I'm actually quite surprised to see this topic brought up again...
I think a lot of people are making assumptions without really knowing the big picture. I'm not going to claim to know all because my involvement at the store is limited.
I think the biggest thing that has been overlooked is that most local shops have to buy their dry goods and fish from a distributor, meaning that whatever they buy now has to pass through at least 3 people's hands (the vendor, the distributor and finally to the LFS), which obviously all those people want to get their hands on some of that profit. The reason for this is because the local shops are not buying in large enough quantities to do business directly through the vendor, in addition to it being nice to only have to deal with one company when buying their drygoods/fish. I actually saw this first hand a couple weeks ago when I was shoppng around for an invisible fence system (for our puppy). Mike's drygood distributor carries all pet stuff (available for the same discounted rate that he gets his fish drygoods), so being a comsumer, and liking to save money I looked at that price and did a search online for the same exact product. I was actually shocked to find it on a website for $5 CHEAPER than what Mike could get it for from his distributor. Why? I'm sure that this online company buys 100's of these units directly from the vendor and probably even gets a better deal on them than Mike's distributor. The same unit at Petsmart was $120 over what Mike could get it for.
A few other points that I think have been missed is that there is a big difference in price when it comes to renting warehouse space vs retail space, and warehouse space is probably what 90% of these online stores are renting. Location doesn't really matter to them, asthetics of the actual store doesn't matter either. Customer service from the kid that online places hire for $6 an hour to bag fish all day is not an issue either. People who order online are not concerned about the knowledge of the kid bagging up the fish, whereas you go in a retail store you want to deal with someone who knows what they are talking about. Would you want to deal with someone who for arguements sake might not even speak English to sell you your drygoos or fish, I'm guessing not, and knowledgable help comes at a higher price tag.
A big reason for price flucuations between LFS's is probably in part (or even mostly) due to location. Mike has looked at renting space on Rt. 28, it is roughly 3X more expensive for approximately the same space as where he is at now. Obviously a price increase would be seen if that move was made, but ultimately would it end up bringing in more people because it is in a much more visable location and would it be worth it? Stuff like that is a constant struggle to try to answer and there are many LFS's out there that are paying astronomically high rent to be in a busy location.
I know people are going to come back and say "well we're not talking about ALL LFS's", but please realize that that is the way that this thread looks. To any newbie out there, who maybe hasn't travelled up to all the LFS's, threads like these are just going to make them go straight to online shopping and not want to check out any of the local shops.
I am unsure of why threads like this keep getting brought up? Do people think that LFS's will change their prices as a response? I don't think that any of the LFS's out there are making millions (or even 100,000's), heck I know we're not! Business at a retail store is much much different than these online places that can work out of a warehouse. Really it's up to each individual person as to where, and how they want to spend their money, so I don't know why everyone keeps going back and forth on this issue. I don't really know what these threads are accomplishing other than making blanket statements from a lot of people who might not fully even understand how a LFS needs to operate in order to keep theirs heads up above water (hypothetically speaking
).
As a consumer I always shop for the best prices too, I don't think anyone is faulting anyone for doing that, but it's really just impossible to say that an LFS can match prices with a online business unless you've tried it.
