Wal-mart Cutting Fish Sales

[Melody]

Well this is good news, in my opinion. If you can't do it right you shouldn't do it at all. Its not all of them and it appears to be only US stores, but its a start.

Wal-mart to Cut Pet Fish Sales (http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/item.php?news=1200)

I wonder what possessed them to get into live fish in the first place? None of the other department stores have them, do they?

Before we start this conversation, a gentle reminder that we don't store bash here (Refer to Forum Rules (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/announcement.php?f=34), #9). Please keep your comments restricted to personal experiences that were not resolved by management, or general opinion of the closure. Anything else will be deleted at our discretion. Thanks! :smile:

[Witchlight]

I wonder what possessed them to get into live fish in the first place? None of the other department stores have them, do they?

I'm guessing whatever prompted them to sell groceries. I' still cant imagine buying groceries and the same place I buy my underwear! :err: Don't get the big grocery stores that cary cloths/electronic in em either.

But your right Mel probably a good thing there getting out.

[Melody]

One stop shopping I guess:confused: .

My Brother-in-law runs a Walmart store. Everytime I go down there I bellyache about the fish until they clean it up. They probably only clean it up now when they know I'm coming down....lol. My main beef is that the people who see their fish section most are kids - they love going to look at them while the parents are shopping. I took my niece to look at the fishies when I was visiting, she was around 5 I guess, and there was dead fish everywhere. I'm talking filters plastered with layers of bodies. Worst I've ever seen. This, of course freaked her out, and it didn't do much for me either.

Did I speak to a manager? Yippers, that night at the dinner table :laugh: . To his credit he made a phone call before he was even done eating and it was fixed by the next day. I'm not sure why they'd want something that they're going to neglect to a point where it makes the store look bad. I've yet to see the business sense behind that.

[Danzig]

I think the reason Walmart sells fish is for an impulse buy product.

[Melody]

Yes I suppose you hook the kiddies with the fish and there's Mom & Dad handing over the money for the equipment to look after it. Might not be a bad angle, 'cept you don't need much equipment for a dead fish. :rolleyes:

I really don't care if they sell fish or not, or even if they're not exactly the best quality in town if a lack of quality was all there was to it, but they're defeating their purpose with mismanagement & cruelty. I don't understand why they can't see that. Maybe now they are seeing that after all and have decided that they can't do it right without dedicating resources to it.

[hp10BII]

Guess they're realizing what a lot of smaller fish stores already know, there's not a lot of money in selling live fish once you realize how much dedication is required to keep your stock healthy. Sounds like they're still out there for supplies though.

[Melody]

I'm sure they'll always have a complete pet department with supplies, but they may cut back on it if they can't use the fish to sell it.

Corporate is obsessed with numbers and they often don't see the big picture, which is where the big numbers are. Just like online business had to learn that customer service is not less important on the Internet, so should some of the huge stores learn that customers want more than a cheap price. You lose a lifetime of addiction sales if you sell someone sick fish, and hobbyists quickly learn that its far more economical to purchase a healthy fish for a buck more than it is to try to cure a sick fish, or a tank full of sick fish if the disease spreads.

I paid $4.99 for a common Platy awhile ago. It was a Mall store, their overhead is higher and so is their merchandise to compensate. However, I've never had a problem with their fish so I didn't hesitate to pay it. You could offer me the same Platy variety from other stores for .59 cents and I wouldn't buy it because I know chances are its going to be dead soon. If I really wanted it enough to take the risk, I'd have to buy half a dozen to make sure I ended up with a live one or two anyway, so why bother?

Then there's other stores who charge you through the nose and the fish are still sick - dunno where that line of thinking comes from.:rolleyes: Let's see if we can PO customers more than the competition?

I think that one of the best things going for smaller stores is they work there. They have contact with their customers every day so they get a look at the big picture on a regular basis. There's a face behind those numbers, and a brain behind the face. Underestimating the intelligence of your customers is one huge mistake.