Times have changed - Very disappointing

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Ive seen what's going on and have been tracking various vendors to try to stick with one or two as there are so many out there.
For me- NONE !!! I will buy from private parties or patiently wat for other RAP and MACNA shows.
Over the last 18 weeks, prices have gone up 36-39% with certain vendors (cant say names) and THESE SO CALLED BLACK FRIDAY AND XMAS DEALS are a joke- prices have jumped to as much as 50%.
MERRY XMAS TO THE VENDORS BECAUSE ITS NOT US !!
BE CAREFUL FOLKS AND NOT JUMP ON SOMETHING VIA IMPULSE BUT SHOP CAREFULLY. These 10%-20% off are merely off increased prices- Such a Shame !!

I owned an LFS and realize mark-up, profit margins and expenses but would not do this to my customers who work hard for their money. Very disappointed (but not fooled)

Nada new, it's just the usual. Folks will still be fooled.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I wasn't really implying about reefing, just out in the world in general. I don't really look at many reefing website. Most small business owners own fancy brand new vehicles and super spendy phones, etc... I've never met a small business owner who drives a 20 year old vehicle. Contractors come to mind. They never have vehicles more than 2 or 3 years old, and we are talking 100k trucks, ever wonder why housing is so expensive? The consumer paid for that.

I stand by my original statement. Don’t buy it. The market will bear what the consumer is willing to spend. I don’t begrudge a business owner for making money. I don’t begrudge a business owner for making a lot of money. With the exception of food, energy, water, etc (the things necessary for survival), tgere a few items that are so mission critical that the consumer cant say no thank you to and go about their lives with no real impact. I don’t need a new car because I think the new ones are too expensive. I am typing this on an iphone 6S plus. Just a matter of personal choices.

 

[Jeeperz]

I stand by my original statement. Don’t buy it. The market will bear what the consumer is willing to spend. I don’t begrudge a business owner for making money. I don’t begrudge a business owner for making a lot of money. With the exception of food, energy, water, etc (the things necessary for survival), tgere a few items that are so mission critical that the consumer cant say no thank you to and go about their lives with no real impact. I don’t need a new car because I think the new ones are too expensive. I am typing this on an iphone 6S plus. Just a matter of personal choices.

That's why I brought up bread, heck, even flour has doubled. Along with gas. Chicken has doubled or more in a year.

 

[jimk60]

We all know costs are up. We get that. It's the deceptive marketing that I don't like. Not just with corals but many products in general.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

That's why I brought up bread, heck, even flour has doubled. Along with gas. Chicken has doubled or more in a year.

I work with someone that does bulk restaurant sales. Had many discussions with him. His prices are through the roof and has no choice but to pass them on. Worse, he has to predict what they will be months from now so that he can do the ordering and maintain minimum levels of profitability. I feel bad for him. It’s actually why I buy flour from him and make my own bread. I got really good at bread making during the lock down and I make it for 1/3 of the price of buying it in the store.

 

[spsick]

We as hobbyists totally understand costs are way up and aren’t balking at a 10-15% increase for sellers in our
to maintain profitability.

I think OP is pointing out that prices went way up conveniently right before a “big sale”.

Related: actual big corporations (there aren’t any in the reef aquarium industry) are jacking up prices while making record profits.
Large fuel chain for example are making $1/gallon profit where they used to make 10¢/gallon.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

We all know costs are up. We get that. It's the deceptive marketing that I don't like. Not just with corals but many products in general.

This is what I hate. Raise the price 100% to give a 40% coupon. JC penny tried to cut through this nonsense and they almost went out of business because of it. Seems like the consumers prefer to be treated like idiots becuase of the game of scoring a big deal. Saturn tried it back in the 90s and same result.

 

[OrchidMiss]

This is what I hate. Raise the price 100% to give a 40% coupon. JC penny tried to cut through this nonsense and they almost went out of business because of it. Seems like the consumers prefer to be treated like idiots becuase of the game of scoring a big deal. Saturn tried it back in the 90s and same result.

 

[flashsmith]

So as a business owner I'm supposed to eat every increase that came my way this year from increased equipment costs to fuel costs labor costs, parts costs etc... And still give everyone a discount! All the while performing the same tasks at an exceptional level with top of the line equipment and decades of experience. I get this all the time and my answer is always the same. That's my price if you don't like it please feel free to contact another company I don't negotiate. If I don't make xx per hour on the bid I don't take the work it's that simple. I have bills to pay and a family. I'm not taking all the risk and financial obligations of owning a business to make $10 bucks an hour. Nor should any business. If you don't like the price of something don't buy it. This hobby is a prime example. You don't need radions and an apex to have a nice tank. Plenty of good cheaper options available. I could have a fleet of 3/4 ton lifted trucks for my business but instead I have GMC canyons and Tacoma's because they get it done and do their job. Function over form every time.

 

[delv2323]

This thread, as introduced is about the deceptive practice of raising prices temporarily with the intent of then lowering them to create a false sale. It's outlawed by the FTC and immoral. It's got nothing to do with "MaKInG mOneY!!" or "jUsT dOnT bUy iT!!".

It's an intentional deception. I have literally watched WWC raise the prices of frags a week or so before they advertised Black Friday sale years ago to then offer a percentage off...I asked them over a forum about it with no response.

I believe the rule of thumb is that the sale must be based off of 28 previous continuous days, it needs to be a genuine retail price.

If you can't run your business without deceiving people, then you need to go out of business...

