LFS list & rating

[Sealab2021]

how about a LFS list (for the puget sound obviously) with ratings for things such as: condition of lifestock, price, overcrowded tanks, etc...

 

[H3R0]

midway pet

 

[mattseattle]

where is Midway Pet?

 

[H3R0]

do you know where the midway swap meet is? or the highline community college? we are on pac hwy right across from the swap meet.
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=J_Mp_ep_0TrovMASo5QURk1Xcvf0hM7eDRV5&csz=98032&country=us

 

[Sealab2021]

yeah midway is cool, and generally have the best prices for everything saltwater. but how about compling a list of all saltwater stores in king, pierce, & snohomish county

 

[OnTheReef]

Re: LFS and ratings

I think this is a great idea, if done in a diplomatic fashion. Obviously there are libel issues to consider, not to mention the instant animosity which would develop if it became a venue for flames on LFS's, especially if they happen to be a PSAS sponsor. That said, I thing this could be a really useful guide to LFS, with a nice chart showing what each LFS commonly carries in terms of classes of organisms, plumbing hardware, location (with a map link of course), names of knowledgeable senior staff members, etc.

 

[jasontatro]

I like Saltwater City in Bellevue. Great selection and beautiful tanks.

I was blown away when I went to Blue Sierra, in Issaquah, for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Amazing selection and great prices. Definitely worth the drive from Seattle.

I do like Midway, but their selection of SW is very small. I have bought plenty of test kits and other misc. supplies there though. Good prices and very friendly staff.

 

[Achilles]

My favorite is Blue Sierra in Issaquah, they have a good saltwater selection and the people there provide good service. Also, the Fish Gallery and Pets in Kent isn't bad, not quite the selection of Blue Sierra. Blue Sierra is also a sponsor of PSAS and offers 10% discount to members. According to the Sponsor page they have a big sale going on this weekend, that may be a good time to check them out.

As for Midway Pet, I really have had a bad experience nearly every time I've been to that place. I think of all the saltwater LFSs I've been too in my life, they are the worst. Their prices are high, selection is very small, and lets not even get me started on their service. I live in Federal Way, only 15 min from Midway, but gladly make the 45+ minute drive to Blue Sierra. For those of you Midway fans, I'd suggest that you take the trip, you'll be amazed at the difference. Unfortunately when I first started Midway was the only place I knew about, I regret giving them as much business I did, now knowing that I had such better alternatives.

 

[Sealab2021]

i disagree
midway is among the lowest in price by far(petco is about the only place I've seen with lower prices for fish)

out of the "fish gallery & pets" chain blue sierra the most expensive

with renton being the cheapest(i do 90% of my shopping there)
the kent store is on average 10% more than renton
and blue sierra is 15% above renton
the factoria one being about the same as kent

 

[jasontatro]

I was gonna go easy on Midway, but I have to be honest and say that on many of the occasions that I have been in the store, there has been dead livestock in their SW tanks. In my opinion this is completely unacceptable.

I was wondering whether or not Blue Sierra was owned by Fish Gallery. I noticed that they gave me a FG bag... I thought that was kinda odd.

As far as their prices.... I could have sworn that the prices for corals was much higher at Renton that in Issaquah. Hmm?

 

[Sealab2021]

besides their semi-display tank(that is more spendy than most, cause I think they don't really care about their coral sales) Renton/Kent/factoria only has mushrooms for sale(not often though), and cheap anemones

blue sierra definitely has the best quality and service out of all the fishgalleries(and out of the 4 is the place for corals and "display" livestock) I'd say, but for fish (and definitely the cleaning crew inverts) renton is the place to go for price and selection.

if you're looking for the relatively common saltwater fish(& cleaning crews) that generally price for under $30, renton fishgallery and midway pet are the place to go

fishgallery.com

 

[Achilles]

Midway may have a better price on fish, but they have so small a selection that anytime I've been looking for something they didn't have it at the time. I have looked at some of their prices though, and for the fish I've noted they were just about the same price, certainly they were not lower by far. I was also discouraged when they were selling a blue hippo tang, I forget the exact price, but they listed it as a super large and a price of like 79.99 (not sure exactly, but it was high). The thing was maybe 5 inches long, I assumed the guy was mistaken and I tried to explain that they can get quite a bit bigger than that, but he wouldn't budge. They had a tiny one in the tank for cheaper.

Also, Midway tends to really pack their fish into just a few tanks, they have such a high percentage that are nicked up, it is unlikely I will buy from them. As for cleaning crew, Blue Sierra has a fairly decent package. I have never seen enough critters at Midway to make up a crew. They've had a few hermits, snails, and shrimp, but not in much qty or variety.

