Local Pet shop closed?

[brewmaster15]

Everyonce in a while I like to post about the state of local petshops in your area. Get a feel for how our hobby is doing.

In my area, CT, Things are pretty stagnant with local pet shops.I know of very few newer ones(Last 5 years) and most small ones have closed. We have petsmart, petco, walmart, and a handful (literally)of well established petshops that cater to the aquarium hobby. These tend to carry the more common fish in the trade, rarely carry anything wild.

How about where you are? Hows things in the LFS ,aquarium live stock arena?

Al

[peewee1]

Two independent within 10 miles of me that are both over 20 years in business. A new non fish pet store opened 300 feet from my office, no fish, last month.

[samurai.cichlid]

here around wilmington nc we have "the fish room" which is really good. but their focus is salt water, but the staff there are friendly and they can get in fresh water stuff if you ask. they also have a few other locations around nc. one in cary and one in raleigh. and i might be mistaken but they might have another in fayetteville but i might be wrong.

the second local place that i really like for less common stuff (not super rare, but less common) is a place we have in new bern nc (and they have another store in havelock nc) and that place is bill's pet shop.

one place that did recently close in cary, nc was a place called the "pet pad". they actually used to get discus in, but they weren't good quality as you can imagine. otherwise their stock was decent, but they tended to have the safer choices and nothing too interesting.

looking forward to seeing how this thread goes because i love me a good local fish store. as great as it is to go directly to breeders and vendors over the internet, nothing beats that feeling we all had as kids--that excitement--of walking into a new fish store and wondering what amazing fish they might have in their tanks.

probably one of the best memories of my life was the first time i saw a royal pleco when i was probably 10 or 11 years old, it was a big one, and it blew my mind.

[danotaylor]

Lots of big box stores here in Cincinnati, as everywhere else. There are a handful of privately owned local fish stores. One is over on the east side and I haven't got over there since moving down to Cincinnati. There is one just by my house that it stocks less common and more difficult to come by cichlids, mostly Africans. But they do have a small selection of other warm water fish. He does stock substrates, food and some decor but he is really a niche market supplier of those less common and more difficult to come by species. It's a very small shop and he's been open I think for about 2 years. There is another shop that I just found out about it through Dennis last week that supplies fresh water, salt water and discus. I've never been there so I can't comment on the quality of the fish that they carry. It's a tough market now. I cannot remember the last time I bought fish from an lfs. Being as fussy as I am about quality and health almost all of my fish have been purchased from reputable suppliers or private breeders in the last 15 years. In saying that I may be part of the problem and the challenge for small private store owners...its hard to do all species well, and difficult to make it profitable with just a few...

[Doogy262]

I'm fairly lucky in the Detroit metro area,plenty of petco,petsmarts and others but also 3 good and 3 very good lfs within about 5-8 miles of me.

[Willie]

In the Twin Cities, we are very lucky to have a very diverse set of fish stores. We have had our shares of big box stores show up and they've taken a lot of the equipment and supply business away from independents, but not more so than mail order shops. Maybe because we have such long winters, the hobby is very popular.

There's certainly been an attrition of mom-and-pops operations over the years, but some stores have been in business for 25+ years. Stores like World of Pets, Aqualand, Sea Level, etc. have carved out their niche. Two extremely high quality shops with advanced fish are available.

Forest Lake Pets: The granddaddy of fish stores with huge selections and the best deal of tanks anywhere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6kKz4xT02Q

Quality Aquatics - Just opened up 2+ years ago and have garnered a lot of Internet attention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VON-qMRC_hw&t=4s

The local fish club, Minnesota Aquarium Society, is the second oldest in the country and its annual fish show helps retailers and equipment manufacturers connect with hobbyists: https://aquarium.mn/2019/presentations

[RogueDiscus]

I'm in a small market. Several cities/towns in our valley area, about 250,000 total pop., the largest about 100,000. We have a petco and petsmart as fish sources. A couple years ago, the one saltwater store moved to the Portland area. A few years before that, the long-time good LFS closed after the owner retired. There's one guy locally I sell off fish to. Another guy about 75 miles away that comes over the mountain if I have something to offer him. I buy from Kenny, Al, Jehmco, Amazon,...

[dagray]

we have a very good fish store an hour from us in Richland, WA (I live in Boardman, OR), and we have the Petsmart, Petco an hour from us. There is a general pet store that has okay fish and fish supplies in Pendleton, OR (an hour east of us) that has been around for a few years. Nothing new as far as pet or fish stores. We do have a couple dog/cat grooming places within a 30 mile radius of us.

Keep in mind Boardman, OR is very rural.

[peewee1]

Two independent within 10 miles of me that are both over 20 years in business. A new non fish pet store opened 300 feet from my office, no fish, last month.

More than 20 years. Both opened for business in 1972.

[Lewjo11]

Rocklin CA. Has all types of Fish. And a huge amount of Discus. They are owned by Golden State Discus. Guess I'm lucky. Also Roseville as a Fish Depot that also has a hugh amount and always around 5 to 10 Discus but they never look heathy .. these places are both 20 minutes from Sacramento CA

[Combo]

I am In Rutherford county NC, witch is a about 60 miles west of charlotte and 60 miles east of asheville, We have a total of one Pet Store it is a Mom and Pop store we have no big box pet store we have a (walmart no live pets limited pet items) So this one pet store gets a lot of traffic with only choice in town closes petco is about 40 miles, petsmart is 30 miles. So it kind of like take what you get with somethings they do have and keep a good amount of fish lots of dano's tetra's african cichlids I don't know all the fish types they have, good size fishroom freshwater on one wall saltwater on the other wall. I have been waiting for about three months for them to be able to order vampire shrimp as they seem to come in waves with their supplier and not for order all the time as with other spices it seem also. Although it is nice clean friendly store they do try a lot to help everyone each customer on name to name basis. One wants to think its all for the right reason business is for the sake of money. but they do I think balance between the two Or I want to anyway

[ajniner94]

The tampa bay area is full of fish shops. I have 4 within 5 miles of the house that have a variety of fresh and salt, also across the bay there are even more. But being surrounded by water, it is pretty popular here

[KylieShorta]

Our nearest pet store has closed. I think it's because of the quarantine. Perhaps for some other reason. In any case, I have to drive 20 minutes further to buy food for my pets. Also in that store I got useful tips about pets, and in another the sellers are not so polite. So I now read blogs to know how to properly care for my pets. So I found an article on how to properly bathe cats (you can find it here https://petsoid.com/how-often-to-bath-cat/). And I was surprised when I found out that I was doing something wrong. Perhaps you will find this blog interesting, and if you can advise me on something similar I will be glad.

[Second Hand Pat]

Our nearest pet store has closed. I think it's because of the quarantine. Perhaps for some other reason. In any case, I have to drive 20 minutes further to buy food for my pets. Also in that store I got useful tips about pets, and in another the sellers are not so polite. So I now read blogs to know how to properly care for my pets. So I found an article on how to properly bathe cats (you can find it here https://petsoid.com/how-often-to-bath-cat/). And I was surprised when I found out that I was doing something wrong. Perhaps you will find this blog interesting, and if you can advise me on something similar I will be glad.

Hi Kylie, are you a real person or a spammer?
Pat

[captainandy]

In the greater Boston area there are only two decent aquarium stores that focus on FW - Tropic Isle and Neds.
Most others cater to SW - often mom and pop shops out of their home.