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Post by Jane on Jun 21, 2008 13:18:51 GMT 10
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Post by robert on Oct 19, 2009 12:27:27 GMT 10
Here is a great pet store on the Sunshine Coast
from Robert and Precious
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Post by vankarhi on Oct 21, 2009 21:05:16 GMT 10
yes it is a good pet shop......we visited once while down that way and we (my husband and I) were both impressed with how the birds were kept (my husband even commenting to me later on our trip).
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Post by avinet on Sept 11, 2010 22:09:36 GMT 10
Just a note to everyone that the Mooloolaba Aquarium & Aviary Centre (which became the Mooloolaba Pet Centre a year ago) is now closed. We found the last year increasingly hard, with decreasing customers and sales, so took the decision in July to go into liquidation, with the doors closing on August 8th. My wife, Judy, and I are now officially retired, although we have lost a considerable amount of money as a result. In no small part the business declined due to competition from Ebay and internet selling in general. We found that while customers would come to get their food and basic medications for their birds and fish, or to ask for advice when they had problems, they were shopping on the net for larger items such as cages, filters, heaters etc. Unfortunately a pet shop can't survive on the basics alone, so we ended up having to close, and consequently the expertise we had to help customers with their bird, fish and reptile problems is lost. Our web site will stay in place for now - it is paid for up until the middle of next year, so our care sheets for birds, fish and reptiles remain available. Once the site www.mooloolabapets.com.au is shut down we will find somewhere else for them to be hosted. cheers, Mike |
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Post by Robyn on Sept 11, 2010 23:12:03 GMT 10
Oh Mike i am so sorry but look on the brighter side & enjoy the rest of your life.
It's time for you & your wife to do what you want now.
Have a wonderful retirement.
Robyn.
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Post by vankarhi on Sept 12, 2010 14:16:05 GMT 10
So Mike ........ that day we came into your shop....let me think......was Sat 7th August......that was your second last day. We did talk on that day and you did explain what was going on.......but gee it is still sad. I do love visiting pet shops when we go away......so if they all closed down due to competition from online stores.....  Good luck with your retirement now and as Robyn said ........ it is time for you and your wife now ;D |
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Post by avinet on Sept 12, 2010 21:44:51 GMT 10
I do love visiting pet shops when we go away......so if they all closed down due to competition from online stores..... I see a trend for many of the the smaller specialised pet shops like us to decline and disappear - the supermarket style shops will do OK - they tend to rely heavily on selling premium brand dog foods - high volume and low margin products. The problem is that those style of pet shops tend to be staffed by juniors with little knowledge of the animals they are dealing with. The depth of knowledge to be really helpful tends to be in the smaller shops that specialise in either fish birds or reptiles -they are usually the ones owned and staffed by enthusiasts like I and my staff were, who would take the time to get to the bottom of their problems and had the knowledge to make good recommendations. One of my staff actually has gone to work at one of these big shops after we closed, and she finds that if she spends more than 5 minutes talking to a customer without selling something then she is counselled about not wasting time. Another problem I see is a general community thing - people tend to be less loyal than they were. They are more and more likely, as time becomes increasingly precious, to shop for convenience rather than loyalty. We were seeing this more and more. For instance, last Easter we had a customer come in with a very sick Princess Parrot. It was actually Paris, the Princess in a Youtube clip at (well worth a look at if you haven't seen it already) It was near closing, the Thursday before Easter, so I took Paris home, put him in a hospital brooder, looked after him over Easter, injections of antibiotics twice a day, and got him well enough for the customer to take home on the Tuesday after Easter. Didn't charge anything since Paris was an old friend, and then a week later one of our staff saw the owner in another shop 5 minutes away getting seed and a toy. When she asked why the owner of Paris hadn't come to our shop to buy the stuff she was told "it was too far away". It wasn't too far away when the bird was sick  cheers, Mike |
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Post by vankarhi on Sept 12, 2010 22:12:28 GMT 10
well all I can say about the owners of Paris............that sucks and is downright rude |
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