To be fair midway is a full pet store not just fish, like Blue Sierra, so I can understand the limited selection, but there is no excuse for their service.

 

[bradreef]

I have been to every store in the area and either Blue seirra or salt water city are the best when it comes to reefs. Blue seirra is having a big sale this weekend if you are looking for good prices.

 

[Desolas]

I think just compiling a list would be a good start. I think if we just came up with a few categories of what we like about the store, like price, selection, staff, etc, and rated it from 1-5 or 1-10 would be appropriate. Having dozens of editorial comments about one's personal opinion is a lot to wade through though, and if we just leave it as a rating system there is no potential slander.

We could start a thread and just post names of stores, #'s, and address. No comments about them. Compile the list and then people can rate them, once that's done we can average it all out and have a simple chart people can look up to see what's available. Then we can have a comment/review section for each store and let people throw out their opinions as long as they aren't full on slander or abusive.

That's my thought anyway.
Wes

 

[Doug1]

That was my thought Wes, without an agreed upon format to rate stores it all opinion. Even ratings are biased to the rater but at least with a standard format you are at least thinking inside the same box
You would need everyone to do the survey at least 4 times on differnt days to better reflect heavy sales, new shipments, staff loads, etc then average those against the averages for the different stores
Another thing is to select certain common corals, inverts and fish and price them, then rate above or below the average
Finally you have to realize that there is the human factor to consider, the staff of store X may hit it off with so and so yet someone else may not like them at all

 

[H3R0]

dude dude dude Achilles... slow down man, did you know we are the oldest petstore on the west coast? theres a reason. if you want something you have to ask since we are limited on space we have to conserve but we special order anything you want. as for prices we make them according to what we spend,and we get our stuff from the same places all the most the other stores in the area get theres, but we are not the swap meet so we dont bargin with people. as far as service thats why most people really like our store, i have worked there three years maybe i havent met you but im sure if i have helped you, then you would not be disapointed. as far as saltwater city, one of my co-workers works there also doing tank matnience. fish gallery and blue seirra are the same thing except one specializes in saltwater (they are owned by the same person) and they also are good stores. saltwater city and blue seirra have got the space and selection tho because they do specialize in that.
we do have some good prices tho like how bout 30 bucks for 1.5-2 inch fire shrimp? last time i checked that was lowest arownd, i could be wrong tho... oh and ill let you guys in on a secret, we are moving our fish room and will have about 6 times as much saltwater stuff, also larger discus section, and every thing else will be bigger too. it should be some time in the next 3 months... bottom line is there are alot of good fish stores, i like blue seirra and salt water city, but i get a bigger dicount at midway

 

[ForTiLLiaN]

I too work at Midway Pet. I think alot of this has to do with supporting your local fish store. Fish Gallery/Blue Sierra are a chain of store's and can buy in great big bulk, while us a midway are a very small store. We try to compete with prices as much as we can and often times match prices as long as you bring in a advertisement. Also we do many special orders for people of things we do not carry. Or major sales are salt water as we are a full pet store. Right now we are working out alot of kinks in our salt water section so please do not right us off, i encourage you to stop in every so often and check out our progress along with suggestions you may have to make our store better.

Thanks
Justin

 

[mojoreef]

Ok folks thier are paying sponcers of this board and to have folks that do not continually promote thier store is getting to be a bit much. I would ask that all promotions be stopped at this time. the concept of this thread was for common reef keepers to rate various LFS as they felt about them, not a we are /they are type of thing.
For the folks at Midway I would suggest to you that you sponcer the board, this way you could advertize all the great service and selections you have.

Oh and Blue Sierra doesnt own the fish galleries

anyway thanks

Mike

 

[Sealab2021]

mo~ then fish galleries owns blue sierra right?

their website lists it as their store, their coupons list and work for all 4 places...

 

[ForTiLLiaN]

Im am not trying to advertise for my place of employment. Ive worked at this store for 3 years and i very much dislike that customers have gone away unhappy. It makes me feel inadequate. Right now we are in many changes on the store, and we right now are not in the position to offer a sponsorship to this site, but hopefully in the near future we can offer you something for what you have offered the rest of us. I do not want this to turn into a type of argument or dramatizatian, Im just letting people know that we are in a development point right now, and although your experiences with us may not have been satisfactory I hope that you all will once return to our store and be happy with our doings. We do have a suggestion box right outside of our store, and maybe some of you could drop us a line with suggestions of what will make your visit with us more pleasurable.

Best Regards,
Justin