Well, I am going to open a mainly reptile pet shop in a strip mall up the street from my house in mid. 2012, it is a fairly large store, and has absolutely nothing in it and has been available for years, which is another plus for me. Obviously I love reptiles, which is what brought this idea on, but also got to thinking about lots of other pros for doing it. Some things I was thinking about was, the only stores near me are Petco and Petsmart and they are still 15-20 minutes away, so there is no competition. Another thing is, Petco and Petsmart do not sell any thing but large crickets, adult rats, and adult mice as live feeders, which would give me the upper hand as I will breed roaches, meal worms and crickets as well as the rats and mice, giving my customers way more to choose from. I'm going to sell mainly the lower end ball pythons I produce, bearded dragons, leopard geckos, and possibly some other smaller reptiles. I will be breeding my own roaches, crickets, meal worms, rats and mice to sell as feeders to try and prevent ordering them, although I'm sure I will need to sometimes. As well, I will carry a lot of dry goods no one sells such as good thermostats instead of the retrostats, enclosure decorations, good hides, rat/mouse food, ferret food, etc., maybe I'll build and sell small reptile racks, etc.

Any how, I am just looking for any other ideas/ suggestions any of you may have. I would love to hear everyone's suggestions, maybe other feeders/ pets I could carry in the store, even a list of cheap online suppliers for feeders/ dry goods.

Let me hear your ideas!