Wholesalers needed

[Bamf Comics]

I hope this is the correct location for this question. I owned a pet store from the early 1990's to 2001 in Virginia. Being that specialized in a small town of course led to closure as internet and other alternatives grew. Since 2012 I've run a comic and collectible store in the same town and grown it fairly steadily. Now I'm thinking the next logical step is to add an aquarium department to the back part of the store and gradually grow and expand that. I figure the battle to get children reading couldn't be hurt by having additional things like fish and small pets maybe/eventually to get them in the door and exposed to reading choices as well as toys/Funko Pops, etc...

The problem is my wholesalers for dry goods appear to no longer be in business and the few online searched lead to massive operations out of State that aren't accepting new customers or have been slow to respond. I'd like to start small with nano type wares, small fish, bettas, guppies, tanks 10 gallons and under, small deco, appropriate foods etc..... It would be nice to have someone that could truck deliver gravel and aquariums once every month or two but also would be willing to UPS/FedX smaller hold you over type shipments until we grow large enough to need more frequent and larger.
If you can give me any names to check out it would be greatly appreciated. I'm already signed back up with one of my fish/animal suppliers that could have fish delivered as early as Wednesday if I can find a source for everything else including food, water conditioner, small nets, etc..

 

[Colin_T]

I can't help but a lot of pet shops in Australia are getting their dry goods directly from China and bypassing local wholesalers.

 

[Bamf Comics]

It involved several e-mails back and forth but Hikari at least is going to have their rep connect me with some place to get their food they said late last night. I used to sell their line and would prefer to get everything from one source so there's less individual orders, paperwork minimums and such to deal with but if I have to start ordering 100 different products from 100 different suppliers I'll go that route. It's a shame thought to see traditional business models being so close to extinction and others trying to discriminate against you if you aren't exclusive to pets only. 30 years ago you could try to make a living in a small town/rural community specializing in a market as narrow as pets but since the growth of the internet, big box stores and Walmarts it's hard to try to make a living in a community that can't keep a grocery store open limiting yourself to one product category. In 1994 we were selling plain 10 gallon aquariums for $5.55. Now it appears they're close to 5 times the price and almost impossible to find. It's all tank in a box kits now it seems from the few places that can figure out how to stock anything. I'm getting the feeling it's looking like the only options are going to be chasing one time purchases from the lowest sellers on places like Amazon and e-Bay instead of having the peace of mind that you can reorder what you want over and over again as needed from one trusted source.

 

[GaryE]

I know stores in Canada that have had the same issue. The wholesalers won't send them dry goods because they figure the places will go under because of online competition. Plus the online places are often connected to the suppliers, and the store is the middleman they cut out.

I used to go to some fun aquarium stores - garden centres with fish sections, and even a bait and tackle store with a wall of tanks. I haven't seen a store like that here since the online companies grew. We barely have any quality aquarium stores left.

 

[Bamf Comics]

