Reptile shop keepers help please please please please please

[DeanThorpe]

Hi.
Thanks for your post.
We have Peregrine's catologue, have been comparing them for prices with another company i have a cat for monkfield nutrition, both do a good range of equipment and live foods.
We also have a couple offers on shop fitters etc and a couple for live stock but still need to find a lot more there.

We do plan to do Tropical Fish and possibly marine fish too, as much as i would prefer to simply do Herps.

I think 35k is about what we are going to aim for, a couple of wholesalers I have spoke to have said they think thatl be more than enough, one even said you can do it with 10k, but i dont know about that.

Vat and public liability, although a pain in the arse im already familiar with the workings off having handled it before for my parents comany.

I dont expect to beat online prices atall, however if someone is goin to buy online rather than from our shop [someone local i mean] id rather they bought from us so i wil be having a website with much reduced prices, however I wont be publicising it too much in store ofcourse.

LOL, just saw you also mentioned monkfield... lol ok cool, yeh prices seem very similar but ones cheaper on one, the other on another, both do one range the other doesnt [preg do lucky reptile and monkfield one im even less familair with]

As with all retail i suspected itd be a double up job and i can see thats possible with rep related goods aswell which is good to know, infact i see a higher mark up on alot of stuff, especially if bought at a reduced rate, particualrly live food, altho i dont supose its a huge turnover.

We also have plans to stock items you wouldnt usually see in a rep shop but we do buy for use with our reps, such as cat litter trays for the water baths, cheaper than a pet shop price, more than a wilconsins price kinda thing, poop scoops/sand siffs etc.

I can use my parents accountant.. but shes old so ill prolly get a new one.
However I am able to handle my own accounts, im well verserd in that kind of thing ,altho i would rather not have to do a lot of the leg work and stuff.

We have not yet secured a loan, which in my opinion is the only snag, im confident if we can get going with a decent amount of cash we will do very well.
I still have to do a lot of work on the tropical fish side as im out of the loop with them but ive been in touch with acouple comps and have a wholesaler who can, mif i request "just give me a good selection to get started with" which might save a lot of headache if things start to progress fairly fast.

Thanks Man.

Sounds good mate and in all honesty once you get started you will find that most of your sales will be for crix,mice etc so they would prob be about 60% of your turnover.

If you can possibly do it offer a very good price on complete setups with an animal.What you have to remember in the reptile trade is you have the initial layout and if it is done by someone you can trust completely they will return every week for food if they however are not satisfied with your sale commitment or you did not give the correct and enough info then they will go elsewhere for food.

I saw this all the time with a local petshop that diversified into reptiles.If people had known i was around they would not have touched the shop round the corner.Not only were we cheaper than them but we had a lot more knowledge to give as well.

I even used to say to people that they could come in and chat to us any time and have a cuppa.You would be amazed how many people took us up on the offer and not only do you have a new friend but also a customer for life

[DeanThorpe]

thats the thing ,theres only one place here in ipswich, and they are dire... they have hardly any live stock ever, lots of 4 ft boas that ppl have bought in and about 6 4 foot corns, always have a beardie of some sort with toes missing, usually a few years old, again what ppl bring in, sod all.
the next nearest is about 30 miles away and they are pretty good... but we can be much better.
A lot of ppl from ipswich do the 30 mile travel but they wont need too. .. hopefully.

[DeanThorpe]

Originally Posted by Greenphase

Sounds good mate and in all honesty once you get started you will find that most of your sales will be for crix,mice etc so they would prob be about 60% of your turnover.

which is cool cos i can do them [with the wholesale prices i have found] a lot cheaper than the competition around here and still be on well over a double up, almost a 200% mark up in fact [as in buy for £1 sell for £3]

Will give good deals, absolutely, and i wont limit the deal to "this, that, this one and that one right there in red" like other places do lol

I think i know the place you are on about mate is it in the town centre just a little pet shop with a few reps thats the one we visited when we moved here about 5 years ago.And the other shop has to be along the A14 cant think of the name of it but it will come to me.

