Adventures with Corndog: Corndog's Fish Store
- Thread starter Corndog
- Start date
I ran a survey this week online. Had 88 customersto take it. I'm sure more results will come in, but I'm limited to 100 participants for this free service anyways. Mostly wanted to gather more insight on the new store hours. From the results it seems like I need to be open till 8pm. Even though people prefer to shop on their day off. I'm assuming I'm missing opportunity sales from being closed at 6pm. Sales themselves don't seem to be down from store hours, just normal down from the season.
I did find it interesting that the thing we rated the lowest in is dry goods selection. I'm going to expand the dry goods selection. My previous view was that if I couldn't be competitive with an online price I wouldn't carry it. But in the comments people would write they had to buy it from a competitor store because I didn't carry it. I can definitely compete with competitor stores on price, just not online on some items.
I asked 10 questions in total, but only 8 were multiple choice, and I can display those in a picture. And black bars is the store name.
I did find it interesting that the thing we rated the lowest in is dry goods selection. I'm going to expand the dry goods selection. My previous view was that if I couldn't be competitive with an online price I wouldn't carry it. But in the comments people would write they had to buy it from a competitor store because I didn't carry it. I can definitely compete with competitor stores on price, just not online on some items.
I asked 10 questions in total, but only 8 were multiple choice, and I can display those in a picture. And black bars is the store name.
Chysamere
<WoW Guild Officer>
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I had a goldfish once that was hooked out of it's tank by my cat (who somehow got the heavy lid off) not once but twice. The second time we came home from a day out to find it on the living room floor. God knows how long it was there.
We put it back in the tank and the damn thing lived another 5 years. Fish are pretty well designed!
It's hard to ship fish around the country right now with weather being as it is. A heater controller can prevent a tank overheating. You just plug the heater into it, if it hits a certain temp, it cuts power.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I just went with 2 smaller heaters so if one flakes out at least the other one will shut off. This is the first time this has happened to me in 20 years of having an aquarium so I'm not that worried about it and frankly my tank had had the same fish in it for over 5 years so I'm actually sort of excited about getting some new stuff.
This weather is out of control. Last Saturday it was 80 degrees and overcast. $1900 in sales. Yesterday it's 90+ and sunny and only $600 in sales. It's 96+ today. At this point, I don't even want to leave the house because it's so hot. Being Washington state, no one has AC so everyone is just crabby and toughing it out.
First major power outage as a retailer. Sucked. Storm hit Saturday morning. No power on Sat and Sunday and power just came on at my house late last night. Missing out on the weekend sales essentially cost me 2k in sales. On top of having to work harder than normal. This weather is out of control. At least it looks as if the never ending summer might be over and I can get back to making money.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Ha! I had just the opposite problem. We lost internet (so no taking credit cards) and phones, but we had power so we stayed open. Turns out many of the restaraunts around us couldn't comprehend not being able to take credit-cards and saw the lights flicker so they decided to shut down. We did double the sales of our previousrecordfor a Saturday, and that was with no online-ordering and no phones, so anyone trying to either call in or order online probably assumed we had no power.
I'm going to have to hook-up the crew that worked that day/night with some sort of nice bonus or something, the fact they were able to pull that off without a.) needing to call me in and b.) having my inbox/message machine loaded with customer complaints is nothing short of a miracle.
Just an FYI, Square allows you to take payment without an internet connection and will store the data for 72 hours and then process it once a connection is established. Useful for when internet goes down for sure.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Square is way too expensive for us on the processing fees for normal use, but I'll look into seeing if it is possible to have an account set-up for potential emergency use. Might be against our current merchant-processor agreement as well. Regardless, thanks for the heads up on that.
It's 2.75% if the card is present. Even american express and discover. On top that there 0 other fees. No terminal fee, no statement fee etc. Also you could run just 1 transaction a year if you wanted etc. There is no reason not to have it sitting in the office not being used, to only come out once every 2 years when internet goes down etc.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Yeah, digging through my current merchant processor contract I would be in violation. Question I have to ask myself is, how'd they ever find out?
