rabbut
I don't bite, all that often...
If you want advice from a current LFS worker, read on....
At my LFS, we have the equipment and fish sections seporate so I don't do a great deal of equipment selling, but that that I do is customer ordering, where I have to trawl through the brochers of eight different suppliers to give the customer the best price possible... Fun fun... especialy with a customer waiting, that isn't allowed to look at the order list....
I know from that that they make very little from gear. Adverage mark-up of filters heaters e.t.c is 10% Food about 50%. Fish is where the money is. Our typical order is £200 at trade value, but would retail for arround £20000!!! Neons cost about 2-5p from most suppliers and retails round my way £1.25 each or 5 for £5....
RE: advise. On a weekend , this will be most of what you do. You advise abd assist customers from lunch till close, with 1-2 hours to check tohe live stock before it gets busy and to also fix any issues. Weekends are manic from a maintanance point of view. If a tank went belly up, you would only realistically find time to pull out the bodies. You wouln't be able to waterchange untill the next week day.
Customers appreciate accurate advise wherever possible, but for some reason don't take kindly to being advised to fishless cycle. Couple that with whether fishless cycling is shop policy and you may well find yourself in an unagreeable situation with your bosses..
I tend to tell the cutomer how to fish-in and fishless cycle outlining the adantages and dissadvantages of both. In the 3-400 customers I have given this advise to, only 2 have gone fishless Telling them they can't have fish untill finishing a fishless cycle will make them go else where in most cases, and some will complain to your boss in the process of doing so. Attempting to force fishless cycling onto people is the quickest way to get fired 
In short, give the customers the best advise you can if they ask for it. Also, learn to ask some basic questions first, such as tank capasity, number of fish already and the age of the set-up. Anything ringging alarm bells with the fish they want to buy is your cue to inform them of a potential error. Always ask what fish they have if you are selling anything with long fins, or that is nippy. Again, anything that rings alarm bells to you, should make you automaticaly inform the customer as such.
Best of luck in your new job; and I hope you enjoy the wonderful world of aquatics retail
Rabbut
At my LFS, we have the equipment and fish sections seporate so I don't do a great deal of equipment selling, but that that I do is customer ordering, where I have to trawl through the brochers of eight different suppliers to give the customer the best price possible... Fun fun... especialy with a customer waiting, that isn't allowed to look at the order list....
I know from that that they make very little from gear. Adverage mark-up of filters heaters e.t.c is 10% Food about 50%. Fish is where the money is. Our typical order is £200 at trade value, but would retail for arround £20000!!! Neons cost about 2-5p from most suppliers and retails round my way £1.25 each or 5 for £5....RE: advise. On a weekend , this will be most of what you do. You advise abd assist customers from lunch till close, with 1-2 hours to check tohe live stock before it gets busy and to also fix any issues. Weekends are manic from a maintanance point of view. If a tank went belly up, you would only realistically find time to pull out the bodies. You wouln't be able to waterchange untill the next week day.
Customers appreciate accurate advise wherever possible, but for some reason don't take kindly to being advised to fishless cycle. Couple that with whether fishless cycling is shop policy and you may well find yourself in an unagreeable situation with your bosses..
I tend to tell the cutomer how to fish-in and fishless cycle outlining the adantages and dissadvantages of both. In the 3-400 customers I have given this advise to, only 2 have gone fishless Telling them they can't have fish untill finishing a fishless cycle will make them go else where in most cases, and some will complain to your boss in the process of doing so. Attempting to force fishless cycling onto people is the quickest way to get fired In short, give the customers the best advise you can if they ask for it. Also, learn to ask some basic questions first, such as tank capasity, number of fish already and the age of the set-up. Anything ringging alarm bells with the fish they want to buy is your cue to inform them of a potential error. Always ask what fish they have if you are selling anything with long fins, or that is nippy. Again, anything that rings alarm bells to you, should make you automaticaly inform the customer as such.
Best of luck in your new job; and I hope you enjoy the wonderful world of aquatics retail
Rabbut
