Thanks for the (mostly) nice comments. This board is always useful, but we don't get much of a chance to see all the forums on the net obviously. Just thought I would provide a bit more information. First, we do have a few retail stores open to the public. One is in Escondido, one is in Oceanside, CA. Sometimes our employees roam between the two stores, but for the most part they are unique. Up until last year, our Oceanside store was our main shipping store for supplies. Now we have a main warehouse in between the stores where we ship the products from, making the Oceanside store much more "customer friendly", and we have re-done quite a bit of it over the last year. Anyone who knows Skillet and Kevin at that store, or Jono & crew at the Escondido store knows how much work those guys put into it. We keep almost all our animals in large vision cages, and anyone who has been in our stores will tell you how much effort we put into the care of our guys. Yes, this is a business we run, but we are all in it for the passion of the hobby - something to always keep in mind!
As for trade shows - we do about 40 (yes, 40) trade shows per year all over the US. For baby beardies, we absolutely do not buy dragons under 4 weeks of age (you would be absolutely blown away how often people bring in fresh out of the egg dragons trying to pass them as a month old). Even at 4 weeks it is young, but as most of you know, a well fed month week old dragon is no issue at all, and breeders generally don't want to sit on them for longer and pay to feed their animals. Some of you on here sell / have sold dragons to us, so you know we are rather particular and really do care how old and how long the dragons are. This year, dragons have been crazy cheap, as some of the "big breeders" have crashed the market selling to the big chain stores. I have seen normal dragons as low as $10 each RETAIL over the summer, and being given away free from people not wanting to feed them anymore. Crazy year, so I would expect next year to lighten up a bit with some getting out of it this year. Just an FYI for you breeders having any trouble selling your stock - don't give up on them just yet. It happened with Leopard Geckos a few years ago, but they bounced back as well.
The other cool thing about having a few stores is the adult dragons we get in stock. Usually, our sub adults to adults were just solo pets someone was getting rid of, and not "bred out" old dragons. We get pretty much every color morph throughout the year. Like today we just got in a few 14" female pure orange dragons from a customer. It's a great way to get breeders that are young and ready to go, and we pride ourselves on offering them at great prices.
As for products, we certainly try to keep our prices extremely low, but I have been through literally almost every major supply retailer, and I know for a fact that many of our products are quite a bit cheaper than the "mountain" store. Not everything, but a good chunk... Plus, we carry about 1,000 more reptile products
Regardless - keep in mind, we have a heck of a price match guarantee. We will beat a same brand product at another website by 5% (not 5% of the difference, but 5% off the product). Somethin to keep in mind!
Anyhow - thanks for stopping in our stores when you guys are in town and seeing for yourselves how much work and effort we put into our stock. If you ever have any concerns, any questions or even suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us. Seriously, we try really hard to be customer friendly as most of you know, and really do work our rears off to keep clean stores, extremely healthy animals and a knowledgeable staff that all enjoy the hobby and the job. I realize that some have their opinions set, but if you have any specific concerns, PM me or call us toll free at 888-54-Reptile anytime. Thanks!
Scott
LLLReptile & Supply