petstore prices

why are pet store prices so high i was walking through seeing what they had and i seen a pastel i looked at the price and it was $549.99:O i think thats a little expensive

Profit. Surely there's some sucker out there who has no idea what he's getting into that will buy it.

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Originally Posted by Nate

Profit. Surely there's some sucker out there who has no idea what he's getting into that will buy it.

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Oh, definitely. Where I work, we have bird cages for $70, that you can get for $20 somewhere else. You can get FAR better cages for like $30, just down the street. But there's always going to be those people that DON'T do their homework first, and DON'T shop around (*sings* you gotta shop around :P) and so they think, "Oh wow. How convenient - I can get everything I need right here. And that's not TOO bad a price, really."

Lucky us, we have bp.net so we're not going to be "that person". :D

Its called "retail," folks. Items are marked up to make a profit...ya know, the whole capitalism thing, the whole foundation for our economy. Its just the way things work. If you don't like it, fine, don't buy a snake from a petstore. Neither do I at those prices. But don't blame the petstores for trying to make money. That's what they do. Its how the business keeps running.

Most petstores generally mark up their animals 3x what it cost them. The ideal is a customer paying the full price. But even if they have to discount it down for whatever reason, they can still turn a profit.

Cost of animal: $200
Full retail price: $550

Essentially anything over that $200 is a profit, but the ideal is usually to make at least double your money back, so most petstores would be perfectly fine selling it for $400...not that they would advertise that fact though.

There's also the issue of feeding and housing the animal it is in the store. Of course, there's no guarantee how long that animal sits in store before it is purchased, but as a business, the company has to overcompensate for that to ensure they're not losing money with prey items, and bedding used for store-use.

There's also the matter of supply and demand (another cornerstone for our economy!). When I worked at petsmart, they sold baby ball pythons for 79.99. To you and me, thats ridiculous for a normal BP. But consider this: most clientiel of petsmart are new reptile owners that simply don't know any better. They see it this way: buy the snake from the petstore now, or order one from a breeder's basement online based solely on a photograph on the animal and pay extra for shipping. Most opt for the "now" solution. I'm not saying its right; just saying thats the norm in msot cases. Bottom line: people are still buying BPs from petsmart for 79.99, so the company will still sell them for 79.99. If petsmart expanded its herp section, and started getting BPs in larger quantities, the supply goes up, the demand stays the same, so the prices may be lowered. If there was ever a global shortage of baby BPs (unlikely), supply drops lower than the demand, so the prices may go up.

Same reason they sell untame large birds that would normally cost $1k for $2k. Some poor sucker with more cash than brains will go in and pay it someday. Sadly for the animals, it usually means they get to languish for months. If they're lucky, they get sent to a store that actually keeps them in proper conditions.

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Originally Posted by Mindibun

But there's always going to be those people that DON'T do their homework first, and DON'T shop around (*sings* you gotta shop around :P) and so they think, "Oh wow. How convenient - I can get everything I need right here. And that's not TOO bad a price, really."

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I totally agree. IMO pets are one of the worst, and unfortunately most common, impulse buys people make. They go into the pet store for a can of cat food, decide to check out the fauna (who doesn't right?) "just to see the cute little animals", and next thing they know they're walking out the door with a whole (inadequite/completely wrong) setup and a new pet, and a handful of (poor/false) husbandry information from an uneducated employee trying to make a sale.

In a perfect world, an ethical petstore would forbid people to do this. If someone came in and wanted to buy fauna and setup all in one shot the employee would insist on selling them a book instead. Tell them to read the book and come back in a week or two if they still really wanted the animal. We all know this isn't the case and profit is king. That's why there are so many mistreated/rescue/abandoned pets.

i can imagine someone buying it its pretty cool colored compared to a normal

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Originally Posted by simplechamp

In a perfect world, an ethical petstore would forbid people to do this. If someone came in and wanted to buy fauna and setup all in one shot the employee would insist on selling them a book instead. Tell them to read the book and come back in a week or two if they still really wanted the animal. We all know this isn't the case and profit is king. That's why there are so many mistreated/rescue/abandoned pets.

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I agree completely...which is why I used to do just that. :D The management hated me, but the customers adored me. I would tell them all about the animal, show them books or, even better, give them websites to research and give them a rundown on a proper enclosure and costs. If they knew they wanted the animal after that, I would get an enclosure and stuff for them...but not the animal. They had to set up the stuff and have it going first.

I did that with reptiles, birds, rodents, and especially fish. Everything we sold at the time. I am SO glad I'm not there now, as they sell snakes at that store and the employees are 90% terrified of them. :rolleyes: Not to mention they're in cramped cages with the wrong setup. SIGH.

As for the money thing...sadly it is true. Those stores work totally on impulse, even for their non-living merchandise. That's how they turn the high profit that the stores are really about.

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Originally Posted by simplechamp

I totally agree. IMO pets are one of the worst, and unfortunately most common, impulse buys people make. They go into the pet store for a can of cat food, decide to check out the fauna (who doesn't right?) "just to see the cute little animals", and next thing they know they're walking out the door with a whole (inadequite/completely wrong) setup and a new pet, and a handful of (poor/false) husbandry

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as a petco employee, you have no idea how often i get this. people try to buy 1 or even 2 hamsters and get the "cheapest stuff" and even try to get these small animals CARRIERS as their cages. luckily, im not allowed to sell them the animal if i see that kind of setup(even my management agree). i get people trying to buy reptiles without knowing how much it's gonna cost and what they're dealing with. they also try to buy the "cheap stuff" like 50 watt bulbs and 5.5 gallon terrarium or even the plastic kritter keepers which i definitely will NOT sell them the reptile even if they complain about me(which even management agrees with me). people try to buy 10-20 fish and put them in 1-5 gallon aquariums which MOST of us petco employees work there know thats not an appropriate setup. surprisingly i dont get that for the birds. i guess cuz they're overpriced. $140 for "handfed" cockatiels, $110 for yellow canaries, i think like $20 for finches, and our parakeets went up to $21.

same over here the petshop near us have a normal adukt ball python for €250 which I thought was a bit expensive, i am currently waiting for 4 of my pythons to hatch but have no idea what to sell them for but it will def not be as high as that.