妈妈和流行杂货店，当地的五金店，Corner Fiff Cigh是大部分商店，由于大型商店取代了它们，我们一生中大部分时间都消失了。不幸的是，我们心爱的本地鱼类商店（LFS）越来越多地发生同样的事情。在我自己的地区，在过去的几年中，至少六家商店已经关闭，这让我感到非常沮丧。
这不仅仅是当地现象，就像我的旅行中，我在全国范围内至少看到了其他十家大型商店，当时我去过他们的城市时经常经常经常出现。这是令人惊讶的，有点令人沮丧，考虑到现在的爱好中可能有更多的人，因此现在的业余爱好也有更多的钱，因此您认为商店变得更容易成功的。
So the question is why are so many small shops going out of business and more importantly, what can they do to stay in business?
这些商店消亡的原因与商店本身一样多。有些人归咎于大型商店的兴起，但现实是这些已经存在了十多年了，尽管大型盒子和连锁店可能会偷走一些初学者的爱好者，但它们也可能会帮助更多的人进入业余爱好- 因此，如果他们确实成为认真的业余爱好者，他们将寻找更多的高级商店，因此它们对LFSS的影响应该很小。
另一个原因可能是，这些商店中的许多商店都是由我年龄段和年龄段的人们拥有和经营的，当他们去世或达到退休年龄时，他们的孩子不想从事家族企业。由于这些商店中的许多商店现在每周七天开放，每天10-12个小时开放，难道孩子不想跟随父母的脚步吗？
By the same token, it has also gotten more and more expensive to set up and run a brick and mortar fish store considering things like the high cost of utilities, insurance, and benefits for employees just to name a few things. However, all of these things are considered small potatoes by the shop owners I have spoken to who are seeing their sales drop and most cite the same reason they are worried or are out of business: The Internet.
许多LFS认为他们的竞争大部分不再是下一个城镇的商店，也不是大型商店沿途的商店，而是他们的客户现在在网上进行大量水族馆购物。同样，许多人认为他们现在被一两次拳打而受到打击，这对他们来说很难与他们竞争。
首先是来自在网上从车库或地下室出售鱼类和珊瑚的人们的竞争，因此相对于砖和砂浆商店的开销和费用较小。结果，LFS所有者认为这些商店比它们具有不公平的优势。但是，我认为这只是部分正确，因为这些人必须更多地应对运输的异想天开和成本，并且由于天气或无法解释的货运公司而造成的全部货物频繁损失。
Also most of these individuals do not have anywhere near the space that a LFS possesses so they are limited in the selection they can deliver. So if the LFS do their job properly, thesefly-by-nighters不应拥有他们担心的竞争优势。尽管这些人可能会从LFSS中夺走一些业务，但他们都已经意识到，他们最大的威胁现在是由800磅重的互联网大猩猩构成的：亚马逊。
这位宠物和水族馆零售的相对新来的人确实是一个令人担忧的竞争对手。I won’t go into details as to why it is such a threat other than to say most shops make the majority of their profits from dry goods, as dry goods don’t die, and this internet company along with some of the other big online pet companies are taking away a significant portion of their dry goods business in many instances.
So considering what the competition is and that it is not going to go away any time soon, what can a LFS do to stay in business and be successful? As the old cliché from the 60’s and 70’s said “If you can’t beat em, join em”. And no I’m not suggesting that LFS pack things up move to a garage and become an internet business, but rather like the internet based competition they take advantage of the competitive advantages that they possess, while at the same time use all of the technology that is now available.
First and foremost they need to realize that they cannot continue to do business like they have for the past 20 years and expect to remain viable. The market has changed dramatically especially in the last ten years and if they don’t keep up they will be out of business. So they need to have and develop a presence on the internet and in social media.
Many of the brick and mortar LFSs that continue to be successful have a presence in these avenues, far in excess of the size of the shops themselves. If I had not visited the shops and had only seen their webpage, gotten their emails and seen their Facebook page, I would have thought that they were physically much bigger than they actually are.
Even so, their use of these media had me excited to visit their shops long before I actually made it to them. When used properly, a LFS makes the customer want to visit the shop. They can use it to announce promotions, sales, workshops, speakers etc. But they can also use it to announce the new arrival of just about anything. They should use it to announce that they are getting in a new piece of equipment or light and want to demonstrate it to their customers.
或LFS可以宣布一批新的鱼类，珊瑚或植物的到来，从而使他们的客户在到达时兴奋地到达那里。我知道这听起来可能很琐碎，但是我仍然记得生动地记得当我知道新珊瑚的到来时，我多么兴奋，我将是当地商店中的第一家经历它们的人。我假设我并不孤单地预料到这一点，所以商店应该利用这一点来竞争。但这只有在他们也获得更多吸引顾客的常见内容之外，才能成功。
使用这种哲学,这些商店真的需要take advantage of one other unique thing they possess: unlike many retail establishments a LFS is a destination. Like going to a good restaurant or designer store, there is usually some planning and thought before one decides to take a drive to the LFS. Unfortunately most shops don’t take advantage of this.
