Wholesalers Substitutes

[mr.dark-saint]

I know the "Subs" it's like asking Santa for something you want and you get socks (or a Pink Bunny Suit). This usually seemed be true in most Pets in a Box places (like Petco where I did my 5 years of tour). They have a contract with one wholesaler who ships to half the state (in some cases the whole state). Now it's a big bucks for a wholesaler to get something like that. They'll send me the "SUBs" (since they got paid and had their Kung Fu grip, they'd sooner SUBs than send back the cash) I figured they needed to clear some shelf space there too. So I'd order Cardinal Tetras and I'd get Glo-Lights (which I already had too many of and the reason for why I didn't order any of them). It was really bad with the "Bread and Butter" fish (you know the Mollies, Swords, Platties and their likes).

Anyhow they'll start out good and sometimes great then they'll start sending you (at least to me) jacked up and mostly dead or "Crips" (you know the deformed fish that should've been used for feeders). After a while it was enough getting fish that lived in the tanks for more than a week . It was difficult to keep the "Shrink" low (death/theft) when starting with that kind of critters. Some days I just wondered if I worked at a Deli (as in SUBmarine sandwhich from all that SUBs) . But at the most i could do was order low (to keep the shrink low) then they (the wholesalers would call the "District Manager" and ask me "why I didn't order more? Was I stocked up"?) then I'd tell him it's because of the junk and SUBs they keep sending me. The thing the DM didn't get was that I didn't order those fish because they "Subed" more than what I wanted. Trying to explain that was real fun since he too thought like the wholesalers (it's a Treta, right? ) just numbers and his bonus checks was all his worries or cares.

Since, I'm just the guy in the trenches and over seeing this I didn't know anything. The the following week I'll send for a larger shipment and sometime in the middle of the week I get a call from the "DM" asking me why my department had such a large "Shrink?" . Then I go through the whole bit from the week before since the "DM" has A.D.D. . Then I'd get store visits from dude and he'd ask why I had so many of this type of fish in this tank? (They had a "system" called "Plano-Gram" like this fish goes here kind a deal). So he'd see a tank with 50 mollies (the Wholesalers Subed). Or the tank full of Glo-Lites so large that they'd die of old age that I couldn't sell off cheap to make space for the fish which would actually sell. That's corprate LFS. (Sorry for the rant chalk it up as Post Traumatic Syndrome ).

Now with my last LFS which was a "Mom and Pop" deal where the dude had strict orders of "NO SUBs" (sometimes they'll pull a fast one ). But at least I could go and buy what was good looking that week in the wholesale warehouse. That was one of the perks buying fish at wholesale to fill your tank . If you don't get this as an option and even 25% over the cost would be cool just as long as you can go and get your own. If it's just a job then you'd hate it (you'd be better off working the till only) all that drama .

 

[madmom]

Hi Wolf;
It's terrible what some wholesalers do. They should tell you what's being sent in place of whatever. I think most of them don't want to be bothered with b/o (back order) as it gives them more paperwork . Some places specify no substitutions. Others do substitute and what they send is sometimes of lesser value so they are making a bigger profit. I don't work in any LFS but way back in my misspent youth I was a purchasing agent and I learned the hard way to always put No Substitutions on all of my purchase orders
Maybe if you told them identifications a must on all substitutions it would help?