List of LFS's - need input

[sanker]

New "Mega" Petco, Hanover, MA, live rock ($7/lb), softies, guesses follow: 3x 55g, 24x 10g.

Fin Fur Feather Hanover, MA (Quincy, MA as well but I have not been there) . Shop is in disrepair but you can order fish and get them before they dump them in their tanks. Guesses again on tanks: 55g, 90g with two nurse sharks, 7x 15g

-Sean

 

[Greg Hiller]

Jeff,

So you are suggesting we should 'censor' the list?

Suppose a good shop decides that it's not worth the cost of a BRS sponsorship, should they now not be included in the survey. My opinion is that that would be a disservice to the membership. While I agree that most, and perhaps all of the BRS sponsors are good shops I think it significantly reduces the value of a survey to limit it. Suppose a BRS sponsor is voted the best of some category, if the survey was limited then other shops can just say....oh, that survey has no meaning...it was limited to the shops that paid money to the BRS. If I'm going to take the effort to compile all these results, then I want the survey to mean something. It will be very easy when performing the survey to just circle a few shops with their numbers on the first page to remind yourself, and then only use those numbers. Having all shops included will not case a problem, IMO.

Updated list:

All About Animals, Fitchburg, MA
All Things Fishy, Marlborough, MA
Animal Instincts, Fall River, MA
Aqua Addicts, Salem, NH
Aqua Dreams, Agawam, MA
Aqua-Life Aquarium and Pet Supplies, Providence, RI
Aquatic Concepts, Westbrook, ME
Atlantis Marine, South Portland, ME
Beacon Aquarium, Worcester, MA
Boston Tropical Fish and Reptile, Cambridge, MA
Cape Maid Farms, Hyannis, MA
Coral Reef Aquarium, Seekonk, MA
Creature, Creature, Creature, North Smithfield, RI
Curious Creatures, Salem, MA
Denise's, Mattapoisett, MA
Exotic Marine Fish Wholesalers, Everett, MA
Fin and Feather, Groton, CT
Fin, Fur, Feather, Hanover, MA
Fintastic Fish, Plainville, MA
Fishy Business, Chatham, MA
House of Fins, Greenwich Bay, RI
Little Shop of Pets, Portsmouth, NH
Lovely Pets, Quincy, MA
Masson's Aquarium - Lowell,MA
New England Tropical Pet - Chelsford,MA
Northeast Pet - Pelham,NH
Oceans of Pets - Woonsocket, RI
Patnaudes Aquarium & Pet, New Bedford,MA
Pet Club, Canton, MA
Petco, Avon, MA
Petco, Hanover, MA
Petco, Peabody, MA
Pets Plus - Londonderry, NH
Pets Plus. Tewksbury, MA
PJ's Pet Centre, Saugus, MA
Plymouth Pets, Plymouth, NH
Port City Reef, Portland, ME
Reefdom.com, Revere, MA
Rhode Island Aquarium & Pet Ctr, Providence, RI
Rumford Pets, Providence, RI
Sea Creature - North Providence, RI
Sea Creatures - Revere, MA
SeaWorld Pet Center, Salem, NH
Skiptons Pet Shop, Dorchester, MA
Something Fishy, Inc., Warwick, MA
Textile Aquarium, Lowell, MA
The Fish Bowl, Fall River, MA
The Fish Bowl, West Warwick, RI
The Fish Nook, Acton, ma
Tropic Isle, Framingham, MA
Uncle Ned's Fish Factory, Millis, MA
Underwater World, Taunton, MA
Water World Aquarium, Chepachet, RI
Wilmington Pet & Garden Supply, Wilmington, MA
Zoo Creatures, Plaistow, NH

 

[clamm]

good points greg.

 

[stang8s]

greg - i dunno what the best thing to do is. All I know is that a few of those stores have about 4 ten gallon tanks of saltwater. One of those stores I called a few weeks back for a mag pump and the only woman working there said I would have to call back in a few days as she knew nothing about aquariums. A 2nd store on there I called for a mag pump, they put me on hold for 10 min to check and came back with one in stock that they wanted $130 for when it sells for $75 at most of the good stores on the list.

It also bothers me that when I look at the sticky of best stores on RC from last year and I see a certain store up at #1 for corals that has one algae filled tank with a few half dead corals in it for 2x the price of other stores healty corals, the idea that store is even on the list is a total joke.