They wouldn't. I tried to solve this problem in other ways but it just doesn't work. Like using a cell phone as a hot spot or buying a mobile hot spot like karma etc for when the internet goes down. Unless you are there... It's gonna be too hard for people to switch the point of sale system over. It's much easier to just say. Ring it up on the system as normal. Then charge them on the ipad. Ring up all sales done that was as Other so you can track them on the back end etc.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Would it be possible to have a hookup connected to run a generator to power your essential stuff in an event like this? Depending on how much stuff you would need powered it might only cost a couple grand and the generator could double as your backup plan for the apocalypse. I don't imagine emergency generators are something people in Seattle usually own because the weather never gets all that bad there are quite a few situations where it's a nice thing to have and the Honda ones, while expensive, are really quiet.
I did have a generator. It was powering the fridges/freezers and the air to all the tanks. Lighting would be difficult to have on without a transfer switch. Plus there isn't that much to sell since everyone else is out of power as well...
On a different note. I'm strongly considering selling African Cichlids. This is where my background is as I ran a store selling them for 5 years. Until now I had always just recommended other stores. But recently I visited those stores and they are just bad. My old store I ran, is nothing like it once was. And the other one that sold African cichlids is on it's 3rd owner in like 2 years and just isn't doing them justice.
The reason I'm considering it is I run 66 Sales tanks. Currently these all have community fish. The problem I run into is, it would seem that any given season during the year. I can only fill 40ish of them with fish that are really desirable for a community tank. The rest get under utilized with sub par fish cause nothing looks worse than an empty tank. My plan is to take 14 tanks, which is the bottom row of my main selling area and convert them from the worst performing tanks sales wise into the african cichlid section.
The profit margin on most african cichlids is huge. On a neon tetra as a baseline for community fish. I'll spend .40 cents roughly and sell it for $2.50. These are also much more delicate than a cichlid. A baseline african cichlid would be a Yellow Lab. I can purchase this fish for .77 cents and retail it for $9.99.
The trick will be getting the public to understand that these fish can't go together. Community and Africans that is. So I figure if I keep them to one row, and use different color labels to put their names and prices on that would help. The other thing I need to look at is, a cichlid tank will hold less fish than a community tank. However the margin is much higher. I need to figure out how many fish people are keeping in a 55 gallon tank for a community tank and figure out my profit. Then do the same math with african cichlids. Even though Africans would hold lets say 20 fish. I'd have roughly $15.40 in cost, for $200 in sales. Which is such a huge spread... To get the same profit, I'd have to have people buy $300 in community fish really.
My goal is to carry the fish that are colorful from a small size and are popular. Which is mostly mbuna africans. Most store who sell africans sell the whole gamut which is much less profitable. In theory I may be able to pick up a few new customers instead of referring them to other stores. I have no idea how many people that are currently my customers would convert over to African cichlids. Is it worth changing the image from planted community tanks only. To we do planted community tanks and african cichlids. I'd still do planted tanks with the african cichlids which most people don't believe is possible but is very possible.
My biggest fear is that it'll draw in the different clientelle than I want. In the past, African Cichlid aquarium people tend to be more stingy with their money etc. My biggest fear is I start getting more low end chain store shoppers.
I'll leave this post with a story from yesterday. A woman rings up and asks "what we have that will live in a 1.5 gallon fish bowl, I'm looking for 3 or 4 fish for my son". I say we don't really carry anything that'll thrive in that environment. She says well until my son took a bath with them they were doing fine. I say that most of the fish we carry are tropical and water would have to be heated as a minimum. She says I can heat the water! I explain that it's hard to keep a small bowl like a constant water temperature and say possibly some Zebra Danios or White clouds could work. The conversation ends with me saying you could try some other stores, but I'm not sure there is anything you'll be able to keep alive in that bowl long term.
