Re: What's the demand for high street planted aquarium shops
Hi all,
I'd start selling a limited range of plants via Ebay whilst your working, you could see what there is a market for, and over time, as the money came in, expand your range to include other small non-perishable easily posted items, things that come to mind are stainless steel mesh squares, (ex) medical tweezers, scissors etc. If you go for small items you don't have trouble with storage and if you have some low value "bread & butter" items as well as more expensive it will keep you ticking over. If you can build up a cash float you have the option to buy a job lot of Koralias, Small Eheim filters, T5 luminaires, Optiwhite cubes etc. if the chance appears. If you are interested in propagating equipment the Met. police may have regular sales of the stuff they've seized from c*nnabis growers, and lights, "Fill and drain systems" and propagators etc. may be available at knock-down prices.
I'd also have a look at what "Rare Aquatics", "TGM", "TA Aquaculture" and "the Last Trading Post", sell for other ideas. If you don't mind posting livestock, shrimps might offer another line.
I used to grow and sell a few plants (more unusual Hardy Ornamental Nursery Stock & a few grasses) before Ebay as a side line after work. It was hard work and became less and less lucrative as the range of plants you could buy of the shelf expanded and even though horticulture was a fast growing sector the demand for the more specialist plants declined.
One problem was that the gardening general public didn't really have any conception of the true value of a plant, when I started I specialised in plants which were expensive because they were difficult to propagate (usually they needed to be grafted, or you got a low percentage take as a cutting) or slow growing, but relatively easy to grow once you got them, and initially I did quite well, but in any location (maybe not so much in a major city) it's a small market and easily saturated. It maybe an option again with the wider reach of the internet.
The major problem was that people might like the look of a "Daphne bholua" or "Kalmia latifolia" say, but because it was a little plant for £10 (and very little profit at £10) they would buy a cheaper "alternative" say a Daphne odora (much easier to propagate) or even a Lavender or Mallow, which was only £2, but only cost the producer 20p to produce.
The other problem was that the plants in vogue changed even amongst enthusiasts (bit like fish really, I'll bet that the "L. number" vogue is almost over), often with a new plant being very sort after, but interest in it rapidly declining if it was particularly difficult to grow (say very slug prone or not hardy), or the supply expanding if it was easy to grow (Corydalis flexuosa for example), or in some cases they just went out of fashion for no apparent reason.
cheers Darrel
