I do not like however PAF's model of upstream diversion of product to their own etail site. IMO that concept potentially robs paying customers such as me and other retailers from opportunity for their choice specimens. I will not support them.
Wow Race, PAF must really be a thorn in your side, how many times have you mentioned that you do not like them in this thread? I do not mind that you do not like our model but when you start posting untruths and assumptions then I need to post so that others can see your bias for what it is.
There is no "upstream diversion of product" at PAF other than our sales peoples ability to hold much of the best coral that comes in for ship out to their customers. You state that PAF diverts product to "their own etail site" well we have no etail site at PAF, I have only a static web site. The etail site that you allude to is Blue Zoo Aquatics which is not owned by PAF, is not located at PAF, gets no special diversion of product at PAF. I personally own some shares of Blue Zoo Aquatics, PAF does not. I also own a chunk of Ford stock, that certainly does not mean that Ford is also part of PAF.
I think that you should get a better handle on the truth before you start posting your fiction as fact. Blue Zoo does not pick from our stock until long after all of my sales people have gone through the shipments and pulled out what they want to save for their customers. Blue Zoo does not even have a sales person assigned to them, they show up around 10:00 in the morning to pull their product, even most of the walk ins are done pulling by then. Now that I am not sending the bulk of our cherry corals to Live Aquaria the walk ins are happy, they have a better selection to choose from. Vivid aquarium has been getting a lot of the cherry corals that used to go to Live Aquaria. Blue Zoo definitly gets less of the cherrys than Vivid and the PAF salespeople. I just looked on the Blue Zoo collectors choice section to see what came from PAF, it looks to me like less than 20% of their collectors choice animals came from PAF, certainly less than 25% are from PAF. They source most of their collectors choice animals from other sources. PAF does sell them a lot of bread and butter animals, they shop between 10:30 and 1:00 most days, a time when most of the walk ins have already made their selections and we are not as busy. Blue Zoo has no requirement to buy from PAF, they are free to source their animals from wherever they find the best quality. I know that sounds strange to the way you and Quality Marine do business but that is the way that I do business, if Blue Zoo wants to buy nothing from me and source everything from elsewhere that is fine with me. I have no agreement or requirement that they buy from PAF unless it suits them to do so. I simply own some shares, they run the company the way they see fit without interference from me.
There is no "robbing of choice specimens from paying customers or retailers" that you stated. The best corals that arrive at PAF are held by my sales people for shipout customers and a smaller portion is held by Lupe for walk in customers. Many customers with purchases smaller than Blue Zoo are treated with much more cherry picking latitude than Blue Zoo and that is fact.
I have been in the brick and mortar side of the trade, I had three brick and mortar stores in the Phoenix area. In my opinion your model of getting a wholesaler to drop ship directly to the retail customer is the biggest threat to brick and mortar stores. I do not agree with that model and I have never and hopefully will never do that at PAF. I do not drop ship as in my opinion that is not a level playing field for my retail customers. Unless I offered to drop ship for everyone of my customers and not just a select few who have the resources to organize and market it then it is not a level playing field and I think that retail shop owners should look at that model and refuse to support those businesses who do support drop shipping to the retail customer.
Dave