Went to the big box store today....

[Guppysnail]

On 3/13/2023 at 1:19 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Don’t tell a tattooed leather-clad biker to go vegan! 

I happen to know a few leather clad bikers who are vegan 🤣

[Lennie]

On 3/14/2023 at 1:09 AM, Guppysnail said:

I happen to know a few leather clad bikers who are vegan 🤣

We indeed have many vegan-friendly "leather" options! 😄

Like apple leather!

Edited March 13, 2023 by Lennie

[nabokovfan87]

I'm still surprised by the conference call radio method to help a customer. Boggles the mind.

[Theplatymaster]

On 1/21/2023 at 11:23 AM, MattyM said:

You have a platy shirt!? Where'd you get it! I gotta see one lol. 

i just got mine off of amazon, though im sure there are plenty of fish apparel companies that will sell you one.

[nabokovfan87]

I went to the big box store again today, but this time I went to "the good one".

IT WAS AWESOME!

It's a big box store, but for me it's my one and only real LBBFS and it's what I have available if I want to buy fish in person.  I went in the store and the manager was there who is the fish person.  He greeted me and I couldn't quite tell if he was excited to see me because he remembered me from visits years ago pre-pandemic or was just being cheerful.  I was excited to see him because I know that's good that he's at the store and running things.  He is a good dude and works really hard.

I went in looking for a tank, but I did the usual search through all of the fish section.  Every aisle is half-height and only about 4 foot high, most of them only 2 shelves.  To give you an idea of how condensed this is the entire aquatics section is probably 12 foot x 20 foot.  Each endcap, in order, you have the betta section, plant tank, frozen food, and then turtles.  First aisle is tanks and hardscape.  They have actual rock bins and wood chunks.  Out of 4 stores in the area this was the first one to really have any sort of decor.  They have one of each tank out and then replace it on the floor as customers buy them.  This also cuts on dings, scratches, and tank damage if done correctly (and they do).  So that alone means it's just worth the drive every time aqueon is on sale.  Second aisle is lights and then you have all the gravel and fake plants.  Next aisle is your maintenance tools, chemicals, additives. and all of your food.  4th aisle is saltwater and filtration.  The last aisle is pond items, reptile frozen foods, and then you have some random assorted things that I would term "specialty" tools for aquariums.  Might be a test kit, salinity tools, sand, or something for a trickle filter and big packages of filter floss.  It's seriously impressive how much is there.  30+ foods in a little section and you can see everything right there.  It's all in stock, looks neat, and everything was in it's place.

I checked out the tanks and all the fish looked good.  They don't have a massive selection as you'd expect, but I did get to see silvertip tetras for the first time.  I really do need to get them some day.  They have a guppy tank, a tetra tank, glofish, 2-3 massive tanks for feeder fish, cichlids, and then they have a lot of really good looking clown fish and saltwater tanks.  They had rainbow sharks and some plecos, but I couldn't tell what kind they were so I didn't end up getting one. 

We spent some time with the shelter dogs and really wanted to take half of them home.  Just what everyone needs, a horde of pups!  As we were standing there the manager tells one of his coworkers that he's headed off to lunch and I really wanted to just thank him for how good the store looked, but I didn't want to bother him during his brief break.  As always, sometimes you are doing amazing things and no one notices.  Sometimes you're doing amazing things and someone notices, but doesn't say anything.  I hope and imagine that the sales in this store compared to all the others in the area make it clear how well the fishy section is doing.  Genuinely, I really hope so.  I could only imagine what this store would really be able to do if they had double the tanks, removed glofish, had proper betta tanks (like the co-op), but it's just good to see them doing a really good job and to see the fish looking good.

As I went to checkout with my new tank, the lady there razzed me a little bit and said, "ah, someone is going to have a fun weekend!"  😂 We talked about planted tanks, neocaridina shrimp colors, and it just continued to add-on to that really enjoyable shopping experience.   I'll end up leaving a yelp review or something, doing something for them, but I just wanted to share some positivity.  For anyone who might not have an LFS and only has a LBBFS, be sure to check and find "the good one" if you can and take that drive.  I can promise you it's always worth it.  The good stores really do exist.