New Vendor Experience

[Mando77]

I was visiting a friend in Richmond this weekend and I went down to a store called Fish World. If no one has visited the aquarium stores in Richmond you should, because they are nice and carry different items. My friend is setting up a new tank and he needed help so I tagged along. Fish World is a nice store with an interesting owner Joe Genero. I couldn't get a read on him, but he didn't hesitate to put down other local stores and tell you his products where the best. I found this a bit annoying even though his store was nice. He also had some unusual reef keeping ideas or ways I am not familiar with. He has nice diplay tanks and I asked him what he doses. He said nothing. I was like what do you mean. Its a large SPS tank. He said he just uses Tropic Marin salt and uses TM Biocalcium. I just thought that was extremely interesting. I didn't think it made much sense from a cost stand point. All Joe would talk about was large tanks and custom installations in peoples house acting like that was the norm? Not to mention he was the biggest homer of Tunze and Reef Octopus I have ever seen. Nothing wrong with thoose brands, but he just shoot down everything else. He even slammed LED lighting, which he had non of in the store. I told him I'm growing SPS under LED lights and he seemed surprised then changed the topic. I just think its amazing to ignore how valuable and important LED light is and will be going forward. He acting like it was worthless.

 

It was a nice store, but I could not ignore some of the ego and BS he was trying to sell my friend.

 

I just wanted to get a dose of reality and see if anyone else knew about this store and its owner.

[Glenn]

I just think its amazing to ignore how valuable and important LED light is and will be going forward.

 

I have visited one store in Richmond but I don't remember which one it was (or where it was actually located), but from a general Business 101 perspective I can sorta understand not dealing with LEDs - no repeat / maintenance opportunity. It will be YEARS before you need to replace the LED lights, and the light unit should last just as long. MH and T5's all need need bulbs.

[Coral Hind]

I think with his attitude and narrow thinking towards different brands and lighting types he will not last long unless he gets a more open mind. Not at least offer to sell LED's means he is losing potential business as the hobby makes the shift over to LED's.

 

I also moved the topic to the vendor experience section.

[Black Mammoth]

That's a nice store. I know which one you are talking about. When I was in there he was very nice. I told him that I was from the DC area visiting. He didn't care, he took his time with me and showed off his store and his big tank. He even gave me some additional advice. Lynn loved that store and he was friends with him. If I lived in Richmond, I would probably go to that store. I've been to some of the other stores down there and I wasn't really impressed. I also understand Joe's position on some of those stores. Allegedly one of the stores down there did some shady things to try and hurt his business.

[roni]

I've been a supporter of fishworld in the past but I am not anymore.

 

Joe is a nice enough guy and his tanks speak for themselves. They are geared towards people with money i.e. people that walk into a store, say I want this, and don't really care how much it costs or any real interest in how things work.

 

The prices in the store reflect this and are high, very high. Despite this, he sells a fair amount of coral/fish. He does tend to get some of the nicer/harder to get stuff.

 

My personal beef relates to being stood up for an install. I'd originally hired them to do the tank move and initial install of my new setup, given the weight of the tank and my horrible schedule in the 2 months after the tank was supposed to be put in. After about 10 calls, got a date hammered down, and switched around my schedule to accomodate them. They basically failed to show up and didn't call when they didn't show up and didn't answer phone calls/emails. Finally got an email the next day. Joe promised to take care of the setup and get me in but after another 10 calls and attempts to get them to come out, I finally gave up. Thankfully my wamas and richmond reefers friends stepped up and helped get everything in

 

Reading between the lines, I think he has enough big clients (people that spend 10-20K with him) that he doesn't really care what happens with people who don't spend those amounts. He is a nice enough guy and fun to talk reefs with if you can get him when he's not busy but probably not someone you want to depend on (unless you are spending lots of money

 

In terms of the store, some really nice corals from time to time. Gets some nice fish but the prices are high (saw a 2" black tang for $900, a powder blue gold rim hybrid for $500, 6-7" maximas for $750, etc).

 

In terms of equipment preferences, I don't think Joe thinks LEDs aren't good, just not what he prefers. He tends to stick to those things that he's been successful with. He's a very bright guy and very experienced with large tank installs. That's led to a store that has a good reputation and a wealthy clientele. The 750 gallon tank is probably my 2nd favorite LFS display ever (after Greenwich Aquariums).