They mostly have better prices than Petsmart after tax and shipping.(buy locally from Petsmart would minus the shipping though). Too bad I learned this too late. After I bought my EHEIM Classic 2213 canister filter from Petsmart for over $100 after tax and shipping, I realized I could have bought a 2215 (one step up from 2213) with the same cost from other stores which charge no tax, or just a few more bucks for a 2217 which is the top of that line.
My favorite online (live) fish store is Liveaquaria
which is a part of drsfostersmith.com
Their fish is better quality than most other fish stores. Yes, live stock does have quality issue. Such as German Blue Ram is said to die so fast that they drop like flies. I got two from liveaquaria, and they adopted just fine and they are still both with me after almost two years.
I used to work at Hancock Fabrics, and your post reminded of something. There was one guy who would come in occationally and buy some polyester quiltbatting. He said it was for replacing the insides of his fish tank filter, becaust this was the same fiber the tank filters used, but it was a lot cheaper at the fabric store. Sometimes, if you can reverse engineer what you have and figure out what they used to make it, you can find an acceptable local substitute for what you need. Edward Lowe created a new product and died a milionare by re-packaging Oil Dry as cat-box filler and naming it Tidy Cat. Knowing that, I can grab some Oil-Dry if I get caught without kitty litter,
As I live in Chicago we have many pet stores, both chains and independents. Pet Supplies Plus is closest to me so that is where I usually shop. They have a decent selection of the brands (dog and cat foods) I feed so it works out okay. Once in a while I will visit an independent or go to pet smart if passing by.
02-23-2012, 02:25 AM, (This post was last modified: 02-23-2012, 02:27 AM by Ram.)
(02-23-2012, 01:09 AM)bw Wrote: As I live in Chicago we have many pet stores, both chains and independents. Pet Supplies Plus is closest to me so that is where I usually shop. They have a decent selection of the brands (dog and cat foods) I feed so it works out okay. Once in a while I will visit an independent or go to pet smart if passing by.
I actually had mixed experience with Pet Supplies Plus.
They just opened a new shop in my town a year ago. That is after I bought most of my fish online. When I went there, I found they do have a nice selection of fish food and other equipments. They also offer a list of fish that can be picked from their computer database, and they will get them for you.
However, when I asked them to get me 4 Neon Rainbowfish, I said 2 male and 2 female.
When I went to pick them up,
It ended up
1. 3 male and 1 female (this is no big deal... but the next one)
2. All 4 Neon Rainbowfish had Mouth Rot ! (I didn't notice them in the dirty water in the bag, and I found that one out after I set them free in my quarantine tank)
The fish themselves cost $8 each, which was total $32. But the amount of medications I spent to treat the mouth rot cost much more than that! I think it was at least $50~60.
It took over 3 months and tried 6 different medications and drugs to finally cured those poor little things. If it wasn't me, they would be long dead. And if I didn't first put them into a quarantine tank, they would have infected all my other fish! It was such stress on me as well to watch them suffer.
It's fine now. Not only they are living happily and healthy right now, but also they actually had 40+ fry even before they were cured. None of the fry were infected, amazingly. I also spent money for an extra hospital tank just to treat them because the original quarantine tank was used to raise the fry.
Anyway, I hope it was just an isolated case. It was the problem of their supplier of live fish. Themselves should have checked on the fish quality before selling them.
Pet Supplies Plus seems to be one of those chains where they stores use the chain name and get their merchandise from the chain's warehouses, but the stores are individually owned and operated, so they can vary in quality and what they offer. I have always been very happy with the three in the Milwaukee area. When I compare to the local PetSmart and Petco, I find their prices are generally cheaper too.
It's a shame you got the sick fish. Yes, the stores are individually owned and operated. I can imagine that no one in the store knew fish well enough to know the fish were sick. Lucky for the fish you got them. Kudo's to you for curing them. The only problem I had with fish when I kept them was an outbreak of ick. Like you I got the proper meds and treated the fish and all came out okay. When I was keeping/breeding hamsters I had a young female to get wet tail. I bought the proper meds and was up day & night tending to her. She was one sick little girl. She pulled through and lived out her normal life but I never bred her. I was afraid she couldn't handle it.
