Not trying to flame you here, but I do have a different opinion on the situation:
I too have spent thousands on the hobby, and in that light you are not talking about whining over a few bucks here and there, you?re talking about thousands of dollars going to the purchase price variance at a LFS. It seems an unreasonable position to just concede that it is an expensive hobby and hand over a blank check. You maybe correct that there are more people in the hobby that cannot afford to setup and run a marine tank under the ?if you have to ask, you can?t afford it? mindset, but I would rather see them involved and making good consumer decisions for the hobby. The people who set up group buys, and pooled orders are picking up 30 to 50% increases in their ?hobby budget?, and good for them!
I have never read one of these threads where it seemed anyone was upset about spending a premium at a store where the selection was good, the staff was service professionals, the place was clean and the LFS added value to the product in one way or another. I do recall a thread where there must have been 50 viable options suggested by customers to improve the value offered by LFSs. I don?t think I heard of one of them implemented at a local LFS.
We are the vanguard for the future of the industry. The stores better adapt to e-commerce or they will perish, and that will be a shame. To complain that someone is educated on the current market price of an item and to call them cheap when they question a 40 point markup shows the stores themselves cannot justify it.
