Petco bought Dr. Foster and Smith...

[ninjamyst]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/petco-acquire-online-pet-product-205500547.html

 

I hope nothing changes cuz Petco kinda sucks...and I wonder what will happen to LiveAquaria?

[FlamingPrawn]

Noooooooooooo.

[jestep]

That sucks, seriously sucks. I wish I didn't see this...

 

I seriously hope live aquaria and their aquaculture and mariculture wasn't included. DFS's product selection has been going down hill for a few years so no big deal IMO. Live aquaria is a huge and pretty much irreplaceable asset to the hobby and there's no way Petco has any ability to run it properly. Otherwise that's just one online aquarium retailer I won't ever shop at again.

[masterbuilder]

If there ever was a time when this oldie was appropriate...............

 

[Reefkid88]

Along with what everyone else says... I really hope the quality of F&S doesn't change.... This is a sad day in the aquarium world..

[ReviloM]

I think it will be a good thing. Here is what I believe will happen:


-Most of the products offered by Drs Foster and Smith may be offered in stores now.
-Revamping of saltwater department. Stricter requirements because of knowledge from Drs foster and smith
-Cheaper in-store prices for petco products.
-increased varieties of corals and fish offered at petco stores

My thinking behind this is that Drs foster and smith is well respected and will not let a pet store giant just ruin its business relationships and good name. The article stated that it was an agreement so terms have to have been met to finalized the acquirement.

[Drexellake]

You would be surprised how many different stores are owned by one company. Some have a DBA list so long you would think they have a monopoly. Online you can usually tell when you're shopping and they use the exact same software and shopping carts on their sites.

[basser1]

Sadly it looks like LiveAquaria is included......

 

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/11/19/breaking-petco-planning-buy-drs-foster-smith-including-liveaquaria/

[aquageek]

I doubt anything changes actually, management at DFS just has new bosses lol.

[Reefkid88]

I think it will be a good thing. Here is what I believe will happen:

 

 

-Most of the products offered by Drs Foster and Smith may be offered in stores now.

-Revamping of saltwater department. Stricter requirements because of knowledge from Drs foster and smith

-Cheaper in-store prices for petco products.

-increased varieties of corals and fish offered at petco stores

 

My thinking behind this is that Drs foster and smith is well respected and will not let a pet store giant just ruin its business relationships and good name. The article stated that it was an agreement so terms have to have been met to finalized the acquirement.

I surely do hope you're right. It would be nice,and I think if they do bring more products to petco it will raise sales,especially in the HORRID saltwater selection.

[ReviloM]

Most people are only seeing this as one-sided based on experience at certain petco stores. I, honestly, do not believe that Drs Foster and Smith would be in an agreement under Petco without changes. I, also, believe that Petco pursued Drs Foster and Smith to improve its organization. Companies merge only when one is failing(going bankrupt for example) or if a merger benefits both companies endgame. Money does play a role but Drs Foster and Smith wasn't losing sales like Petco. The article would have stated Drs Foster and Smith to acquire Petco if money was the motive.

[atrox]

Mergers are not about mutual growth for both parties involved. One benefits to gain the others customers, credibility, marketing, and market share period. Like most mergers everything on the surface for joe the customer will be identical. Same name, websites, product lines, and in most cases staff. Dr Fosters/live Aquariua although leaps and bounds above in terms of merchandise and livestock caters to very small (informed) customer base where as Petco caters to a large (uninformed) crowd. So the merger is smart on Petco and in sure much ($$$$) appreciated by the owners of smith and foster. For the record Petco will not start carrying better merchandise it will still be the same Petco. No uninformed Petco hobbyist would ever drop $600+ on lighting etc. consider it like Acura and Honda same company two diff names but the same parent company.

[hey]

I don't see any good coming from this on our end, but I also have hope that they will be run separately and this will just be another business generating revenue for the corporation as a whole...

[jestep]

I didn't realize DFS put themselves on the market back in October. I would bet the business model is more complicated than it looks, but this sure seems like an obvious acquisition for anyone who could afford them.

 

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12899855/1/pet-retailers-tabcom-drs-foster-smith-hit-the-block.html

[gena]

I think it will be a good thing. Here is what I believe will happen:

 

 

-Most of the products offered by Drs Foster and Smith may be offered in stores now.

-Revamping of saltwater department. Stricter requirements because of knowledge from Drs foster and smith

-Cheaper in-store prices for petco products.

-increased varieties of corals and fish offered at petco stores

 

My thinking behind this is that Drs foster and smith is well respected and will not let a pet store giant just ruin its business relationships and good name. The article stated that it was an agreement so terms have to have been met to finalized the acquirement.

Oh, I HOPE this is what happens!!!!

[hey]

Oh, I HOPE this is what happens!!!!

 

Yet pessimistically I see... saltwater dept live aquaria adopting petco standards (its probably a lot cheaper)

[gena]

 

Yet pessimistically I see... saltwater dept live aquaria adopting petco standards (its probably a lot cheaper)

Yeah, and really it's the people running it that make the store great or not. Currently Petco provides the basics which is really all you need K.I.S.S, but the employees are really the weak link and that probably won't change unless they start training the employees on proper fish/coral care.

[ReviloM]

Oh, I HOPE this is what happens!!!!

We can only hope so.

[Drexellake]

I doubt much if anything will change either. It's probably going to be transparent to their customers. Doesn't matter to me either way as I shop at neither store.

[ReviloM]

Yet pessimistically I see... saltwater dept live aquaria adopting petco standards (its probably a lot cheaper)

I don't think it will because of the current employees there. Those guys/gals have been doing it the right way for too long to start doing it the wrong way. Some may quit though if that were to happen.

[ninjamyst]

what i dont want to see is Petco sending "analysts" to Dr. Foster and Smith for cost reduction / process improvement to drive down cost and improve net income...

[nanoreefnate]

This is an incredibly unfortunate day in the aquarium world…

[RK_tek]

The aquarium partition of DFS is probably quite a small part of their revenue compared to the dog/cat parts which was probably the motivator for Petco to acquire them. More than likely, the end consumer in the aquatics section of DFS will never see a difference

[SomeWonderfulNonsense]

the petco in my area is supposed to be a saltwater speciality one and they just installed a frag tank - as you can imagine everything in it was dead almost a week after it was stocked, so maybe this is the change the Foster's and Smith is starting lol its not a step in the right direction.

[MikeTR]