"Rescue" Tarantulas

[cold blood]

I disagree.
There is a huge difference between a sale and a loss.
If the animal is sold, the shop recovers the cost it made of buying it in PLUS a profit. The mark up that pets shops make is obscene.
However if it dies, the shop has lost that money. And so therefore less likely to replace it.

Yeah, huge markups...this means very little cost to the pet store...losses are minimal, the attention they bring from browsers is arguably more valuable to them than the t its self....they are indeed just replaced if they die.

 

[Ceymann]

True, but let's face it, a major chain pet shop is not going to be made or broken by spiders that do or don't sell. Ts are very likely less than 5%, of not lower than all of their sales.
Get people to boycott dog and cat food and then they'll be in hot water

100% agree and with chains like Petsmart/ Petco, I be willing to bet the sale of herps and Ts combined is probably more like 0.5% or heck even .05% of their overall profits.
Even though the margins on live animals is much better than dry goods.

 

[Ian14]

100% agree and with chains like Petsmart/ Petco, I be willing to bet the sale of herps and Ts combined is probably more like 0.5% or heck even .05% of their overall profits.
Even though the margins on live animals is much better than dry goods.

Pet shops, chain or otherwise, have a huge mark up on livestock.
When I was breeding snakes, shops would regularly refuse to buy hatchling corns for more than £5 each. In fact most would say that they would take them, but would not buy them, as if they were doing me a favour!!!
They were selling them for at least £50.

 

[Ceymann]

Pet shops, chain or otherwise, have a huge mark up on livestock.
When I was breeding snakes, shops would regularly refuse to buy hatchling corns for more than £5 each. In fact most would say that they would take them, but would not buy them, as if they were doing me a favour!!!
They were selling them for at least £50.

Yes, and for smaller shops / exotic shops its a different story and live animals sales are going to.be a decent chunk of their profits
For instance, I currently manage an large marine ornamental aquaculture facility that specializes in "designer" coral 2nd largest in the US, about 70% of our profits are online orders of our named, signature pieces of coral
but here in the US with "petfood" chains as massive as petco/petsmart, even with such margins the amount of dogfood/ catfood that they sell compared to herp/Tsales make up a fraction of a % in their total profits. I wouldn't be surprised if only 1 out of 100 customers they get in a day buy anything herp/ T related, dry goods included.
Very small percentage of their total sales/ profits

 

[IzzysKeeper]

Although I am not a fan of LPS chains, they are in fact a necessary evil FOR NOW.
I would bet 80% or higher of people looking to "buy" a pet do so on impulse decisions
"It's just a spider, lizard, snake, etc. how hard can it be?"

So they purchase a spider.
Get it home, don't do research, take advice from LPS employee who is not knowledgeable, read a care sheet and end up here eventually.
"Is my spider in death curl, molting, acting weird, trying to disco" ... ETC!! (@viper69 's favorite things )

The outcomes from it can be that the LPS is going to eventually drive people to do research and find out they got ripped off at a pet store and spread the word about their "terrible" experience
New pet owners need a considerable amount of hand holding IF they didn't do the research in advance. (I wish it was mandatory to have a license to own exotic species )

It then drives them to breeders, suppliers, and other online situations because the "impulse buy" was satiated. So to speak lol.
It's because NEW OWNERS RARELY DO RESEARCH that purchasing online is not even an option cause how would they even know to find the breeders etc?

Now of course, there are many exceptions to the rule, but my feeling is pretty much the same, if you see abuse report it. If you can house a new spider, GET IT.
Same as educating new owners as much as we can. Because it's not going to help anything to dissuade or get upset at new owners that are clueless about their new pet(s).
They need help and in doing so hopefully they can become a responsible 'rantula owners for the future that WILL buy and house from breeders and suppliers because we show the differences
And then they spread the word.

Yes I live in a perfect world haha!

 

[spideyspinneret78]

Yeah, huge markups...this means very little cost to the pet store...losses are minimal, the attention they bring from browsers is arguably more valuable to them than the t its self....they are indeed just replaced if they die.

Yeah, I agree with this. My sister used to be a store manager at a large chain pet store and told me that the main reason they sell live animals at all is because it encourages people to buy a variety of other products. If someone is drawn in by a fish they like for instance then they will also end up buying a filter, an aquarium ,fish food, etc.