Local fish store doesn't want to buy fish

[Hibi]

Hello!

So, Theres a local fish store i frequent, I've brought them assassin snails for trade in and I buy a lot of plants usually. I have an accidental betta spawn and i mentioned it to them but they made it sound like if I wanted to "get rid of them" they have grow out tanks they can put them in so I guess they were suggesting I bring them in for free? they don't seem interested in buying from a local breeder even though they have very standard bettas (veiltails in blue and red) and the occasional koi. What would be a good way to approach? I've set up a "brand" kinda and I put together a few pamphlets if anybody would care to take a look? (its just a template right now so pricing is not what it'll probably be) is this good to make an approach?

 

 

 

 

[Roko]

I am not from USA and i don't know your local prices etc. but this looks good to me.

Only thing i am thinking is that there's not a lot of local store that would buy 20 of same kind betta fishes.

Other thing is that i know for sure is that you need to grow those fish before any store want's to buy them. There isn't much value if any for store to buy small bettas invest in food, vitamins, meds, place in store etc. until they grow out and can be sold. 

Most of the stores will buy already grown bettas 5-10 at the time of preferably different colorations and types.

 

Good luck with your selling.

Edited November 9, 2020 by Roko

[ange]

If you haven't already, I'd suggest listening to this livestream in particular as Dean went pretty in-depth about not just breeding/raising bettas but also why he doesn't really breed them anymore.

From my perspective, the store is looking at bringing in potentially 300 VERY similar looking fish that can't be kept together and that makes it logistically very difficult for them to sell the fish sustainably. I know you said you're not completely sure of what your prices will be but as-is I definitely think they are too high. If you're not better than their wholesaler (through quality or price, though it could be another factor) it's unlikely they will purchase from you at those rates. The store I've discussed pricing with maxes out how much they pay at 25% of the price they intend to list it at if there is no established relationship. I've been offered a better price ($1.50/quarter sized angelfish vs $1) because 1) I have pinoys which are unavailable from their wholesalers and 2) we had an established relationship before I've even sold them fish just from me hanging out at the store every other week and making myself memorable in a positive way.

[yannachka]

while bettas aren't very difficult to breed (in my experience) i'm very curious how you were able to breed them accidentally? accidents don't really happen in betta breeding since it involves some conditioning and keeping the male with the female. your pricing is very good for retail and selling directly to customers but compared to wholesale lists, they're very high. i know you said those aren't the set prices which is why i'm mentioning this to you. if i were a store i would not purchase at that price since they're practically 50-75% of the retail shelf price. stores also want variety and most bettas will look rather similar in a spawn. it will be hard to find a store to purchase 20x minimum bettas that look similar at those prices, you're going to need to half the prices if not discount more. i can currently order assorted halfmoon males for around $5 from our wholesaler so you'll need to stay around there to compete although this will vary by your location.

unfortunately bettas are a pretty flooded market and it is very difficult to sell them unless you have a good social media presence and have working relationships with many stores before you breed. it's why i stopped breeding them, as fun as it was actually selling 100 bettas was a pain, especially when most people would rather go buy one for <$10 from petsmart than spend money on a high quality betta bred locally. just my 2 cents.

[Hibi]

6 minutes ago, yannachka said:

while bettas aren't very difficult to breed (in my experience) i'm very curious how you were able to breed them accidentally? accidents don't really happen in betta breeding since it involves some conditioning and keeping the male with the female. your pricing is very good for retail and selling directly to customers but compared to wholesale lists, they're very high. i know you said those aren't the set prices which is why i'm mentioning this to you. if i were a store i would not purchase at that price since they're practically 50-75% of the retail shelf price. stores also want variety and most bettas will look rather similar in a spawn. it will be hard to find a store to purchase 20x minimum bettas that look similar at those prices, you're going to need to half the prices if not discount more. i can currently order assorted halfmoon males for around $5 from our wholesaler so you'll need to stay around there to compete although this will vary by your location.

unfortunately bettas are a pretty flooded market and it is very difficult to sell them unless you have a good social media presence and have working relationships with many stores before you breed. it's why i stopped breeding them, as fun as it was actually selling 100 bettas was a pain, especially when most people would rather go buy one for <$10 from petsmart than spend money on a high quality betta bred locally. just my 2 cents.

