Hi Doug:
Excellent points!
While I no longer breed Gerbils, I find that with my Chins and Degus, the market
demand will fluctuate: it's either feast or famine.
I too market my animals via a few carefully selected pet stores. I maintain control
over the housing/selling conditions [and employee education/knowledge] by placing the
animals on consignment rather than selling them outright to the pet store.
Due to the nature of my employment, I too have limited capacity to accept inquiries
and visits at odd hours. Furthermore, it is quite disruptive if potential visitors
cancel appointments without notice or are quite late: basically, in order to
accomodate them, I had to place other tasks on hold.
As for prices, I strive to ensure that they stay high in order to dissuade impulse
purchases. Profit is not a consideration since I operate at a loss anyways [it's a
glorified hobby, not a business].
Anyways, thanks for contributing your valid observations!
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On Tue, 8 Aug 2000 19:12:32 Douglas White wrote:
>Remember even if there is a market when you start breeding if you breed too
>many you could flood the market and be stuck. I have a good market but I
>actually prefer to sell to stores, there are ones I will not sell to. This
>reduces the number of people calling at all hours, I actually received a call
>just after 11:00 pm one night and I had to leave for work at 4:30 am. The
>stores around here sell the gerbils at high enough prices that pretty much
>ensure they won't be snake food (6.99/5.99 gerbil, 3.99 rat, 1.99 mouse) and
>there are people that to buy cheap food for their snake will say they are
>buying it for a pet.
>
> Doug
>
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