Wholesalers are packing shipments throughout the day. The chances that they have been sitting for hours inside a bag are about the same as an e-tailers. Of course if you do have your shipments sent from a wholesaler, you commonly do get it shipped via airport to airport, but you can also request this service from most of the e-tailers out there as well. The main problem with e-tail, is the convenience factor, in that people DO NOT want to go to the airport to pick up the orders that they have placed. Most customers want the door to door service that FedEx, UPS and DHL provides. My opinion on this has always been to offer airport to airport shipping as an option, and we spell out the various advantages of this as well. Back when I was with FFE, we had a lot of customers from Las Vegas placing orders, and sometimes their orders would come in DOA. Well we asked a few questions, and found that Vegas shipments with FedEx were being trucked, not flown. This resulted in a lot of frozen fish during the winter time, so we suggested South West shipping, and never had a complaint afterwards. All you have to do is ask the company in question, if they offer this service, and if they do, I highly suggest that you take full advantage. It may cost a little more, but I can guarantee that you will have a far higher success rate, as well as healthier animals, even in winter shipping conditions.
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How do B&M get their fish?
- Thread starter danieldm
- Start date
Patrick-
I am lucky to be 380 miles North of Los Angeles. So I get my shipments very quickly. There are times when the whoesaler pulls my order in the morning, it's on a plane and acclimating in my tanks by 2:30 or 3 that afternoon. As Jenn pointed out, even going cross Country she still get her livestock acclimating in her tanks within 12hrs or so. That's twice as fast as it would take the same shipment to go common carrier via an etailer shipping out of LA. When I get an order delivered by my local wholesale company, it's usually within 4-6 of it having been packed. Of course I'm not the only customer on the truck.
The point I was trying to make, and I hope that I convey clearly to you, is simply that Race was trying to compare how his livestock gets shipped, versus how most retail outlets get theirs shipped. Sure some of the wholesale stuff goes via common carrier to groups that don't have an airport to ship into. But what Race was doing was lumping all of the B&M group into the same group as his customers, and that simply isn't factual. It's comparing apples to oranges, not apples to apples. I have NEVER seen a retail establishment get an order in any other ay that via a quick airport shipment. Period. There is no way to compare a fish that has been packaged for 4-12 hours versus one that has been packaged for 15-24hrs, or longer.
I am lucky to be 380 miles North of Los Angeles. So I get my shipments very quickly. There are times when the whoesaler pulls my order in the morning, it's on a plane and acclimating in my tanks by 2:30 or 3 that afternoon. As Jenn pointed out, even going cross Country she still get her livestock acclimating in her tanks within 12hrs or so. That's twice as fast as it would take the same shipment to go common carrier via an etailer shipping out of LA. When I get an order delivered by my local wholesale company, it's usually within 4-6 of it having been packed. Of course I'm not the only customer on the truck.
The point I was trying to make, and I hope that I convey clearly to you, is simply that Race was trying to compare how his livestock gets shipped, versus how most retail outlets get theirs shipped. Sure some of the wholesale stuff goes via common carrier to groups that don't have an airport to ship into. But what Race was doing was lumping all of the B&M group into the same group as his customers, and that simply isn't factual. It's comparing apples to oranges, not apples to apples. I have NEVER seen a retail establishment get an order in any other ay that via a quick airport shipment. Period. There is no way to compare a fish that has been packaged for 4-12 hours versus one that has been packaged for 15-24hrs, or longer.
Mark, I understand where you are coming from completely. When I read your 1st post in this thread, it comes of as a generalization of e-tailers, and B&M's. My point was, that your experience in ordering livestock, and probably the majority of LFS owners here on RDO...is not the same as all or even most LFS. And I don't see how generalizations are going to help any of these issues....
Patrick
Patrick
Sci-
In regards to your first question...no one knows, or can prove either way. Knowing the organisms fairly well for a lay person, my common sense tells me that the shorter transit time has to be better for the livestock. As for your second question, hours upon hours, hence the often quoted 40% and 50% mortality rates. So of relates back to the first question...
Patrick-
There is such a small handful of B&M owners/employees on this board that it no where near represents the true B&M picture. The majority of fish stores are grouped around the larger population centers, just like a lot of other retail establishments. More rural areas just don't have the customer base to support a local store. So I think you could reason that a large percentage of the B&M community gets their stock via air shipment, rather than common carrier. Every significant population center has an airport to fly into. Especially when you compare the rates. Common carriers charge by weight, and by package. Air freight charges by weight alone, and once you surpass the minimum charge (usually a hundred pounds) the savings are considerable. For example, my last shipment from LA to Northern California cost me $87 on Southwest. The same shipment would have been $275+ from any of the common carriers.
Yes I am generalizing somewhat, but I think it's not as small of a percentage as you think.
If well packed is there a significant mortality difference between fish that have been packaged for 4-12 hours as opposed to 15-24 hours? How long are the fish packaged during the flight from the collection station to the U.S.?
In regards to your first question...no one knows, or can prove either way. Knowing the organisms fairly well for a lay person, my common sense tells me that the shorter transit time has to be better for the livestock. As for your second question, hours upon hours, hence the often quoted 40% and 50% mortality rates. So of relates back to the first question...
Patrick-
There is such a small handful of B&M owners/employees on this board that it no where near represents the true B&M picture. The majority of fish stores are grouped around the larger population centers, just like a lot of other retail establishments. More rural areas just don't have the customer base to support a local store. So I think you could reason that a large percentage of the B&M community gets their stock via air shipment, rather than common carrier. Every significant population center has an airport to fly into. Especially when you compare the rates. Common carriers charge by weight, and by package. Air freight charges by weight alone, and once you surpass the minimum charge (usually a hundred pounds) the savings are considerable. For example, my last shipment from LA to Northern California cost me $87 on Southwest. The same shipment would have been $275+ from any of the common carriers.
Yes I am generalizing somewhat, but I think it's not as small of a percentage as you think.
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