When I started, most of my fish suppliers also stocked minnows, feeders, crickets, worms, nightcrawlers, etc. Most of these items double from bait for fishing to live food for fish and reptiles. It only made sense to add in a little tackle as well and have two markets trying to get more crickets out the door or shiners than what dies in the effort of trying to stock them. I got a wholesale account with American Rod and Gun which was the parent company of Bass Pro and dedicated half the store to their lines in the beginning. Gradually the pet side kept growing while ultra low margins trying to sell at BP catalog prices when shoplifting was killing us had the pets become the majority of the business. At that time, Omega Sea was starting out and we helped grow their fish food business. I was one of their original stores but yesterday it appears they've been purchased by some evil giant corporation that is discriminating against small businesses. Even though half my product line was non pet when we started, now it appears they will flat out refuse to sell to me unless I'm exclusive to pets. There's not another pet store within 25 to 40 miles of here and the nearest Petco is about 50 miles away. There's a large market area serviced by nothing but Walmarts and even those have stopped stocking fish in my area since I closed. You can buy all the food from them you want from one of their two Amazon sellers but they are basically denying large areas of the country that cannot support old fashioned small stores dedicated only to pets. That felt like a slap in the face yesterday to hear. They're protecting their two box stores sellers and their Amazon sellers from competition they said thru discriminatory/exclusionary practices. I can't imagine a small town store stocking only their brand in a community that can't keep a grocery store open not being the very picture of the small store sellers they claim they are there to protect and supply. I know they've lost their biggest fan now and one of the people who helped them get to to the ignorant place they're at now for life. Kids should still enjoy fish and pets as much as they enjoy comic books and Funko Pops and figures. It’s basically the same target market so one category of product should attract the same kids and young adults who should be interested in the other. I figure it’s the future of small town life in America. Instead of all your eggs in one basket you diversify to broaden your appeal to a wider reach. There can be some really cool cross promotions I can think of already to help get kids reading again. Something like active subscribers get 10% off in stock fish, etc… Book of the month and fish of the month promotions. The opportunities for combined growth are many. Maybe start adding in a line of pet keeping and aquarium upkeep books to go along with the 200,000 comics and hundreds of Little Golden Books. I’m hoping I can find something offered in the “Step into Reading” type introductory books for pet keeping for beginners. I can see adding in as many as 40 to 60 aquariums as needed without any major remodeling and more space can be freed as needed. Maybe replace the Katie the Catsitter book display by the front door where people come in with starter aquarium combo’s.

Hopefully someone can point me to some buying choices.

 

[GaryE]

As someone who worked as a freelance writer and sometimes editor in the aquarium book and magazine business - good luck finding books. Most publishers ditched aquarium books around 2005 to 2010, as internet sources took over and the fish hobby became far less popular. I thought I'd be doing beginner books every 2 years or so for years, when suddenly, everything was discontinued. In the US market, 2 of the 3 aquarium magazines went bankrupt. TFH is a fraction of its old size, and Amazonas US started up later, but seems to be a labour of love for its producers.

There is a core hobby out there, but the edges have been shrinking for years, outside of China where it's growing. People have less leisure time, a lower standard of living with housing and energy costs, and time eating screens.

I know one local store was able to access a wholesaler by going through the very profitable dog and cat food sector first. But even there, with a full (food only) pet store, he had trouble getting taken seriously when he aimed for fish as an addition.

Your store sounds like it would be great (although I, ummm, never liked comics and had to look up what the figurines were...). But the "Hmm, a person with a comics store trying to get wholesale prices for his hobby pretending to have a fish store..." mindset is going to be tough to get around. Add the reality it's more profitable to sell to an online store you may already own part of, and you may not get a lot of cooperation.

 

[Bamf Comics]

I'm already set up getting daily shipments from penguin Random House for comics and books so I assumed there were probably something pet related available. I haven't looked yet to see since it's down the list of priorities. I've been expanding the childrens entry point inclusions the last couple years including stocking over 600 different Little Golden Books, hundreds of Mad Libs, sticker books, etc and this year I'm focusing on the "Step Into Reading" types and I'm starting to get more traffic in those areas. Comics appear to have suffered the same death in small towns as pet stores have although they got a 10 year head start when Marvel shut down newsstand distribution. Basically in the past, Curtis Distributing went around stocking comic spin rakes and drug store shelves. Even small towns would have 2 or 3 places selling. When newstand distribution shut down, the only places getting comics were actual comic stores and they had to order them months ahead of time and owned them with usually no or infrequent returnability for unsold product. As a result, children have grown up having never seen an actual comic and now they're having children themselves. I've been struggling to basically rebuild the market from the ground up which means investing heavily in things to get children started early and hopefully keep a few of them reading as they grow. I added in in other collectibles like Funko Pops by the thousands and figures, toys, puzzles, games and small amounts of just about anything else I can get access to children and young adults may enjoy. Success as they say is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so I know if I keep pushing, I'll find options over time to get this going. It turns out my fish wholesaler sells 25 pound bags of food so at least I can start with that and get tiny cups to portion out smaller sales to customers in the beginning and maybe permanently if the food appears good quality. I'm still hoping someone eventually drops a name of a wholesaler or two I can chase down.