As for crickets etc they are around £2.40-£2.60 here mate so that seems to be the average for most places i would knock em out at aroung £2.25 a tub.

What we used to do as well was work out the lizard or snake setup price retail then knock of 15% of the price and then give a 20% discount on the animal if all bought together.This way you are not limiting the customer to one particular animal.

[DeanThorpe]

its viking aqautics which is pretty much town centre, across the road from what was the odeaon cinema.

the next nearest is abbey aquatics which is also known as Stonham barnes, in stonham aspel.

Crix are 2.20 from viking but they buy them pre tubbed and they are left as they are, hard to find a tub with more alive than dead.

I think its best to buy bulk bags, feed them up, put a few tubs on the shelf and refill as needed.
That way they would all be alive, in clean tubs [they actually do it this way at stonham too] and gutloaded.

I would also like to promote the idea of keeping the crix in larger plastic cricket keepers and feeding them up as i dont think anyone round here knows about it to be honest.

Yea i know what you mean about buying bulk mate i used to do the same thing to start with but it took so bloody long to do it when we were ordering 500 tubs a week that i just started getting pre-packed.Try not to gut load the crix if you can help it.They have spent time in the tubs and then they go crazy on the food.They overfeed and dye of fairly fast if allowed to.Its always better to sell the bug grub etc to gut load the crix at home as you can do as many or as few as required.Cricket keepers are the best way to go or better still sell the medium or large geo tubs(cheaper to buy and better profit margin)Just tell people to put in a toilet roll holder.All they do then is cover one end permanatly tocreate a hide and cover the other end to remove some crix then put the rest back.


Damn im giving away all the trade secrets now

[DeanThorpe]

lol, i know how to handle crix mate lol....locusts on the other hand....

I gutload all my crix, i buy them in the bags not already in tubs and next day delivery so they havent been long without food.. i honestly havent lost more than 3 crickets in the last 2 thousand i have had, and i feed them well.
also they hang around a couple weeks as our beardies arent exactly eating machines right now and savvy only eats about 40 every 3 days withher mice.

was planning on sellin bug grub, also thought about mixing bran with ground up cuttlefish and a bit of nutrobal [better if i can find a cheaper alternative to nutrobal] and do a bag full for half the price of the bug grub yet maintaining a much better mark up as you can get like 10kg of bran for a fiver or so from horsey places and cuttle fish 3 for £1.00.

i always use toilet roll holders rather than egg cartons, well toilet roll and kitchen roll tubes cut in half, sturdier, better size without cutting, easier to shake into a bag or another tub...bargain.

Shouldnt the crix be fine if i get them from somewhere who gutload them, as i do right now, they are themn only a short while without food, i uput them in big containers with food and hides, take them out and put soem in a tub with a little bran to sell.?

Its alot of extra work for you mate but should go pretty well if prepared to put in the extra time.

[DeanThorpe]

i might end up gettin fed up but i can put a thousand crix into about ten seperate tubs in ten minutes so its not a huge amount of time, ofcourse we will be talking a good few thousand but still.
I can count out 100 morio in 3 mins also which by my workings out should be a good mark up if i buy bulk also, plus no dead ones hanging around lookin bad.

i feel really sorry for ppl who pay £2.30 for morio at our local and get about 30-40 of them and a load of shells... i always if i do have to buy from there spend a few mins pickin the best tubs and have got 130 once lol.. but usually 70-85 on the good ones with as littoe as 20 in some bad ones.

when i ordr 50g from livefoods i get over 100, i can get a kilo for something like £20 so imagine thats 2000 of them, if i charge £2.00 and give 100 then ill still be doubling up and given a good deal but it hink it worked out a lot better than that when i had the sheet in front of me earlier.

I couldnt aford to pay £2.20 or so for 20 live crix and 50 dead ones or for 30 morio...so how can i expect anyone else to?


i think viking is particulrly bad for this but at the end of the day they buy them pre tubed so its not even thier fault for the maounts..and not really for the dead ones as they just dont have a clue.