How would I go about selling fish to petco or petsmart?

umbrati: How would I go about selling fish to petco or petsmart?
No, I don’t want to hear about animal cruelty etcetc, but I’ve been thinking about breeding bettas and selling them to petco/petsmart. Do I need to be an official breeder or something or do I just show up and sell them?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Jasmine
Best to contact a local own pet/fish store. Those big chains won’t take them.

Answer by Anubis*Star
You can’t. Petco and Petsmart both have fish shipped in from a fish supplier. They don’t take fish from private breeds. It’s actually against corporate policy to take in any fish from a customer or someone else. All their fish come from one main supplier, and they then get the fish shipped in once a week.

Sorry, but no way.

Now, if there was a small family owned pet store around you, you could talk to them about supplying them with fish. But big chain stores, you are going to have no chance with

Answer by Snakelady
The large companies have just one company they buy all there fish from and will not buy from you, your best bet is to get ahold of the wholesalers and sell to them, look up companies like Delta Aquatics or Aquatic Imports (Canada) they can give you an idea of how to buy and sell.

Answer by Nunaya Bidnit
Agreed- big pet shops buy in bulk.

Answer by kelsey
they wont use you./ they get there animals from industrial vendors. the animals come in on semi trucks. they dont buy from backyard breeders… sorry

Answer by Chafed
as stated, they won’t buy from you, since they purchase from large fish wholesale companies.

if your bettas look pretty enough, and you can start breeding them with a lot of uniqueness and variety, I would suggest selling them on aquabid.com or ebay. fish, especially bettas, are really not that difficult to ship. I have had fish shipped to me many times, successfully. people will pay top dollar to have a greater selection of fish than just the petstores.

Answer by PeeTee
First buy a fish farm in Singapore. The stores that you mention buy their fish from professional breeders that sell literally by the truck-load.
If you really want to sell Bettas,join the ABC (American Betta Congress),learn what really good stock looks like and start showing fish in competition. When you have a great reputation you’ll be able to sell your fish at very high prices,you may break even if you’re real good.

Answer by zooy94
their right those big stores won’t buy (or take for free) fish from u, but I do know that some petlands do. It depends on the type of fish, I’ve breed (not on purpose) Zebra danios and they say that they will take them. but they won’t pay me for them, because they are so easy to breed and they are so common.

Answer by purplepills
you could always put ads on craigslist or in the newspaper if you cant sell them to a store

Answer by john b
…when dealing directly with store owners you have the best stiuation, where that is the ‘decision maker’ for that company
…in every ‘sales call’ the ‘cold-call’, attempts to establish a chance to speak directly with the ‘decision maker’ of any type of firm….doctors,bankers, retailers, etc….or to find out who that/those persons are, so an appointment may be scheduled to speak with them
…..you may be able to ‘offer some type of display unique to bettas’ that their store does not presently have, and you may offer to maintain that display…such as a “reef-One” type set of systems, big, presentational, pretty, each has variety of colors and fin shapes….many people are unaware of the gorgeous round, fan-type fins shapes bettas come with now
…..if you get your foot in the door at the big stores early, wow….so that’d be a tough, $ $ $ , investment to keep because you went to them, but if it works well, hmmmm
….dealing with small business can be simple to meet the owner,,,but you also find amny owners are equally or moreso blunt, so tread carefully and wear your very best smile…IF you are warmly received, their may be some room to supply some fish, so offer to buy lunch or cater some coffee….
…maybe some smaller ‘Reef-one” type tanks for each red, blue, gold betta in smaller, well visited stores, attracts public interest…the small owners will enjoy….so get a cotract agreement to protect your products (and ideas) from their piracey later…your ideas are precious if they work!!!
…however, you may be lucky just to get a one-year, renewable promise that the strore will use you as it’s sole supplier of pretty betttas for that tiem frame, if the promotions work well, based on some increase of sales of bettas over a test time period…..something like that
…..MEANWHILE, the managers of petco, petsmart, etc, may see your displays tooo, because they are in a prominent store, well traveled….then the idea is on!!!
…so keep doing homework and keep every name and contact email, ph# and fax# in a log to refer back to quickly
…and leave a busness card with everyone you meet, so they can cal you when they chose to try your ideas
….and above all, be sure to emphasize, your service guarantee
….your buying his confidence…he is buying your fish
….but, at least we can meet the owner without layers, upon layers, of filteration personell, and time spent, before we are refused

Good Luck and Happy Sales

Answer by Rob
Petco and Petsmart, will usually take in unwanted fish, but not give much, if anything for them. Local fish stores will usually give 25% to 33%, but only in store credit. If you want to sell fish, you can post them on Craigslist. If you have something more expensive, try https://www.aquabid.com/.