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www.cheapfish.co.uk scam?

Some of the problems are the costs involved in having a business premises that's why I work from home
The business rates (tax paid to local government) is almost the same as the rent in my town

Then you have to pay minimum wage which I totally agree with
But then you have to pay national insurance and pension money etc etc
So if I had a small lfs of 1000 square feet area
rent is about £650 per month
Business tax £550 per month
1 employee £1400 per month
So that £2600 before
Water
Electricity ( silly high prices)
Transport - van etc
Buildings insurance
Public liability insurance
My salary
Plus we have to pay 20% vat on all stock
Plus lots more

Now you can see why lfs owners mainly do it for the love and not the money

So when you going out buying fish etc I bet most of you go to the garden centres or one of the big chains etc
That's because they have the stock where as the small lfs has to order it in
"We want it today" is how we live
So people pay these high prices for a few reason
1 we want it today
2 the big chains are easy to find in garden centres and big shops on retail parks
3. Small lfs can't afford prime locations so harder to find

In general most people are inpatient and lazy

Virtually everyone in the uk has had per fish at some point but very few stay in the hobby mainly due to fish deaths and dirty tanks which is due to them either not bothering to research the subject, being given bad advise or being sold poor quality fish or inappropriate species

Rant over



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Totally agree with supporting small independent retailers, i have been using a shop near me for the last 25 years, he's a great bloke with a passion for what he is doing and always gives good advice even if that means losing a sale for livestock that would be unsuitable for a particular customer. I also get that these chain store sized aquatic shops have much larger overheads , multiple staff to pay , larger business rates etc etc and its obviously the customers who end up having to pay more for livestock and dry goods to pay for the increased outlay of the business owner, thats just life. Whilst i agree that the price of fish can vary for the reasons you mentioned above its not justified to charge nearly £10 for a fish that other stores within the same group are selling for £3.00 especially when they are all paying the same price at the same time from the same supplier. One of these shops was recently asking£50.00 for female koi betta, just my opinion but that is just ripping people off.
 
One large chain (animals at work ) only pay for fish once they have sold them, the supplier takes the hit of any loses
Can a lfs stick their tanks for free ? NO
this is why I think they are not the place to buy fish from as they don't usually have any specialist staff and there prices are also stupidly high


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. Trust me, very few people get rich in the UK aquatics industry, most of the time it's done for love; even some at the top of the tree of big retailers are avid fishkeepers.

.

It was funny at the last trade show in Telford, most people arrived in old bangers except all the guys who only sold koi, they had Mercs:lol:
 
It was funny at the last trade show in Telford, most people arrived in old bangers except all the guys who only sold koi, they had Mercs:lol:

Now that's one way to rip people off
It's all about snobbery


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One large chain (animals at work ) only pay for fish once they have sold them, the supplier takes the hit of any loses
Can a lfs stick their tanks for free ? NO
this is why I think they are not the place to buy fish from as they don't usually have any specialist staff and there prices are also stupidly high


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Interesting to find that out. My local store will be popular with the wholesaler then, always plenty of dead fish on view.. what makes me laugh is the process you have to go through before they will sell you a fish when its very clear that the "fish expert " in store hasn't got a clue what they are taking about. Goes for aquatic plants too, once saw a staff member selling some Draceana sp. To an unsuspecting customer, telling them how easy they were to keep
 
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