Tom touches on a point that is under-appreciated, but is a deadly danger to our hobby: the loss of the "mom and pop" pet shop. The big chains, PETCO and PetSmart (as well as franchises Pet Supplies Plus and Petland, to a lesser extent), have been quite successful over the past decade in GREATLY diminishing the numbers of the independents. I can state from personal experience that the only way to stand up to competition from the giants is to specialize and find a niche market-like reptiles, avians, saltwater fish/reefs, etc. Back in Upstate NY, we lost over a dozen independent pet stores in our town within 2 years after Petco moved in-all tried to compete as full-line stores, and lost (By contrast, my own shop was able to compete very well as a reptile/avian specialty store for half a dozen years, up until we decided to sell and move to the Southwest).



The big chains currently carry only a small selection of herps, compared to the independents. I shudder to think what would happen if we lost both them and the expo/internet market!
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Brad Chambers

WWW.HCU-TX.ORG



The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

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