I suppose as an internal list it is useful but when out of towners are shown the list and visit I think its embarrasing.

 

[Chuck Spyropulos]

Greg, I think you did a great job on the list...but you can't please everyone!

 

[dad300]

little shop of pets moved up the road to their own building. It's about a mile farther down the road towards hampton on US 1.

 

[tucc185]

Wow, its amazing to see how many LFS's we have in our area. Even if some of them aren't exactly top-notch or mega stores. As far as limiting the survey, I personally would rather see a store with just a few tanks with healthy fish and well -cared for corals than a store with thousands of gallons of sick, emaciated, or questionable fish and corals. Good job Greg

 

[nunofs]

I suppose as an internal list it is useful but when out of towners are shown the list and visit I think its embarrasing.

Jeff, I totally understand your concerns regarding including some LFSs in the list, but hopefully the results will speak for themselves, as the stores that carry a very small selection, or don't keep healthy livestock will probably get bad ratings.

Greg: I would suggest including a disclaimer mentioning that the list is an exhaustive listing of all LFSs in the area that carry any level of saltwater supplies/livestock, and that inclusion in the list does not in any way imply approval of the stores's practices, or should be seen as a recommendation from the BRS (and request the disclaimer is included whenever anyone forwards/posts the list). I think this would at least partially address Jeff's concerns.

Nuno

 

[Greg Hiller]

Jeff,

I think Nuno made exactly the points I would have. This is a list, only a list. The results of the survey will help people figure out where to go, assuming people bother to show up at the meeting and fill it out. I'll be interested to see if the most vocal critics do that.

I'll have to look back at the old survey and see what shop you are talking about. Once the new survey is completed and the results are announced we will have the RC people drop the sticky on the old survey.

>I personally would rather see a store with just a few tanks with healthy fish and well -cared for corals than a store with thousands of gallons of sick, emaciated, or questionable fish and corals.<

Me too.

Apparently House of Fins is in Greenwich CT, not Greenwich Bay RI. This puts them at:

Total Est. Time: 3 hours, 0 minutes Total Est. Distance: 182.07 miles

Which is well past the 2 hour limit set. They will be removed from the survey.

Updated list:

All About Animals, Fitchburg, MA
All Things Fishy, Marlborough, MA
Animal Instincts, Fall River, MA
Aqua Addicts, Salem, NH
Aqua Dreams, Agawam, MA
Aqua-Life Aquarium and Pet Supplies, Providence, RI
Aquatic Concepts, Westbrook, ME
Atlantis Marine, South Portland, ME
Beacon Aquarium, Worcester, MA
Boston Tropical Fish and Reptile, Cambridge, MA
Cape Maid Farms, Hyannis, MA
Coral Reef Aquarium, Seekonk, MA
Creature, Creature, Creature, North Smithfield, RI
Curious Creatures, Salem, MA
Denise's, Mattapoisett, MA
Exotic Marine Fish Wholesalers, Everett, MA
Fin and Feather, Groton, CT
Fin, Fur, Feather, Hanover, MA
Fintastic Fish, Plainville, MA
Fishy Business, Chatham, MA
Little Shop of Pets, Portsmouth, NH
Lovely Pets, Quincy, MA
Masson's Aquarium - Lowell,MA
New England Tropical Pet - Chelsford,MA
Northeast Pet - Pelham,NH
Oceans of Pets - Woonsocket, RI
Patnaudes Aquarium & Pet, New Bedford,MA
Pet Club, Canton, MA
Petco, Avon, MA
Petco, Hanover, MA
Petco, Peabody, MA
Pets Plus - Londonderry, NH
Pets Plus. Tewksbury, MA
PJ's Pet Centre, Saugus, MA
Plymouth Pets, Plymouth, NH
Port City Reef, Portland, ME
Reefdom.com, Revere, MA
Rhode Island Aquarium & Pet Ctr, Providence, RI
Rumford Pets, Providence, RI
Sea Creature - North Providence, RI
Sea Creatures - Revere, MA
SeaWorld Pet Center, Salem, NH
Skiptons Pet Shop, Dorchester, MA
Something Fishy, Inc., Warwick, MA
Textile Aquarium, Lowell, MA
The Fish Bowl, Fall River, MA
The Fish Bowl, West Warwick, RI
The Fish Nook, Acton, ma
Tropic Isle, Framingham, MA
Uncle Ned's Fish Factory, Millis, MA
Underwater World, Taunton, MA
Water World Aquarium, Chepachet, RI
Wilmington Pet & Garden Supply, Wilmington, MA
Zoo Creatures, Plaistow, NH

 

[~Flighty~]

Any way to do the survey online?