03-04-2012, 04:23 AM, (This post was last modified: 03-04-2012, 04:24 AM by Ram.)
The store manager of our Pet Supplies Plus is a girl. She offered to give me 4 more Neon Rainbowfish for free after she heard my story. However, that was not what I needed, so I did not take the offer. My Neon Rainbowfish gave birth to 40+ fry when they were still undergoing treatment. Why would I need more of them? lol
I could have used something like discount on future purchases and coupons.
You know, one of the benefits of buying stuff online is that you don't have to pay tax if the store isn't located in your state. Well, at least that is the case in the U.S. Not to mention that for most products, you can always find them online, and cheaper. Although it might not be the case if you only buy something like $10 lol... it's not worth the shipping fee if you only purchase a tiny amount.
It's not just for my fish items. I buy all kinds of stuff online.
Do you people buy from online stores? If so, which ones do you have had good experience with?
(03-11-2012, 02:19 AM)Onyx Wrote: Petco is the closest physical pet store to me. I buy a lot of stuff online from Brine Shrimp Direct and Kens Fish though
I thought there was one place called Ken's fish food or maybe it's my memory playing trick on me. They used to sell mostly just fish food. They buy high quality fish food in large quantity, and they repackaging them.
I've also bought my 0.5mm New Life Spectrum A+ pellets from somewhere I forgot. I wanted A+ (extra garlic), but 0.5mm. That was the only place I found to have it.
We have a store towards the otherside of town that I know doesn't sell live pets, I haven't ever been there but they may have an online store that delivers, I don't know as I haven't checked. I should though, might make going to the Pet's Paradise chain in the mall unnecessary, and I'd like to never see the place again. They sadly DO sell live animals, and they're a chain, so in my mind...they're evil. But I sometimes have to go there to purchase stuff my vet doesn't have.
Other than that though, nope I don't have a favorite and I've never bought anything dog-related online except for a bed from eBay when Ori was a puppy. Which turned out to be a lot smaller than I intended anyway and Ori didn't even like it.
Online purchase here does include taxes. We have the GST incorporated in everything here thanks to a former bumbling Prime Minister. Makes McDonald's actually seem more high class than a lot of the "real" restaurants with their prices...
We have a small chain of pet stores in Montreal called Nature Pet Centres and they are truly remarkable when it comes to service. I have visited every section of the store for my various pets and every worker is extremely knowledgeable in their area. They are also wonderful with children and will almost always (unless its really busy) let you take out animals and handle them. They have a wonderful selection of products , although they tend to be slightly overpriced so I would recommend going for the employees knowledge rather than everyday supplies. The store in Point Claire has a wonderful fish section and a large section for puppies and cats as well, the store in Lasalle has a great small animal selection like rabbits and such. It doesn't matter which one you go to , you will undoubtedly receive great service and (a real plus in Montreal) they will serve you in either english or french depending on your preference.
I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars.
Charles Darwin
08-17-2013, 08:29 AM, (This post was last modified: 08-17-2013, 08:31 AM by Coricopat.)
I always go to Kahoots. It's a southern California pet store chain and while it's fairly small compared to, say, PetCo, they have a great stock. It's pretty expensive since they don't carry any pet food except premium brands. I have to buy only grain-free food, since one of my cats does poorly on other diets. Luckily, they have plenty of grain-free foods to choose from, and even a freezer full of raw diets (which my cats refused to eat).
The staff is incredibly friendly, always ready to help, and now they even recognize me as soon as I walk in. The only thing I dislike is how often they push their own pet-food brand, but I understand this is company policy. I have to politely decline every time, since I did try their store-brand cat and dog food, and none of the pets would eat it after 6-7 days. Bizarre! Now I explain I need grain-free food, and they don't try to push it.
They have shelter animals in every weekend for adoption and a hot dog stand, to lure people over I imagine Every so often, there's a band of gentlemen who come in to play banjo and sing right in the middle of the store. They had a popcorn machine and facepainter, too! All in all, I love going to that store.
Your favorite Pet stores? 
