jackaninny

Finch added

Forgot to update a couple of days ago but Mytshall has the meter now.

Sorry I had to miss the meeting but great job on the news story and getting the club mentioned and a link to the board from the story.

So it looks like Blues is skipping his turn after a change in plans so the next contestant is Mytshall.

Being I bought new bulbs the day AFTER I returned the meter I'd like to get back on the list please

You got it Brad

Kshack has returned the meter and Blues is next up.

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I've started a sticky thread for reporting your results. Everyone is invited to post PAR meter tank pictures but please post make and model of your meter if it is not the club meter. The link to the thread is in the first post of this thread. Thanks.

Adding Mr Mover of the Fast country and Updating the Kshack pickup today

So are you saying that LFS cannot just order a crapload of corals from the wholesalers to be able to sell at a higher volume? For some of the more rare corals/fish obviously you are correct that volume doesn't make sense because you couldn't get that much even if you wanted to' date=' but for corals/fish in general, can't the stores just order however much they are willing to pay for and have space in their store for?[/quote']

 

More coral means more tanks more floor space bigger shop more overhead and you HAVE to turn that inventory at a price that allows you to pay for the additional costs. Sort of a problem if the demand isn't there or if the costs to bring in the demand are too high.

Using your numbers in your example of # of stores and revenue' date=' if you divide 1500 by 70 (to figure how many times more stores Safeway has than WinCo...it's 21) and then multiply the revenue out by that number (21 x $3 billion = $63 billion) to make the comparison even based on # of stores (1500 each), WinCo would out-produce Safeway by $22 billion. You mention that price is only one factor in a customer choosing where they shop, which I agree with, but when the two shops sell the same exact item and one is half the cost, I will always shop at the cheaper store. Your point about stores being closer to home is a valid one, but wouldn't it be worth it to spend the $4 in fuel if you are saving $20+ vs the expensive stores(usually way more than that if you are shopping for 1-2 weeks worth of groceries) on your grocery shopping trip? Relating this to our hobby, if one of us is going to spend $$ on corals and you could get them for $100 at one store and the same corals at another store would be $150, wouldn't you want to go to the cheaper store? I am not trying to argue with you, I am just pointing out some logic that I personally use and I know other consumers use as well. My family also has a relatively tight budget that we try to stick to as well, so this logic may differ in families that have excess money to waste.[/quote']

 

Well if Winco could beat Safeway by simply expanding don't you think they would? Well they don't because they can't. I guarantee you that the property costs (lease or own) alone to expand to the size of Safeway is impossible for Winco to manage in the next 30 years. Think about what it would take to secure property, build and staff 50 stores each year for the next three decades. Distribution by itself would take a tremendous amount of capital and who says Winco is a good credit risk or that there is enough money available to be pumped into the grocery industry. All of this assumes that Winco would be able to keep the same cost structure at 25 times their current size (hint - they wouldn't). Just because you make money at a certain size in a certain region does not mean that success will translate to other regions or scale to any size you want.

 

You and I may place a different value on our time so the time alone to make the longer trip makes me choose convenience over price. It's not irrational and it's not "a waste" if I can make an additional $50 in that hour or if I think an extra hour with my family or going for a bike ride is worth the extra money spent at Safeway. I really like Westside but it's literally a 45-60 minute drive for me so I usually don't make it out there unless I'm passing by on a unrelated and required trip such as coming from the coast. Tim does a good job of running specials that can get me out there but I'd guess he gets most of his business from the Westside of the Metro area or people making a dedicated trip to the area. Tim shouldn't work that hard to make me an exclusive customer because he'd go broke doing it and probably underserve his regulars and under cut e margins he makes on them.

 

I wouldn't shop at a LFS if I felt the store didn't value my business, take the time to listen to me and answer my questions, had a poor selection, didn't offer to match a price if it was brought to their attention or if they talked down the competition. I don't care how much less expensive they were if they aren't meeting at least three on those criteria I'm not shopping there. I'd bet money that the vast majority of people on this board would not put price as the top factor when picking a LFS to spend their money - I'd guess selection and store 'friendlyness' would be higher on the same list.

Oh' date=' in regards to the Steve Jobs comment, the 51% profit is not how much Apple makes per iPod or iPhone etc., it is how much their profits are as a company (or in this case a division of the company). I would bet that the majority of these profits come from accessory sales for the mobile devices (electronics accessories have AT LEAST 50% margins, but most of the time its more like 70-80%). A good example would be USB cables. You may pay $30 for one at the store, but if you were to ask the store cost, its about $3. I think its probably the same with saltwater stuff that is necessary for us to have...the things we need all the time like salt and glue and frag plugs and test kits probably have huge margins.[/quote']

 

The 51% I linked to refers to the percentage of profits available in the mobile phone industry - Apple has a 4% marketshare of the industry and yet makes 51% of the profits in that sector. In plain words - they dominate and yet they sell premium devices at a higher price point than most manufacturers. The overwhelming share of Apple's profits still come from hardware sales with iTunes, software and accessories

 

As a company Apple has 40% gross margin and roughly 28% net margin which is unheard of for a hardware company. This week Apple is expected to report revenue of $26 billion for the last quarter with a 'computer' marketshare of just under 10% . As recently as 2009 Apple was making 25% of the PC markets overall profits with that tiny marketshare.

