the Swiss Alps, put three kids through private schools and drive high end vehicles........so what are those prices......My guess to do what this lfs owner I described above does, they pay him to take their fish for them.....thats about the only way I can see how he can do what he does.........But one thing is correct. There is a heap of differences in prices between shops. A CSS 65 sells for $210 in one shop here and $90 in the other. Maxijet1200 for $51 @ one shop and $24 in the other......Blue Neon Gonby $30 at one and $15 in the other.......hmmmmmmmmmmmm, nope no such thing as brand or dealer dedication with so much a varied spread of prices as there is in this town bewtween theonly two shops in town.. MAkes one wonder.

 

[stephish]

When I posted the original thread the hitchhiker was the invoice. Now I'm thinking I have another one that I don't know what it is.....I'll start another thread over in the newbie section.
I definitely understand that they're in business to make a bit of money and pay their bills! The owner told me the other day that their electric bill is what really costs them.
I don't want to post the wholesale of anything that is currently on swf.com so I'll give you a couple of examples that I don't see on here. Although, swf.com is less expensive than my lfs so the examples don't really apply to them anyway.
They had a gorgeous ultra colored saddle anemone that had come in with the shipment 2 days beforehand and was dying it cost them $33 and would have sold for over $100. They said they will probably end up eating the cost of it. Small Ocellaris Clown's are about a 5x markup. Tang's in general seem to be about 3-4x.
But you figure, they have to sell alot of fish to pay the rent so in all it's not bad.

 

[catawaba]

I've seen a wholesale invoice at a LFS...
Fish markups are in the range of 700-800%
Inverts are in the range of 400-500%
LPS, SPS, softies are around 500%
Example: They buy Flame Angels for $8
Cerith snails are $0.39
4" rhodactis mush. rock w/6 polyps was $7
I know they have to 'absorb' a lot of overhead so I guess this is how they do it.

 

[zman1]

Originally Posted by stephish
Small Ocellaris Clown's are about a 5x markup.
Local breeders take a beating then. Just like farmers.

 

[catawaba]

At first I was somewhat miffed.
But now I think of it like this:
Since saltwater fish/supplies/etc don't have a HUGE following, ie. there isn't a nationwide large demand because it is somewhat of a specialty hobby, the wholesalers/retailers have to make a living by marking up.
It is the opposite of the volumes of sales that say, McDonalds has....Thier markups for a Big Mac is only a few percentage points because they make up for it in volume.
I just hope that all persons debating the hobby know what the overall costs are before they decide to persue. It's not easy to replicate the ocean/coral reefs of nature in your living room. It has a price.