ChevyB Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 Had the chance to stop in at the new Big AL's in Calgary this weekend, nice store, well laid out and clean. Much less cluttered then the Big Al's in E Town. Still lots of empty tanks as one poster stated a week or so back but had some nice Cichlids in stock and some nice staff. Prices seemed OK as well. Its a big store so they are going to have to do some serious $$. Was not overally busy on Saturday but we were there just after opening. A nice addition to the fish keeping scene in Calgary if they keep it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 I was there for the first time yesterday afternoon. Pretty dead as well. I went looking around. I like the store overall because of the size and cleanliness, but the prices were absolutely horrible on some things. A 5 lb pail of NLS cichlid formula at big als....99.99, I can get it for $68 or around there. Rena xp3 filter 169.99.....at golds you can buy it for 149.99. The tank pricing was much like any regular pet store you go into. But when I saw the price of the fish, my mouth dropped. I never expected the price to be so high. $22 for a 3" pseudotropheus species cichlid...by the time I were to buy 1 male and about 3-4 females, over $100 right there. Tetras on average were about 5.99, same as most stores like petland, but I am sure Denis can order them in for you for far cheaper. They did however have a nice little selection of plants. Some products like Prime water conditioner, same price as places like pisces. This is my outtake on it. The only thing I bought was a large roll of filter floss hahaha. I think the only way I will buy something from them, is if I get a price match on an item sold for less at another store, or if they carry fish that are very very hard to find elsewhere. One more thing, their selection of lighting units sucked big time, I was not impressed with that. And from what I got, I asked the girl at the cashier if they carried beef heart, she was not the friendliest. Basically told me to go buy it at a grocery store instead in a not so nice way....certainly not getting off on a good start to me. And another girl I was talking to who works there, was telling me she keeps her betta in a 10 gallon tank, but with only an airstone. Well for one bettas do not need that extra oxygen, they go to the surface to get it. And on a tank that size she could easily fit a small filter, since bettas are fish too and should have something along those lines. So some staff did not seem highly knowledgeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
super fish Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 wait so they just opened again recently eh? That sounds like many fish store...the staff have barely any knowledge of what they are selling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T&J Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 I had basically the same experience, selection seemed solid but prices were pretty awful an a lot of things. I was looking for an XP3 and hoping that the new store in town would have lower prices to attract new customers - no dice, the filter was $20 more than Gold's, so I bought it elsewhere. Staff were very green and seemed to know less than I do, and I'm fairly new to the aquarium thing myself. Plant selection was rather nice and I might swing by another day to look at them more in-depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 (edited) I was in there yesterday as well. It was nice to see the large selection of tanks and furniture quality stands (I'm sort of in the market for a new one if I can convince the hubby to give me some $$$$.) Guess with that much room you can display more than most stores. I wasn't floored by the plant selection- nice enough, but it wasn't huge and there wasn't anything exotic or unusual. There was one non-aquatic species being sold, and quite a few Aponogeton ulvaceus mislabeled as A. fenestralis (Madagascar lace plant- how can you get that one wrong?) Still, the quality was good, portions were generous, and $5 or $6 per bunch for stem plants is cheaper than the $10 per bunch that other stores charge. I did bring a few home. :smokey: I didn't look too closely at the dry goods and such, since I mostly buy that kind of stuff online. The staff was helpful, although not experts by any means. Hopefully they'll get over their growing pains soon and get a little more competitive pricing going. Edited August 25, 2008 by werner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firestorm Posted August 25, 2008 Report Share Posted August 25, 2008 At least you got something out of the trip werner I found that they didn't really carry any plants I am that interested in purchasing for any of my tanks, but yeah the pricing on them was decent. They did carry some products that are hard to find elsewhere, and some dried products were the same pricing as a place like petland or pisces, so not too awful there. But all in all I think I might just stick with golds for most of my needs.....unless it was an emergency on a thursday hahaha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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