Can You Make A Complaitn About A Lfs?
- Thread starter BethK
- Start date
Truck
UKAPS
It purely depends on the species of Betta as to whether it is acceptable to keep males together, LFS's don't have massive budgets, sometimes corners have to be cut in order for them to make a profit.
I love your passion for sticking up for LFS's although I do have to wonder why you do it.
Truck
UKAPS
People are too quick to make assumptions, and people only view it from one side of the table. That is why.
Your quite a blunt character really aint'cha!
I know it can be a struggle for some lfs but mostly impressions are made by the intelligence and attitude of the staff within.
MewMew42
Fish Herder
agreed ^
Did you see my response to that ?
Truck
UKAPS
Again though, most staff have to work within certain rules, I have personal experience, I used to work in one, if the manager was in, sales were important, if he wasn't in, the welfare of the fish was. Intelligence means nothing in the pet industry, sales do.
Money comes first, animal welfare second, that is how businesses work, once you've had hands on experience with working at an LFS I can guarantee you would change your opinion in an instant.
Money comes first, animal welfare second, that is how businesses work, once you've had hands on experience with working at an LFS I can guarantee you would change your opinion in an instant.
But coming from a personal view.
If it were me running my own lfs then I would rather gain a reputation for being knowledgable and stocking decent quality fish that can spread the word amongst the decent keepers amongst us.
To me that would be ultimate as reputation is everything and people are willing to travel far and wide to go to good fish suppliers. Even more so if the crappy unknowledgable sales focused fish sales stores closed down!
If it were me running my own lfs then I would rather gain a reputation for being knowledgable and stocking decent quality fish that can spread the word amongst the decent keepers amongst us.
To me that would be ultimate as reputation is everything and people are willing to travel far and wide to go to good fish suppliers. Even more so if the crappy unknowledgable sales focused fish sales stores closed down!
Truck
UKAPS
We on this forum probably consider ourselves as serious fish keepers, however I'm sure that for every member on here there is a person or two out there that see fish as a decoration or as an easy pet, and don't really take it as seriously as we do, and they're the ones that will buy from anywhere because they only have a basic understanding of the hobby, it's from these customers that the most money is made, a fish dies and they replace it, because they're cheap.
No store can rely on purely being knowledgeable in order to make money, there has to be a few white lies told in order to make money, store closures don't really happen unless the store specialises in other mammals, birds and reptiles also, amphibians not so much. Stores that specialise in fish, normally have a blind eye turned to them, especially the RSPCA, DEFRA may do something if some of the stock is illegally imported etc, but a few too many fish in a tank and they'll turn a blind eye.
People open fish stores with the intention of making money, giving advice comes second, unless you're a privately owned business, but still even some of them are bad, there are the odd few, but their turn over isn't as large compared to that of the other stores that will blag their way through in order to make a sale, it's good that some are honest, but realistically, the fish keeping hobby revolves around one thing...money.
No store can rely on purely being knowledgeable in order to make money, there has to be a few white lies told in order to make money, store closures don't really happen unless the store specialises in other mammals, birds and reptiles also, amphibians not so much. Stores that specialise in fish, normally have a blind eye turned to them, especially the RSPCA, DEFRA may do something if some of the stock is illegally imported etc, but a few too many fish in a tank and they'll turn a blind eye.
People open fish stores with the intention of making money, giving advice comes second, unless you're a privately owned business, but still even some of them are bad, there are the odd few, but their turn over isn't as large compared to that of the other stores that will blag their way through in order to make a sale, it's good that some are honest, but realistically, the fish keeping hobby revolves around one thing...money.
chrisbassist
Fish Addict
I'm going to stick up for lfs too.
Sure there are some bad things, but in my experience, cramped conditions don't really last too long. If it's a more exotic fish, which won't sell as fast, I usually see those in much better conditions.
One lfs (the worse of the 2 I normally go to) even covered the glass on a tank which had some nice discus in (only 3 in the tank and it was about 40-50 gallons) over the school holidays because kids would tap on the glass. Effectively removing them from sale to keep them happy.
And about 70% of the staff I've soken to in the 2 lfs have been friendly knowledgable and willing to say when they don't have an answer. Even to the point of asking me which ones were the females in a cockatoo tank.
I was advised to get test kits, I was advised when stats weren't right not to bother with adding any chemicals but do daily water changes, in one lfs my wife tried running over the same member of staff 3 times with my girls buggy. And was friendly about it.
Sure there are some bad things, but in my experience, cramped conditions don't really last too long. If it's a more exotic fish, which won't sell as fast, I usually see those in much better conditions.
One lfs (the worse of the 2 I normally go to) even covered the glass on a tank which had some nice discus in (only 3 in the tank and it was about 40-50 gallons) over the school holidays because kids would tap on the glass. Effectively removing them from sale to keep them happy.
And about 70% of the staff I've soken to in the 2 lfs have been friendly knowledgable and willing to say when they don't have an answer. Even to the point of asking me which ones were the females in a cockatoo tank.
I was advised to get test kits, I was advised when stats weren't right not to bother with adding any chemicals but do daily water changes, in one lfs my wife tried running over the same member of staff 3 times with my girls buggy. And was friendly about it.
if the lfs doesn't make profit, we won't have much lfs to go to and compain or buy our fish from? >.< is that good or bad?
If lfs employees have knowlege about fish, but his manger or "boss" just want them to sell fish what can they do?
If lfs employees have knowlege about fish, but his manger or "boss" just want them to sell fish what can they do?
Larger aquatic chain stores have a lot more money in their pocket so staff aren't under pressure to sell customers things just to purly make money. Privately owned buinesses dont have that financial back up so are more likely to be money driven because at the ended of the day if they dont sell enough stock they dont get paid.
I can honestly say where I work we DO NOT sell any customer any product that they do not need for their aquarium. We give the best advice possible and care GREATLY about the fish we stock. We will refuse to sell certain fish to certain customers and give free water testing.
Working in an aquatics store and running it correctly is BLOODY hard work, and yes we get poorly paid for it. But if you do your best for the fish and the customers then you get the satisfaction of having customers returning again and again. Customers saying that their friend recommended you. Customers telling you how lovely and clean your tanks are and how healthy your fish look.
You think looking after a few tanks at home can be difficult, try looking after thousands of fish, from all over the world, with different needs and water parameters, 5 days of the week.
I can honestly say where I work we DO NOT sell any customer any product that they do not need for their aquarium. We give the best advice possible and care GREATLY about the fish we stock. We will refuse to sell certain fish to certain customers and give free water testing.
Working in an aquatics store and running it correctly is BLOODY hard work, and yes we get poorly paid for it. But if you do your best for the fish and the customers then you get the satisfaction of having customers returning again and again. Customers saying that their friend recommended you. Customers telling you how lovely and clean your tanks are and how healthy your fish look.
You think looking after a few tanks at home can be difficult, try looking after thousands of fish, from all over the world, with different needs and water parameters, 5 days of the week.
chrisbassist
Fish Addict
on the other side of the coin, you don't turn into a big business without making money... so although the manager may care and the staff may care (which isn't always the case) the people higher up may just see those fish as decorations...
and the smaller stores are usually started by people who love fish...
so either way, you've got a hit n miss approach, with some being good, some being bad, regardless of whether its a chain or independent...
But yeah, i agree about it being hard work.
Oh yes, you will always have some bad and some good. Where i live we have a large chain store, Pets at home, that clearly couldnt give a **** about the fish and then we have an independant that only care about how much money you give them and have a guarentee of 'once its left the premises its your problem'.
The people higher up do care about the treatment of the fish because the more fish lost the more money lost.
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