I made another post about how it happened, basically I thought I had 2 females in a divided tank and a series of accidents (dividers failed, "female" was actually a male plakat and they weren't "conditioned" per se but I do take care of them so...et voila! lol And no those arent anywhere near the real prices I just made a template.

[Hibi]

also in regards to them looking alike, it was a male solid blue plakat with a marble female so im gonna get an interesting mix i think

[yannachka]

1 minute ago, HibiscusAquatics said:

I made another post about how it happened, basically I thought I had 2 females in a divided tank and a series of accidents (dividers failed, "female" was actually a male plakat and they weren't "conditioned" per se but I do take care of them so...et voila! lol And no those arent anywhere near the real prices I just made a template.

i didn't realize that was you, my bad. i was just curious cause you aren't the first person who has accidentally bred them lol. id visit multiple stores and see if you can work out a bulk deal with them to take 20 at a time of mixed genders/colors, most stores won't really take more than 20 from my experience. you can also advertise and sell on reddit and other forums directly to customers. i think it will be a challenge in my opinion but they can definitely be sold, just know you're probably gonna sit on them for a while. blue tends to be a dominant color in bettas as well so you can expect most of them to be primarily blue marbles with some wildcards thrown in. if i were you id cull pretty heavily so i am only left with 40-60 of the top bettas to sell.

[Daniel]

The only way to truly know if something works is to try it. Your template is actually a business plan in disguise, which is a good thing. Planning is invaluable!

You are off to a good start! The one factor you can control is how persistent you are and that just happens to be a very important factor.

[Cory]

I can comment on why I wouldn't want to buy them as a store. They seem over priced to me for wholesale rates. Buying them 20+ at a time, they are usually the same color variants.  Do you have your business license? What forms of payment are you taking? What guarantee do you provide? What day of the week do you deliver? 

 

Bettas are always going to be hard. I don't even want Dean's bettas, too many of the same betta just doesn't sell. I'm attaching a vendor I don't purchase bettas from, but they are likely the prices a store would be paying in your area. At our ordering level where we import, bettas can be as cheap as 19 cents... The tradeoff is you gotta house and take care of 100 bettas of the same variety type. Typically the most bettas go for wholesale is about $10 each if it's some the latest color/fin types and rare. Usually 30 of them is the minimum. 

What I see is you're an unknown source to the store, charging top dollar with high minimums. There isn't really an incentive for them to use you over wholesalers. Typically bettas from wholesalers are good quality cause they come in weekly and never touch the wholesalers water. Unlike schooling fish that can pick up disease and such and usually do better from a breeder. 

So you might try lower the price some and the quantities to make them more appealing to the store. However this may make them unprofitable to you. While unfortunate, it usually means you'd have to scale to compete, if you can't directly just make a better product. Most people assume their product is better, when in reality, they can be more problematic buying from a local hobbyist, because you have to learn how to keep their fish thriving, vs the wholesaler you buy from all the time.  Things like you keep your bettas at 6.4ph when they need to be at 7.2 to sell to mass public and other such things.

[tolstoy21]

I would just grow them out for the enjoyment of being part of that process. Experience itself has a lot of long-term value, even if you make $0 from it right now (or ever).

After that, try to give them away as gifts to interested people you might know as a way to help them get into the hobby. 

I think there's a lot of value one can get out of transactions beyond making money. If your livelihood isn't dependent on selling these, just try to bank some good karma from rehoming them free of charge, and, in the meantime, enjoy the experience of raising them, if you have the space to do that.

That being said, give them to the LFS free as a last resort. Not that I have anything against store owners, but the last resort for a free gift should be someone else turning a profit off it, unless doing this at your LFS will be seen as a longer term gesture of good will, and help create a relationship beneficial to anything else you plan in the hobby.

Edited November 10, 2020 by tolstoy21

[Hibi]

11 hours ago, Cory said:

I can comment on why I wouldn't want to buy them as a store. They seem over priced to me for wholesale rates. Buying them 20+ at a time, they are usually the same color variants.  Do you have your business license? What forms of payment are you taking? What guarantee do you provide? What day of the week do you deliver? 