那么，LFS如何利用这一点并使它对我们的客户有益？首先，拜访您的商店的经历愉快。商店应该干净整洁，员工友好且知识渊博，但不要霸道，因此在商店里很有趣。同样，坦克也应该清洁，有条理，愉快地观看（一些不错的音乐也不会受到伤害）。
Considering that 80-90% of the people in the hobby are beginners or intermediate hobbyists, this is the market that should be catered to, but where many shops fail. They fail in that not enough of them show their customers what can be accomplished and that they are willing to explain how it can be done and that they can help them through the process.
为了做到这一点，他们应该拥有各种显示罐，以展示使用他们出售和手头的设备的可能性。不幸的是，我很少看到在商店中发生这种情况，当客户问为什么一种设备的价格与另一台设备的价格不同时，更糟糕的是，这证明价格差异的原因常常是商店里的人们不知道的。结果，客户在线检查以查看原因，然后因此在线购买设备。
To take this one step further when a shop has a great display tank they can use it as a money maker by also selling frags from the corals in the tank. While I don’t advocate constantly taking frags from the display tank as this detracts from its beauty, it is rather easy to set up a frag tank to hold frags of the rare corals in the display tank. This makes it easier for hobbyists that want to replicate the tank to do so, and it also allows rare corals to be distributed to multiple hobbyists rather than just one lucky one.
Another reason why people go to the LFS is when something breaks in their tank. Usually when something goes wrong we need to fix or replace that piece of equipment immediately. So if a shop wants to establish and keep a loyal customer it should stock replacement parts for most of the equipment it sells.
没有什么比去一家商店买了一块破裂的设备更令人沮丧在最糟糕的两天甚至一夜之间，如果是紧急情况，请在最糟糕的两天内获得一些东西。虽然我们知道他们无法库存所有东西，但某些部分会以足够的规律性破裂，以使它们保持库存，因为如果他们有一部分，我们将去那里得到它。
同样，我们也有一个很好的想法。因此，当我们需要一部分设备或一件设备时，商店告诉我们它的价格是50％或高于我们可以在线获得的价格，如果我们在线上可以让它不高兴。10-20％的价格差异似乎是合理的，可以支付其必须存放的成本，但这对我来说是过分的。
Another thing that a successful shop has to take advantage of: when we are in the shop if they have something we want, we will buy it. Most of us are impulse shoppers, at least when we are in a LFS and see a fish or coral or piece of equipment that we just have to have. So in this regard if LFSs are going to survive they need to bring in things that we want and as a result feel we need.
如果我们看不到它们，那么我们认为我们不需要它们。如果您像我一样，并且在一家商店里只能购买冷冻食品，并看到一块不错的珊瑚或一条有趣的鱼，我们大多数人都会购买它。而且，尽管商店可以在销售黄色唐人和多米诺骨牌少女时幸存下来，但只有在他们带来更多的东西来驱使我们的情况下，他们才会蓬勃发展，这是要购买的冲动购物者。
So why should we, the people who love this hobby care if all the LFSs go out of business or not? First, most people who have shops are or were passionate hobbyists like ourselves who wanted to make their hobby into a business and many of us share that secret desire. And most of us also still pull for the small guy so it is in our nature to want them to succeed.
其次，它为我们提供了一个闲逛的地方，而我们的配偶或附近的其他重要商店也给了我们一些期待在旅行或度假时参观的东西。拥有LFS生存也可以提供竞争，尽管今天的业余爱好成本很高，但想象只有少数实体提供所有鱼类或设备的费用会高得多。
Lastly the LFS is also the first place where many hobbyists get started in the hobby, I doubt if many individuals got their start because of a tank they saw online. As nice as they can be they just don’t provide the experience that seeing a great tank in person provides. I still fondly recall walking into a local shop as a kid called Frank’s Aquarium. It was a typical LFS of the day and its big draw was a 120 gallon show tank that was full of 100s of cardinal tetras, and Vallisneria plants with black gravel and was lit with purplish fluorescent tubes.
那个坦克是我对爱好的热爱，当我看到第一对Percula小丑或海马时，我甚至都不会进入。可悲的是，弗兰克（Frank's）不见了，但是当我第一次走进商店并看到一个非常壮观的坦克时，这种感觉仍然笼罩着我，我敢肯定，对于许多其他人来说，这种感觉也一样。
It would be a pity if our local fish stores continued to decline in number. Hopefully this will not be the case.