 

Apple is certainly a unique company but the lesson is still the same - consumers can and will pay more for a higher quality product - even in a recession. Price is NOT a single factor in the buying decision.

Based on my experience as a territory sales manager for Kraft foods (I know grocery is different than a hobby' date=' but I think there may be a similar outcome here), I noticed that the store that had the lowest prices, in my case it was Winco Foods, also had the most sales. WinCo sells a TON of groceries because they are the lowest price ANYWHERE in town and they are ALWAYS busy and they may not have as high of profit margins as some other stores such as Safeway or Albertsons (which their SALE prices are not even as low as WinCo's normal prices), but since they have so much more volume, they are making a TON of money. My Albertson's stores were the worst sales for me because they were the highest priced and Safeway was right behind them and both stores had only a fraction of the business as WinCo. Those stores are in a way like convenience stores IMO, people go there when they need something RIGHT NOW or they just buy the sale items. Yeah those stores will make a higher profit per item, but if they are not selling very many of the items, they are not making any money at all. I guess my take on this idea is that if you have lower prices but do more volume, then you will come out WAY ahead. Having 20 customers buy an item at 50% margin is not nearly as profitable as 100 customers buying your item at 30% margin (ex. an item is $50 at cost, 50% margin makes it $100 so your 20 customers give you $2000 in sales and $1000 in profit. The same item at 30% margin is $65 but 100 people buy (since you are the lowest price you will have lots more customers) it which makes your sales $6500 for a $1500 profit.)[/quote']

 

I think your example is a little simplistic unless of course a guy like Steve Jobs has no clue how he's making 51% of the profits in the mobile industry with only a 4% market share:

 

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/31/apples_4_mobile_market_share_rakes_in_over_half_the_industrys_profit.html

 

Safeway has 1,500+ stores in the United States alone and had $41 billion in revenue in 2009 and nearly 200,000 employees world wide.

 

Winco has 70 store with 10,000 employees and $3 billion in revenue.

 

I doubt Safeway execs lose much sleep at night over Winco.

 

People go to Safeway because they like the store layout, quality of the product and convenience of not having to drive to all over hell and back to find a store. Living in NE PDX I can goto Safeway on 71st, do all my shopping and be home in the same amount of time it would take to get to the nearest Winco, and park and pick out a cart. It's going to cost me an extra $4 in fuel for the Winco trip on top of that. Price is a SINGLE factor for consumers and not always the top one.

My MP10 is not noticeable in my 29 running at ~40% and even at the higher speeds it's pretty quiet. It did take about 4 weeks for it to quiet down so there does seem to be a break in period.

Next batter is Kshack!

Looks good. Can't wait to see what it does over corals.

I'd be worried about the 6000-6500K part

You could notch those 4x4 so the rest the 2x4 inside the notch - chop saw and then a hammer and chisel. Counter sink those lags so you have a even surface to skin and it wouldn't hurt if they were stainless.

Keep updating this thread so we can follow along and see what happens.

How many hours are your heat packs going to last? I would say just one heat pack. I actually just lost 2 coral from it getting too hot. I used a 20+ hour heat pack in a 6x6x6 box. I insulatated it with 3/4" stryo I bought at home depot. What I shouldn't have done is taped the seams of my insulated cooler but I did put a hole on the top of the box where the heat pack was located. Three of my shipments did make it that day. Overall I wish I hadn't taped the seams and think I would have had better success. I was going to try the thinner stryofoam as well. Make sure to tape it to the top and put a bunch of new paper between it and the corals.

 

As far as heat packs go the wet spot sells the 20 hour ones . They ship alot at the cyclid exchange and recommend only using the 20 and 40 hour for some reason. Not sure if others have heard the same thing or not.

Good point - the heat packs need some air to maintain the chemical reaction that produces the heat.

Groupon is running a deal for tickets to the Oregon Coast Aquarium - if you are planning on going between now and October it's $15 for 2 adults or $25 for 2 adults & 2 children. Link with the details.

I've got them at REI previously and other outdoor stores should have them.

Alright I have the paper work and the meter. PMing the Junkster to arrange his turn.

Take pictures and draw arrows and circles on them so they can use those as reference when reading the written instructions.

Shout out to Ed's Reef for the Helfrichi firefish. Great deal on a nice fish - eating and getting along with his tank mates so far. Nice job on the shop too - everyone needs to make a trip over there and check it out.

-Marc