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| Shrimp, etc |
Guy
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About a week ago, Doug wrote in part: "I wouldn't expect a great deal at Albany. That place is freakin' expensive! ". I thought, I'd like to weigh in on that statement. The last time I looked on the internet, I saw that the new cherry red shrimp is available on the net for $6.99 each, plus shipping. At Albany Aquarium the price for the same shrimp is 5 for $19.99, for all customers - except for Doug, who has to pay $6.99 each, so he can keep making such blanket statements about the store ;-). All kidding aside, it takes quite a bit of manpower (PAID, of course, unless someone is willing to volunteer time??) to run a store like Albany. When a plant shipment comes in, it takes 3 people a minimum of 2 hours (6 man-hours) just to unpack, re-plant and label all the plants. This is in addition to the cost for 1) shipping, 2) paying for plant inspections, 3) picking up from the airport 4) confiscated plants, due sometimes to ONE snail egg, or insect, 4) losses from shipping, or from the plant inspector's not re-wrapping the plants correctly and then plants drying out 5) Phone calls to Asia in the middle of the night 6) etc, etc. I could go on (e.g. plant losses in the store, maintenance of plants, selling costs, heating, lighting, get the idea?) May be that's why we're one of the few stores that maintains a large selection of live plants? With regards to fish or shrimp, it's much the same story, except our trademark is, that we guarantee that 100% of our fish have been quarantined before they are put out for sale. This means that we absorb ALL the losses before we sell our fish. If the fish, or shrimp, arrive healthy and stay that way, we can afford to pass on the savings, like with the cherry red shrimp. We have a new shipment of the cherry red shrimp and after one week, they seem to be as good as the first shipment. (So it's going to be the same price). We also got a shipment of 200 Amano shrimp, of which one-third arrived DOA, and every day there are some more that are dying. Even though the losses are decreasing, we won't put take them out of our quarantine room, until there have been no more losses for at least 3 or more days. We may end up with less than half of our shipment for sale. In addition to Erik's Peet's coffee, I would like encourage attendance for the plant study group meeting on Feb 14, by donating three bags of 5 cherry red shrimp each, to be distributed by lottery or auction, however the Erik decides. Sorry for the long post, Guy |
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