Suggestion: BCS Betta Equipment Sale

[Jung]

The selling of merchandise by BCS is a great idea. How about we make the BCS store a one stop shop for all betta needs? If Toa Payoh pet stores can sell their stuff at that price, we might be able to come up with something, too (no rental, manpower costs...)

Suggestions:

1) Brine shrimp cysts - Buy in bulk and repackage.
2) Containers - Buy in bulk from distributor, sell piecemeal
3) Total package (medicine) - Lau Chiaos pick a selection of the best medicines for all betta diseases and sell as a package.
4) Indian Almond leaves? (maybe not so good to sell this, but the aro hobbyists have even packaged the stuff into teabags..)
5) Frozen food? (for consideration...may not be so good to sell)

Should be able to make money for the club, at the same time provide cheaper prices for members.

[Chris Yew]

It's good to provide such service to members as well as generating income for the club. But the general running of merchandising, the administrative part and logistic is very difficult as all committee members all working full time. It will also required a place to store those goods, someone to provide the service to the buyers, etc...

Before the club can do that, it's better to have more committed and responsible members to join them in the committee work. I believe the club is really in need of more helpers to join them.

Chris Yew

[Dr Hsu]

These other things will come in time....

BBS is a good idea - never thought of it as I don't use them! Good quality ones can be purchased from Argent which usually has a major booth at Aquarama. Hopefully we should have some logistics stuff organized by then.

Frozen BW - was thinking about it again. Once we have a site to hold our monthly meetings, we can contact the distributor and get them to deliver when we meet (take order first). Should work if we can get the timing right.

Containers - wait till we contact Nisso manufacturer; or from Thailand

Ketpang - very hard to sell lah! Betta owners usually quite kiam siap! and easy to get free!

Medications - unfortunately no such thing as "best medicine" and besides, technically illegal.

Regards,

Li Chieh

[Jung]

Dr LC,

You mean its illegal to have a basket of over-the-counter fish medications sold together as a package? (Kinda like a "Betta Hobbyists' Basic Starter Kit"...with one type for each of the common betta ailments, and maybe a printout to assist diagnosis)...

Oops...

But we don't rebottle or anything, just bundle together for sale...

[Foo Hong]

These ideas are quite good. But I think generally 'dry stuffs' and anything that dont need refrigeration-including certain medications - are easier to handle.

What we can do in future is when we have our site for monthly club gatherings, sell such items there. For eg, display bettas in nice containers[eg nisso tanks], sell the tanks there. More organised too, much like a mini betta show :)

[Dr Hsu]

quote:
Dr LC,

You mean its illegal to have a basket of over-the-counter fish medications sold together as a package? (Kinda like a "Betta Hobbyists' Basic Starter Kit"...with one type for each of the common betta ailments, and maybe a printout to assist diagnosis)...

Oops...

But we don't rebottle or anything, just bundle together for sale...




Many "OTC" meds are actually not supposed to be OTC. Many don't even have a listing of ingredients, which is probably illegal in the first place. There basically hasn't been any enforcement but that may change as MOH and AVA are very concerned about antibiotic misuse and the emergence of multi-drug resistant organisms.

End of the day, we'll likely see some approved OTC fish remedies as I cannot see hobbyists needing to get proper diagnosis and prescriptions.


Regards,

Li Chieh