I've watched the changes in the hobby, as an old guy. It started going off the rails with cheaper equipment, actually. Small business owners were putting brutal markups on 'dry goods', as dry goods supported the business then. Then mail order companies came in dirt cheap. As people stopped buying locally, the small stores began to vanish. The chains stepped into the gap and knocked both sides of the market out. Mom and Pop stores couldn't compete, and the chains bought the mail order and new online sellers out.
The hobby very quickly centralized, and competition faded. No one could afford to compete.
With the enormous buying power they had, they turned their sights on supply, and began to demand lower prices from the farms (which were already cheap). The measures the farms took to adapt meant cutting quality, rushing growth and becoming more factory-like. Most farms stopped producing desirable newly found species, and stuck to the ones the chains demanded based on market studies. We had many fewer choices in larger stores, and the health of the fish began to decline radically. When I visit chain stores, I see something very much closer to what a 1970s hobbyist could get, and a lot fewer choices than in the 1990s-2000s.
And here we are.
The hobby very quickly centralized, and competition faded. No one could afford to compete.
With the enormous buying power they had, they turned their sights on supply, and began to demand lower prices from the farms (which were already cheap). The measures the farms took to adapt meant cutting quality, rushing growth and becoming more factory-like. Most farms stopped producing desirable newly found species, and stuck to the ones the chains demanded based on market studies. We had many fewer choices in larger stores, and the health of the fish began to decline radically. When I visit chain stores, I see something very much closer to what a 1970s hobbyist could get, and a lot fewer choices than in the 1990s-2000s.
And here we are.