 

[MaloK]

Here is the list of wholesalers I found, I have no idea how to deal with them tho.
But they are all supposed to be alive and doing business.

Aquarium Direct inc.
Reef supplies
Castle Dawn Aquatics
Distrabex Wholesale
VASCA Aquarium Supplies
ReefH2O
PetMountain
Aquarium Depot
Aquatic Warehouse
Pet WholesaleUSA
Ruinemans Aquarium
Collar company
Aquarium Wholesale
Aquarium Supply Distribution
Aquarium Decor
OZ Aquarium Distributor

 

[Bamf Comics]

Thank you. It turns out my fish supplier stocks Sera foods and has a big jug of something to dechlorinate with so I ordered a starter run to go with the fish and I'll get some small cups to break up some of the big bag of food into tiny betta starter cups. I'll check thru the list this evening. I've got to start rearranging part of the back to get ready for the fish, about 90 bettas coming as well as some fantails, male and female guppies and red wag platies arriving before noon tomorrow so it's time to get everything started. Here's a picture of my old store when I was only just into things in 1995.

 

[Archerfish]

Capitalize on what you already have. Comics. This might sound ridiculous, but perhaps you can laminate some of the unsold comic covers and sell them as tank backgrounds. Perhaps go with natural substrates. You might be able to buy crushed gravel/quartz by the bucket from a local quarry.
Offer unsold figurines (properly treated) for sale as in-tank decorations. Cut out aquarium safe sponges as comic characters. Sponge filters are enormously effective. Propagate Java fern & Java moss, water sprite and a few other easy plants for sale and away you go. With your background, you don't have to learn the ropes and are in the creative stage of the business. Feel free to 'bounce' ideas. Go get 'em!

 

[Bamf Comics]

Finally after half a dozen NO's Central Pet has me set up and approved. Fish came in yesterday and so far no loses. I got frustrated with the waiting and ordered 2 20's from Walmart since that was all I could get in the cart arriving Wednesday. 4 outlet Air Pump, 6 sponge filters and tubing arriving tomorrow from Target and Amazon. I'm sure I'll be open to any other suggestions for sources. I was at the point I was going to steer customers away from anything the industry profits off of like back ground scene, plastic plants, filters other than sponge filters, etc.... Fortunately I haven't painted the bacs of any aquariums yet or grabbed playground sand or river rock from the quarry by the pick-up load. I'm not sure what Central Pet carries yet since I applied to everywhere I can find an application for all at ounce. Here's some pictures of the start of what I hope to build and fill with the first fish.

 

[JuiceBox52]

If you ever want to include fish stickers, coloring books, greeting cards or art prints let me know!

 

[Bamf Comics]

I'm already stocking sticker books and coloring books from Penguin Random House, Lunar Distribution and Diamond Comics. If you have anything in those lines drop a catalog or ordering info off. In the short term I'm focusing on getting the basics but it shouldn't take long to start expanding.
Bamf Comics
101 E Carolina Ave
Crewe VA 23930
I'm the only one here so I'll see any sale lit you send.

 

[Bamf Comics]

Still getting no's from people the earlier no's referred us to.

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in Phillips Pet Food & Supplies. We are respectfully declining to move forward with being your supplier. We feel your business is non pet centric. The partners we are seeking to work with are Pet focused, (dog, cat, bird, small animal, reptile, and aquatic). Including, but not limited to; independent brick-and-mortar retail, licensed breeders, veterinarians, rescue groups.

On behalf of Phillips Pet Food & Supplies, we wish you the best of luck with your endeavors.

 

[Colin_T]

Can you tell them you're just a pet shop instead of comics/ pets?