Reflection: My Experience with the Aquarium Hobby & the Decline of Small Business

My aquarium at home

I'll start this post with a Star Wars quote (yes, I am a huge Star Wars fan 😅and I'll be talking about that soon): "The force is strong in my family, my father has it, I have it, my sister has it too" (Return of the Jedi). Strangely enough and as "nerdy" as that was, this quote embodies my experience with the aquarium hobby, an experience that I was born in to. My dad and uncle had several tropical aquariums when they were growing up and bought a 135-gallon tank the day before my brother was born.

From my earliest childhood memories, I can remember this large structure at the center of my grandparents' old house- connecting our family room to the foyer, kitchen, and library.  In a weird way, this same tank has represented a constant during my life as something that's always been part of my journey so far.  When we moved twice between 2002 and 2004, the tank came with us and still resides in a same central location, connecting our foyer, kitchen, and family room.  While I haven't had my own aquarium in college, coming home to the same constant, foundational structure has always given me a consistent base to rely on.

While the actual physical presence of the tank has remained a reliable structure, my experiences with the people I've met and lessons I've learned, have also had a significant impact in my life.  When my older brother and I were younger, we would spend much of our time working on and obsessing over our aquarium, learning how to clean and maintain as it as we got older.  My dad and my uncle, who shared their passion with us, spent countless hours and days taking us to "fish stores" across New Jersey and New York, a memorable trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and other quick visits to "fish farms" in Florida. Whether it was Pets Place II in Nanuet or Pet Land Discounts in Hackensack or Westwood, or Kasmir's Pet Shop and Reef Encounter in Hackensack, we had some truly magical experiences at these stores.

Pet Land Discounts in Westwood

Getting to know and interact with these family-owned stores was perhaps the most memorable part of our trips. As my brother and I tried to set our own "fish budget", we learned about how some of these businesses operated. We learned how they worked with local wholesalers and quickly found themselves losing their profits to Petco, PetSmart, and other retailers who often placed their stores very similar to where the local "mom and pop" stores were located.

As my brother and I got older, we began to see overarching economic trends begin to affect our hobby. Pet Land Discounts closed its location in Hackensack while earlier this year, both Kasmir's Pet Shop and Reef Encounter both closed as well.  We quickly saw how the power of corporate powerhouses began to dismantle our favorite stores.  Despite almost always having more varied inventory, our local "mom and pops" struggled to remain profitable and often raised their prices to maintain revenue when Petco and PetSmart would often keep lower prices.

We saw a similar problem when we visited my uncle in California, who has maintained a 200-gallon aquarium and inspired me to write this article.  As we explored the aquarium scene around Los Angeles, we observed the same decline albeit happening at a bit of a slower pace. Sadly, the increasing decline of the family-owned pet store means having less opportunities to meet those so passionate that they built their livelihoods around helping fellow hobbyists.  Now every time I take my younger cousins or go with my brother to these stores, any trip we take means even more with the acknowledgement that many of these "family-owned" stores won't be around for far much longer.  

While this blog post was very different in scope than the first one, I'm glad I was able to reflect on the impact of the aquarium hobby, some of the lessons I've learned from it, and my own experience seeing the decline of small business.  If you've had similar experiences seeing the decline of family owned businesses in the aquarium hobby or in other hobbies, I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can tweet your thoughts to me at @RishabNJain or @BigBlueThoughts or leave a comment here. Make sure to subscribe to get my next post.  Thanks so much for reading!