Pricing Frustration

I’m going to start this post off with a story about one of the LFS in my area.  While ReefRaft has a reputation for having nice stock, they’re also know for treating their customers with contempt and dishonesty.

I hadn’t been to their store in over a year.  It was part of my protest.  If I did stop there and buy something, I’d always have buyer’s remorse.  No matter what I paid for a coral, I’d always feel ripped off.

So, I stayed away.  A few weeks ago, I decided to give them another chance.  Maybe my one person protest worked and they had completely changed their attitude.  So I went, along with Vlad to one of their shipments.  While there were a few pretty corals, I shied away because of my previous experiences with them.  Also, the prices were pretty high.

Finally I settled on a piece.  I’m not sure what it was, but someone said it was a type of acan.  The colours were stunning and it looked more like a watercolour painting than a coral.  There were two pieces of it.  One was nice and big and healthy, the other smaller with some tissue damage.  I asked a price, $45 for the bigger and healthier version.  Not bad, I thought.  I still decided to wait.  I hadn’t gotten over my hesitation for dealing with that store.

We decided to hit a couple of other stores before going back to ReefRaft.  I was in the area, why not?  There were two pieces left and even if one sold, I could grab the other.

Two hours later, I was back ready to buy.  Unfortunately, someone else had an eye on that piece too.  Not that big of a deal, I could buy the other smaller piece.  I asked for a price.

“Ummm…$55 for the smaller one”, I was told.

“What?  I you said $45 for the bigger one.  Why is this one more?”

“That one’s $65.  Not $45.”

Infuriated, I left the store.  I’ve told this story to everyone who would listen.  Now, I’m posting about it on my blog, while it doesn’t get a lot of daily traffic, is still a black mark for ReefRaft.  It’s not so much the price of the coral, but that the price increased nearly 50% in two hours.  It’s extremely shady.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution to this.  All stores should post prices for their coral.  There should be an easy way for you to instantly know the price of any coral in the store.  Every store should go out and do this right now.  Go.  Now.  Make a sign.

I’ve been to a lot of stores.  I know what a reef store looks like.  I know how they operate.  I know how shipments work.  There is no excuse for not having a written sign explaining the pricing scheme.

This works two ways.  Sometimes employees can be taken advantage by lack of pricing.

There are a couple of stores in the Toronto area that have done pricing properly.  SeaUMarine writes prices for every fish and coral on the front of their tanks.  A lot of work?  Yes, but it eliminates any question that there’s preferential pricing.  North American Fish Breeders works on a flat rate of $40 per coral.  Sometimes their shipment days are crazy as there are some nice pieces to be had.

I don’t know that if ReefRaft changed the way that they did their pricing it would be enough for me to go back.  They have shown a lot of contempt for their customers and the industry.