 

[Perry]

Glad I can't squeeze another acro in the tank, kinda fixes the funny business

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

So as a business owner I'm supposed to eat every increase that came my way this year from increased equipment costs to fuel costs labor costs, parts costs etc... And still give everyone a discount! All the while performing the same tasks at an exceptional level with top of the line equipment and decades of experience. I get this all the time and my answer is always the same. That's my price if you don't like it please feel free to contact another company I don't negotiate. If I don't make xx per hour on the bid I don't take the work it's that simple. I have bills to pay and a family. I'm not taking all the risk and financial obligations of owning a business to make $10 bucks an hour. Nor should any business. If you don't like the price of something don't buy it. This hobby is a prime example. You don't need radions and an apex to have a nice tank. Plenty of good cheaper options available. I could have a fleet of 3/4 ton lifted trucks for my business but instead I have GMC canyons and Tacoma's because they get it done and do their job. Function over form every time.

I am a business owner as well. Given all the costs, employee raises, taxes going up…I have made less each of the last three years and continually have my employees calling me greedy even though I have yet to lay anyone off. It is exhausting.

 

[damsels are not mean]

We all know costs are up. We get that. It's the deceptive marketing that I don't like. Not just with corals but many products in general.

This is why I try to just tune marketing out and ignore it as much as I can, it's always deceptive. They're trying to get you to buy something that you didn't want bad enough to find it yourself!

 

[I.AM.MR.MIKE]

I am a business owner as well. Given all the costs, employee raises, taxes going up…I have made less each of the last three years and continually have my employees calling me greedy even though I have yet to lay anyone off. It is exhausting.

Farm more Broccoli

 

[tundraguy1106]

So as a business owner I'm supposed to eat every increase that came my way this year from increased equipment costs to fuel costs labor costs, parts costs etc... And still give everyone a discount! All the while performing the same tasks at an exceptional level with top of the line equipment and decades of experience. I get this all the time and my answer is always the same. That's my price if you don't like it please feel free to contact another company I don't negotiate. If I don't make xx per hour on the bid I don't take the work it's that simple. I have bills to pay and a family. I'm not taking all the risk and financial obligations of owning a business to make $10 bucks an hour. Nor should any business. If you don't like the price of something don't buy it. This hobby is a prime example. You don't need radions and an apex to have a nice tank. Plenty of good cheaper options available. I could have a fleet of 3/4 ton lifted trucks for my business but instead I have GMC canyons and Tacoma's because they get it done and do their job. Function over form every time.

So as a business owner I'm supposed to eat every increase that came my way this year from increased equipment costs to fuel costs labor costs, parts costs etc... And still give everyone a discount! All the while performing the same tasks at an exceptional level with top of the line equipment and decades of experience. I get this all the time and my answer is always the same. That's my price if you don't like it please feel free to contact another company I don't negotiate. If I don't make xx per hour on the bid I don't take the work it's that simple. I have bills to pay and a family. I'm not taking all the risk and financial obligations of owning a business to make $10 bucks an hour. Nor should any business. If you don't like the price of something don't buy it. This hobby is a prime example. You don't need radions and an apex to have a nice tank. Plenty of good cheaper options available. I could have a fleet of 3/4 ton lifted trucks for my business but instead I have GMC canyons and Tacoma's because they get it done and do their job. Function over form every time.

Unfortunately you as a business owner do have the most at risk. Everyone whether a business owner or not is suffering from inflation. The fact of the matter is this hobby is a luxury. The more peoples bills increase, the less money they have to spend on hobbies. One persons hobby is a business owners livelihood. My argument would be that how can some venders only slightly increase prices while others (whose prices were ridiculous in the first place) keep raising their already high prices. Eventually you’re gonna push your clients away and have zero revenue… Then what?

We all know prior to this ridiculous inflation, name brand products RARELY ever went on sale. So what was the excuse then? While smaller companies offer cheaper products that can perform close too if not equal to the more expensive ones.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Glad I can't squeeze another acro in the tank, kinda fixes the funny business

There’s always “room for 1 more”

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

There’s always “room for 1 more”

 

[tundraguy1106]

I feel your pain, and for what it's worth. As a vendor, and I can probably go on the record as speaking for any other vendor as well that everything I have to buy, from shipping supplies to fragging supplies and everything in between including the actual cost of shipping has gone up. It's a very "feel-able" affect from where i am sitting believe me. does that justify some of the excessive gouging going on. absolutely not

But part of me wants really bad too say "screw it" and jack everything up 10-15% as well but, you know it just doesn't really work that way. Especially with my battleboxs that are by far my biggest seller. If anything my prices have gone down. lol. while the rest of the worlds has gone up. I know, first world problems for the most part. I am not complaining.

I love that you joined this. I’m a recent customer of yours and I have to say what you offer is very unique and affordable even in these hard times. If you can figure it out and still put money in your pocket, others should be able to do the same.

side note - Love your corals. You’re definitely one of my favorite vendors!

 

[doubleshot00]

It's not just vendors. It's hobbyists too. Local hobbyists are charging $100 per named SPS frag. At that price I rather pay the big ones. But I will say price fluctuate and depends on what's trendy. I have seen price gone down for some corals and gone up for others. There are still good deals to be found with live sales and black Friday specials. You just have to wade through the crap to find the gems.

Hate all local seelers in my area. Charging $100 a head for torches. I hate my local reefers. Ill take my money to the LFS.

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

I love that you joined this. I’m a recent customer of yours and I have to say what you offer is very unique and affordable even in these hard times. If you can figure it out and still put money in your pocket, others should be able to do the same.

side note - Love your corals. You’re definitely one of my favorite vendors!

Adam is a good dude. Straight aces and a credit to the industry. Luv ya @Battlecorals