30 minutes later she calls back and asks "do you sell mini sharks?" I say uh, well I've never heard of a mini shark, but we do carry rainbow sharks and roseline sharks. "Do they stay small?" Well for "shark" type fish they do. They get roughly 6 inches. "That's too big for my bowl!" Yeah, most fish that would be considered sharks would need at least a 55 gallon aquarium. "Wouldn't they live a little while in my bowl?" I say maybe a few days, without heat they'd die quickly. "I can heat the water! How much do the sharks cost?" Rainbow sharks are $6.99 and Roseline Sharks are $14.99. "Those fish are way too expensive, these are for my son! Ok thanks *click*"
That is my worst nightmare scenario. More of that type of customer is a huge waste of time. They don't want to keep an animal alive, they want entertainment. Being that it's entertainment to them that is short lived they don't want to spend any money. I always imagine these people with a dog who is outside 24/7 and a guinea pig in the corner of someone's bedroom who is just waiting to die.
The reason I'm considering it is I run 66 Sales tanks. Currently these all have community fish. The problem I run into is, it would seem that any given season during the year. I can only fill 40ish of them with fish that are really desirable for a community tank. The rest get under utilized with sub par fish cause nothing looks worse than an empty tank. My plan is to take 14 tanks, which is the bottom row of my main selling area and convert them from the worst performing tanks sales wise into the african cichlid section.
The profit margin on most african cichlids is huge. On a neon tetra as a baseline for community fish. I'll spend .40 cents roughly and sell it for $2.50. These are also much more delicate than a cichlid. A baseline african cichlid would be a Yellow Lab. I can purchase this fish for .77 cents and retail it for $9.99.
The trick will be getting the public to understand that these fish can't go together. Community and Africans that is. So I figure if I keep them to one row, and use different color labels to put their names and prices on that would help. The other thing I need to look at is, a cichlid tank will hold less fish than a community tank. However the margin is much higher. I need to figure out how many fish people are keeping in a 55 gallon tank for a community tank and figure out my profit. Then do the same math with african cichlids. Even though Africans would hold lets say 20 fish. I'd have roughly $15.40 in cost, for $200 in sales. Which is such a huge spread... To get the same profit, I'd have to have people buy $300 in community fish really.
My goal is to carry the fish that are colorful from a small size and are popular. Which is mostly mbuna africans. Most store who sell africans sell the whole gamut which is much less profitable. In theory I may be able to pick up a few new customers instead of referring them to other stores. I have no idea how many people that are currently my customers would convert over to African cichlids. Is it worth changing the image from planted community tanks only. To we do planted community tanks and african cichlids. I'd still do planted tanks with the african cichlids which most people don't believe is possible but is very possible.
My biggest fear is that it'll draw in the different clientelle than I want. In the past, African Cichlid aquarium people tend to be more stingy with their money etc. My biggest fear is I start getting more low end chain store shoppers.
I'll leave this post with a story from yesterday. A woman rings up and asks "what we have that will live in a 1.5 gallon fish bowl, I'm looking for 3 or 4 fish for my son". I say we don't really carry anything that'll thrive in that environment. She says well until my son took a bath with them they were doing fine. I say that most of the fish we carry are tropical and water would have to be heated as a minimum. She says I can heat the water! I explain that it's hard to keep a small bowl like a constant water temperature and say possibly some Zebra Danios or White clouds could work. The conversation ends with me saying you could try some other stores, but I'm not sure there is anything you'll be able to keep alive in that bowl long term.
30 minutes later she calls back and asks "do you sell mini sharks?" I say uh, well I've never heard of a mini shark, but we do carry rainbow sharks and roseline sharks. "Do they stay small?" Well for "shark" type fish they do. They get roughly 6 inches. "That's too big for my bowl!" Yeah, most fish that would be considered sharks would need at least a 55 gallon aquarium. "Wouldn't they live a little while in my bowl?" I say maybe a few days, without heat they'd die quickly. "I can heat the water! How much do the sharks cost?" Rainbow sharks are $6.99 and Roseline Sharks are $14.99. "Those fish are way too expensive, these are for my son! Ok thanks *click*"
That is my worst nightmare scenario. More of that type of customer is a huge waste of time. They don't want to keep an animal alive, they want entertainment. Being that it's entertainment to them that is short lived they don't want to spend any money. I always imagine these people with a dog who is outside 24/7 and a guinea pig in the corner of someone's bedroom who is just waiting to die.