mweezy05
Member
A couple things.....
For starters I will drive up to 60 miles one way if, and only IF, the store is worth it. As of today, there is only one store that I know of that I consider to be worth it.
This store has an amazing amount of livestock. Large display tanks and tons of smaller tanks. Also, they have an unreal selection of dry goods.
The selection of livestock and dry goods is what draws me there.
I also love to see rare specimins also. It is always a plus to see new things every time I return.
As for my opinion on what I would want in a store.......
1. Definately have to have a large variety of livestock.
2. Dry goods is always a plus as well. It is great to be able to get quality livestock from a store and ask the store what they use or prefer and then be able to by the dry goods at the same store.
3. Display tanks are great. It really gets me going when I see a sweet display tank and get ideas for my own tank.
4. Great advice or area for fish disease and treatments.
5. Quality pricing.
Here are some things I personlly think would be great.
1. I have seen stores have coupons for different things that can be found online and printed out. Then simply bring them with you to the store.
2. Detailed information placed on tanks with livestock in them. An easy way to do this would be to make up laminated tags for each type of livestock that you carry and put a cover slip that would hold the tags. Then simply insert the tag into the slip. If you move a fish to a different tank you can then simply take the tag out and place it on the other tank. Then there is no messy writing on the tanks and some tanks would have writing that describes a fish that is not in that tank.
3. I would like to see packages be offered at local stores. Such as a newbie package, a reef package, or something. Then you would move a lot of inventory and the customer would get everything they need.
4. I have yet to find a place that has quality RO/DI kits for sale. I have purchased all of mine online.
5. Regular customer discounts are always cool.
6. I like the customer data base thing also. Keep a record of what the customer has purchased . This is a bit extreme, but I saw of a store that issued store cards that had a chip in them that had all this information on them. The customer would walk into the store and the chip would be read and on the employee would see a picture of the person and their last purchase. Then you could simply greet the customer by name and ask them how their last purchase has worked out for them. This would ultimately establish a great customer relationship. All of this can be easily obtainable also by current computer programing and such, I know because I am currently a college student majoring in business and have research similiar situations.
7. As for the store set-up, I think it would be cool if a store divided itself up into a livestock area. Dry goods area. Then broke that down even further. With livestock areas of aggressvie, reef, rare, eels. Corals would be something like soft, hard, lps, sps, polyps, ect. And then dry goods area would be disease treatment, filtration, tanks, food, ect. You could simply hang a sign from the ceiling over every area. This makes it easier for customers to find items without having to ask an employee, thus giving your employees time to help customers with more import tant things.
8. It is always cool to see used things for sale also. Either buy used tanks from customers or whatever or sell your used tanks, AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN GOOD CONDITION. Customers are always looking for ways to save money. So if you get customers in to see your used items they will most likely check out your entire store. Which can only help.
Sorry for the long post, just a lot of information that I feel you might think is valuable. I have also thought of opening my own store one day. Although, this would not be anytime soon for I am fairly young.
For starters I will drive up to 60 miles one way if, and only IF, the store is worth it. As of today, there is only one store that I know of that I consider to be worth it.
This store has an amazing amount of livestock. Large display tanks and tons of smaller tanks. Also, they have an unreal selection of dry goods.
The selection of livestock and dry goods is what draws me there.
I also love to see rare specimins also. It is always a plus to see new things every time I return.
As for my opinion on what I would want in a store.......
1. Definately have to have a large variety of livestock.
2. Dry goods is always a plus as well. It is great to be able to get quality livestock from a store and ask the store what they use or prefer and then be able to by the dry goods at the same store.
3. Display tanks are great. It really gets me going when I see a sweet display tank and get ideas for my own tank.
4. Great advice or area for fish disease and treatments.
5. Quality pricing.
Here are some things I personlly think would be great.
1. I have seen stores have coupons for different things that can be found online and printed out. Then simply bring them with you to the store.
2. Detailed information placed on tanks with livestock in them. An easy way to do this would be to make up laminated tags for each type of livestock that you carry and put a cover slip that would hold the tags. Then simply insert the tag into the slip. If you move a fish to a different tank you can then simply take the tag out and place it on the other tank. Then there is no messy writing on the tanks and some tanks would have writing that describes a fish that is not in that tank.
3. I would like to see packages be offered at local stores. Such as a newbie package, a reef package, or something. Then you would move a lot of inventory and the customer would get everything they need.
4. I have yet to find a place that has quality RO/DI kits for sale. I have purchased all of mine online.
5. Regular customer discounts are always cool.
6. I like the customer data base thing also. Keep a record of what the customer has purchased . This is a bit extreme, but I saw of a store that issued store cards that had a chip in them that had all this information on them. The customer would walk into the store and the chip would be read and on the employee would see a picture of the person and their last purchase. Then you could simply greet the customer by name and ask them how their last purchase has worked out for them. This would ultimately establish a great customer relationship. All of this can be easily obtainable also by current computer programing and such, I know because I am currently a college student majoring in business and have research similiar situations.
7. As for the store set-up, I think it would be cool if a store divided itself up into a livestock area. Dry goods area. Then broke that down even further. With livestock areas of aggressvie, reef, rare, eels. Corals would be something like soft, hard, lps, sps, polyps, ect. And then dry goods area would be disease treatment, filtration, tanks, food, ect. You could simply hang a sign from the ceiling over every area. This makes it easier for customers to find items without having to ask an employee, thus giving your employees time to help customers with more import tant things.
8. It is always cool to see used things for sale also. Either buy used tanks from customers or whatever or sell your used tanks, AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN GOOD CONDITION. Customers are always looking for ways to save money. So if you get customers in to see your used items they will most likely check out your entire store. Which can only help.
Sorry for the long post, just a lot of information that I feel you might think is valuable. I have also thought of opening my own store one day. Although, this would not be anytime soon for I am fairly young.