 

[marco67]

I know your putting a lot of work into this Greg, doesn't it seem like a lot of effort to put this all together only to limit the vote to
people that bother to show up at the meeting and fill it out
For many it's not a matter of bothering to show up it's a matter of responsibilities other than a fish club. Some of these people might even have input worth listening to.

 

[marco67]

LOL Cindy no fair......while I was typing you posted the short version of what I was saying....

 

[Greg Hiller]

Mark,

In the past (and I plan to do it again) I also made the survey available to download print out and mail to me. I received 2 completed surveys that way.

>Any way to do the survey online?<

I'd love to, but I don't have the knowledge how to do it, and also it would be much easier to compromise the information. I like the idea of having hard copies of the surveys. I made this known to all the LFS's that I had the copies and if they had a problem they were welcome to review the data first hand. I also made copies of the speadsheet used for compiling the data available to anyone who wanted.

 

[~Flighty~]

try this: http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?id=99799

Obviously not complete, just slapped together with a free service I found using google. Might actually make your job easier.

 

[marco67]

No problems Greg, I just thought I'd mention that it seemed like a lot of work only to get skewed results.

In the past (and I plan to do it again) I also made the survey available to download print out and mail to me. I received 2 completed surveys that way.

I remember that, people just don't use the mail these days. I can't imagine results will be any different again.

 

[marco67]

Wow Cindy that's fantastic.....There's the asnwer to all that mail getting stuffed in your box Greg

 

[stang8s]

Yes I think Nuno's idea covers it for me. It just bothered me to see this list given to someone coming from Florida looking for different colored rics. I too like a store with a few healthy small tanks rather then a large store with sick livestock. BUT whatabout a store with 1 tank full of sick livestock?

 

[CamaroJWeed]

Greg, Awesome Job, and you too Cindy...I would just provide a word of caution before the flame spraying starts on some of these stores. If you have been to a store once, remember that it is a single data point. While I will never discount a first impression (Joe S and I had a long discussion about this over several drinks at NERAC), remember that the stores are subject to the same flucuations that we each have in our home tanks, and probably at a higher volume because they bring in new (and potentially contaminated) stock at a regular interval. So the day you (any one of us) stopped in to store X, Y, or Z could have been the day the wholesaler just send a shipment of almost dead fish from the Indo Pacific that were caught by chemical means. Yes I agree that some stores are not what we (as reef snobs) would consider to be the highest standards, but some of these stores don't have an unlimited budget to provide the product the top of the line care immediately, they grow and can afford better equipment as time goes on...I would just hate to see some small shop stop carrying Salt supplies and fish because they got a bad rap from the "BRS" survey as they were trying to get things together and improve the ability to grow in this area.

I won't tell you how long I saved and how much I am spending on my 400 gallon system, but I can tell you there are very few stores out there that would (or could) drop that much to just get started...they have to LEARN and grow first too (just like we all did when we started our first tanks)...and have qualified/experienced help to make it all work(and that is almost impossible to find these days).

Sorry, I will set off the soapbox now...but I just wanted to vent alittle so before people fill this out they take a step back and really think about this before we send some of these places up the river, and if you don't think BRS has that kind of leverage, talk to the Board members sometimes...or even some of the store owners, they visit the boards frequently and also chat amongst themselves about what goes on.

PS this is not an attack on anyone so don't get uptight if you feel this was towards you, the Connecticut group had a similar exp and it turned into a hate war...I just want to provide some useful ideas to prevent the samething from happening...

Jason

 

[~Flighty~]

If you have been to a store once, remember that it is a single data point.

I agree, That is one reason why a survey can be useful. Each person's experience is a data point for us and we also can have a question about how many times you've been to the store in the past year to know where the more robust data points are. I know there are stores that I don't like that I stop into every once and a while to see what they have and it is always pretty bad. That information would be more useful than a store that I went to once and the tanks were full of flatworms.

I think with an online form it would be easy to have a coment section for each store that lets you say why you rated them the way you did. It wouldn't be a good idea to release these coments because it would start arguments, but if the person collecting the data sees that 25 people all said that a particular store smells funny, that can be noted and it would help the store owner know why people are steering clear.

 

[~Flighty~]