[seuadr]

Well, i checked out the pet station in jackson this morning.. they seem to have a decent selection of fish, but that is about it. not much hardware, no plants that i saw, and very, very few rocks/driftwood, etc that i saw.

 

[Plant keeper]

Well, i checked out the pet station in jackson this morning.. they seem to have a decent selection of fish, but that is about it. not much hardware, no plants that i saw, and very, very few rocks/driftwood, etc that i saw.

Yeah there lame i went there and payed 30.00 for a 2" synodontis petricola when i could have gotten the same one for 10.00 :icon_cry::thumbsdow

 

[ajmckay]

ajmckay

Did either of the stores have any plants? Also thanks for posting your thoughts.

Royal had a few 30g tanks with probably 6-7 variety of plants in it. They looked good and some of them were buy one get one free. I don't know enough about plants to remember which ones they were as I'm not really ready to add some to my tank yet, but they looked healthy.

I honestly don't recall if the Aquarium shop had plants... I'm sure they do they just might be mixed into the various tanks. Either way the 2 stores are so close together you can get from one to the other in just a few minutes.

I did notice that the Petco at Coolidge & 14mile had a nice plant tank. Again I can't comment to the kinds of plants, but at least they aren't the little plastic packs.

Kees has IMO the best plants I've seen lately. They had quite a variety, the FW guy Sheldon is a true FW nerd, and they have high-intensity lighting on the tank (it's a step tank so some of it is deep and some of it is shallow). I'm seriously considering buying some glosso from Kees. I'm just not sure if that would be better for my tank than some dwarf hair grass.

 

[Slippryrock]

I'm going out on a limb here. I have opened a small store in Hillsdale on December 1st 2012. As much as i would prefer to be purely aquatic in my small market I am forced to do everything in order to keep the doors open. Reptiles, small animal, birds and arachnids. Prior to opening I have been an auto mechanic for the past 20 years. My town has always been in need of a pet store and has had a few over the years. My good friend once owned one that he started from scratch and had a good run. His store was established and growing when he sold it after 6 years to move onto bigger and better things. The new owners tanked it in record time for several reasons. Since being in the hobby since i was 10 or 12 years old and had been haunting pet shops every since I decided with his help and advice that i would open my own.
I have been in a lot of stores over the years and am trying hard to make it what I think most people would like in a local mom and pop shop. It is however very hard to do in such a small market appealing to everybody. I have big ambitions and lots planned for growth but it will take time to expand safely. I hope people are not passing judgement on what they see currently in my store and can hopefully see the potential in what my wife and I are trying to create. We are doing this on a meager budget and it will take time and support to grow it out. Over the past few months we were able to greatly improve our selection and inventory but still have a long way to go. Now that the store is looking better and we have learned the ropes a bit it is now time to start doing more advertising to help us get the store some legs.
As it stands currently I am not getting many true hobbyists in. We hope to change that soon. I have put a few items in store that would only appeal to hobbyists as an indication that the store is interested and willing to carry the more hard to find stuff that we all like to see when we go into a store. But until then we are trying to keep the bread and butter things going and attract new customers and maybe even turn them to the plantside.

Thanks for taking time to read this.
John

Nature's Call Pet Shop
76 N. Howell st
Hillsdale Mi
49242
517 610-5355
https://www.facebook.com/NaturesCallPetShopLlc

 

[crazydog64]

I will add your store to the Map. Hopefully it can attract a few more customers After I get moved in to the new house I could make a run out there and get you some business!

 

[Slippryrock]

I look forward to your visit. the store is very much a work in progress but I can't finish the work without more business. So, bring it on ! :smile: I'm very fortunate to have a plant distributor right in the county which for my area is a real blessing. He has done a wonderful job getting me the things i need and has the ability to get me and my customers just about anything plant related and is in the process of re-doing his fish room. Once completed I should have access to rare plecos and hard to get africans cichlids and more advanced community fish. I do have a few wholesale accounts set up with vendors that carry specialized plant keeping equipment. I am very happy to report that I sell more real plants than plastic !

John

 

[lullafishi]

V.I. Pets of Grand Rapids and Holland has changed their website again: http://www.govipets.com/

 

[GMYukonon24s]

I went to Meijers yesterday and I was impressed with how big there plants were.

 

[Blackheart]

Yeah, Meijers seems to have a more decent plant section than most LFS I visit around here. Isn't that odd?

 

[GMYukonon24s]

Yeah, its definitely odd since to me fish/plants aren't a big focus to meijers IMO. From what I've seen there's only one LFS that is better.

 

[Blackheart]

I've had lots of success though with plants from Meijers.

 

[GMYukonon24s]

That's great to hear. I wasn't looking for plants yesterday but when I do I'll definitely buy from there to try it out.

 

[Blackheart]

They always usually have awesome looking Crypts.

 

[hutch11]

They always usually have awesome looking Crypts.

I second that! at my Meijer they had a crypt that looked so big and healthy I almost bought it, but I passed just because it would of been from Meijer

 

[Blackheart]

I bought one recently that was GIGANTIC. if you had bought about 7, or 8 potted crypts by themselves, that's how big it was.

 

[hutch11]

yeah the one I saw was red/bronze and looked like it was thriving crazy good!

 

[Blackheart]

It took the person who worked there a hard time just to get it out because it had such crazy root growth!

 

[GMYukonon24s]

It took the person who worked there a hard time just to get it out because it had such crazy root growth!

That's awesome! How much are the potted and loose plants? I never seen a sign saying how much they were.

 

[Blackheart]

They're normally 5.49

 

[GMYukonon24s]

They're normally 5.49

Ok, thanks that's $5.49 for a potted plant and $3.49 for a loose plant right?