 

Bettas are always going to be hard. I don't even want Dean's bettas, too many of the same betta just doesn't sell. I'm attaching a vendor I don't purchase bettas from, but they are likely the prices a store would be paying in your area. At our ordering level where we import, bettas can be as cheap as 19 cents... The tradeoff is you gotta house and take care of 100 bettas of the same variety type. Typically the most bettas go for wholesale is about $10 each if it's some the latest color/fin types and rare. Usually 30 of them is the minimum. 

What I see is you're an unknown source to the store, charging top dollar with high minimums. There isn't really an incentive for them to use you over wholesalers. Typically bettas from wholesalers are good quality cause they come in weekly and never touch the wholesalers water. Unlike schooling fish that can pick up disease and such and usually do better from a breeder. 

So you might try lower the price some and the quantities to make them more appealing to the store. However this may make them unprofitable to you. While unfortunate, it usually means you'd have to scale to compete, if you can't directly just make a better product. Most people assume their product is better, when in reality, they can be more problematic buying from a local hobbyist, because you have to learn how to keep their fish thriving, vs the wholesaler you buy from all the time.  Things like you keep your bettas at 6.4ph when they need to be at 7.2 to sell to mass public and other such things.

Thanks Cory! The pricing wasn't at all for actual selling purposes I just made a template and needed some placeholders. But I will keep this about the pricing in mind! 

[Lemon]

where is the template? i don't see anything.

[Daniel]

9 minutes ago, quirkylemon103 said:

where is the template? i don't see anything.

This is the template, or in other words, a general outline of a proposed price sheet. The prices and the fish on the list are flexible. That's why it is a template.

If @Hibi's career selling fish doesn't pan out. I see a bright future as a graphic artist! 🙂

[Lemon]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

This is the template, or in other words, a general outline of a proposed price sheet. The prices and the fish on the list are flexible. That's why it is a template.

If @Hibi's career selling fish doesn't pan out. I see a bright future as a graphic artist! 🙂

was this in the original post? i didn't see it

[Daniel]

3 minutes ago, quirkylemon103 said:

was this in the original post? i didn't see it

It is in my browser

[Daniel]

11 minutes ago, quirkylemon103 said:

was this in the original post? i didn't see it

Cory had to edit the photo a bit and I bet that action removed it from your view.

[Lemon]

oh

[Hibi]

3 hours ago, Daniel said:

This is the template, or in other words, a general outline of a proposed price sheet. The prices and the fish on the list are flexible. That's why it is a template.

If @Hibi's career selling fish doesn't pan out. I see a bright future as a graphic artist! 🙂

Haha thanks Daniel! I do love designing things

[Hibi]

On 11/9/2020 at 12:17 PM, ange said:

If you haven't already, I'd suggest listening to this livestream in particular as Dean went pretty in-depth about not just breeding/raising bettas but also why he doesn't really breed them anymore.

From my perspective, the store is looking at bringing in potentially 300 VERY similar looking fish that can't be kept together and that makes it logistically very difficult for them to sell the fish sustainably. I know you said you're not completely sure of what your prices will be but as-is I definitely think they are too high. If you're not better than their wholesaler (through quality or price, though it could be another factor) it's unlikely they will purchase from you at those rates. The store I've discussed pricing with maxes out how much they pay at 25% of the price they intend to list it at if there is no established relationship. I've been offered a better price ($1.50/quarter sized angelfish vs $1) because 1) I have pinoys which are unavailable from their wholesalers and 2) we had an established relationship before I've even sold them fish just from me hanging out at the store every other week and making myself memorable in a positive way.

Yeah I can see why someone wouldn't breed them anymore but this was a complete accident XD I mean I kinda was looking to breed anyway (mostly for interesting mixes/colors that arent around yet) so I was starting to set up but I was not expecting this at all XD

[ange]

7 hours ago, Hibi said:

Yeah I can see why someone wouldn't breed them anymore but this was a complete accident XD I mean I kinda was looking to breed anyway (mostly for interesting mixes/colors that arent around yet) so I was starting to set up but I was not expecting this at all XD

I'm with you. One of my "want to but not practical" projects is breeding Betta mahachaiensis. They're such a beautiful species to me.