New store location

Forest Park!!

In my opinion the top LFS around are reefwise and AP. If you can blend AP's prices with reefwise selection and quality.

I like a store that carries a wide variety of frags and colonies as well. Ranging from common pieces to LE stuff.

Make dedicated coral tanks for each type. I.E. an sps frag tank, LPS frag tank, zoa frag tank.

And cleanliness is key!

I went to advanced aquatics in Schaumburg last weekend and was quite turned off by the cleanliness and organization of their tanks.

Also a diverse dry goods supply is very nice too!
 
I think a few of the biggest things are diversity, quality, and fair prices. Quality and Diversity being the most important to me. I myself would be willing to pay a little extra for better quality. My wife and I live in Bourbonnais and there is nothing by us, closest is Orland/Tinley Park, so we have trekked all over looking for great places. We have seen some amazing stores and have seen some horrible ones that I would never set foot in again. I agree with the coral dedicated tanks, separate by LPS, SPS, Zoas ect. Cleanliness is also a big one. I personally also like being able to talk to the owner. In all the stores ive been in Aquatica is one of my favorites, and Mario is a huge reason for that. Hes very knowledgeable, and he talks to my wife, my 2 year old son, and me everytime, and he also remembers what tank we have as well. Means a lot when the owner takes time to know his customers and their set ups. Aquatic Visions in Naperville is one I will never return to, have been in there 3 times and have never once talked to anybody. Twice I didn't even see anyone at all working. And the other time the owner walked right past us without saying a word.
 
Location: I live in the city, so I am partial to that. However, I know rent is expensive, so not too far from the city close to an expressway would be desirable.

QT: I routinely pay more for fish which I know have been properly quarantined.

Frag tanks: In the last 2-3 years, I have not once dropped over $40 for a piece of coral; I am a fan of buying small and watching them grow out. Plus, I make it a point to swing by stores which always have a good selection of $10-$20 frags coming in regularly. Instead of buying a colony for $75-$100 a couple times a year, I end up with lots of new, smaller coral colonies every couple weeks.
 
A Little closer to the city would be nice. There are a lot of avid reef fans here.

I agree with [MENTION=2045]ninjamyst[/MENTION], bring the burb prices to the city and you'd become a pioneer :)

Another suggestion would be to make sure you are feeding the fish a variety of foods so that they are healthy and not picky when they come to their new home.

Finally a good quarantine system is paramount preferably with out using meds just letting the fishes' immune system do the trick, too many stores dose copper and such.
 
Some other ideas I've come up with are these:
Weekend sessions. Customers can come in for Q&A and every weekend we can teach about something else.
Rewards programs. Get discounts.
Starter kits.
Frag classes.

What about if you/the customer has a sick fish. What if we offered to quarantine for you?


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Biggest thing for me is parking. I hate having to go to Old Town because there's just not good parking in that area and having to carry jugs of water is no joke! I will never go to Old Orchard again after twice having been sold dirty waste water when I tried buying saltwater so obviously having good personnel that know what they're doing is a key concern. Prices are also very important but a lot of that will depend on where you open up and how much your rent is.

There are literally no LFS in the loop area so you might be able to tap into that. The Roosevelt Collection has quite a number of vacant retail space available and free parking coupled with a lot of high-end businesses, it'd be an awesome place to open up an LFS - you've got a pet store, a movie theater, some clothing shops, a park for the kids, and a large number of people walking about to shop (and also I'm partial because that's where I live :))
 
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mishmaster said:
I think you should go for it man, walk into "Chicago aquarium" in Andersonville, if that crappy little store can still keep its doors open, then imagine what you can do! You just have to be better than your competitors and people will quickly notice.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, I think a lot of LFS actually make most of there money doing aquarium servicing and installation. They install an aquarium for some organization or wealthy family, then make an account for them where they service the tank every couple of weeks. The store itself is like a hq where employees can come back to and clients can come switch out fish if they get bored.
Click to expand...
Chicago aquarium is going out of business.
 
ThePorkchopExpress said:
Biggest thing for me is parking. I hate having to go to Old Town because there's just not good parking in that area and having to carry jugs of water is no joke! I will never go to Old Orchard again after twice having been sold dirty waste water when I tried buying saltwater so obviously having good personnel that know what they're doing is a key concern. Prices are also very important but a lot of that will depend on where you open up and how much your rent is.

There are literally no LFS in the loop area so you might be able to tap into that. The Roosevelt Collection has quite a number of vacant retail space available and free parking coupled with a lot of high-end businesses, it'd be an awesome place to open up an LFS - you've got a pet store, a movie theater, some clothing shops, a park for the kids, and a large number of people walking about to shop (and also I'm partial because that's where I live :))
Click to expand...

don't buy water, just get a rodi system with tds meter, much cheaper in the long run, has some resale value, the chicago tap water going into it is very cheap, and you know exactly what you are getting by being able to see the meter.
 
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Rodger64 said:
Chicago aquarium is going out of business.
Click to expand...

Excellent, hey mheredia, see if you can get a liquidation price on the DT tanks and inventory at Chicago Aquarium.

Also, side note, check out these German LFS, insane emphasis on the sps especially the store featured somewhere in the middle, just tanks and tanks of sps colonies, I wonder if they sell them whole are cut them up to order?



[video=youtube;GC0aXnKQY-E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC0aXnKQY-E[/video]
 
You mention "weekend sessions", kinda of an interesting spin would be to create a "hangout" friendly environment.

Hobby/game stores have had some success with this going back to the days of Dungeons and Dragons "game rooms".

You might be able to do something like that combined with Saturday QT "revels", frag swaps on the first Sat of the month, etc...
 
ultimatemj said:
You mention "weekend sessions", kinda of an interesting spin would be to create a "hangout" friendly environment.

Hobby/game stores have had some success with this going back to the days of Dungeons and Dragons "game rooms".

You might be able to do something like that combined with Saturday QT "revels", frag swaps on the first Sat of the month, etc...
Click to expand...

store sponsored frag swap sounds cool. Many lfs use the front end of the store, 25%-50% of the space to have empty aquariums and
dry goods. Once in a while you could move that stuff out of the way, set up small tanks and host a frag swap. You would make

money from the tank/space rental, bring in new inventory to show off, put stuff on sale, and get foot traffic? If the swap thing works
and gains popularity you may even be able to charge a small entry fee. Except for me, I will sneak in.
 
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Even better suggestions! Keep them coming. We're down to a handful of potential locations now


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