What's the rest of the message saying?
It’s a really lengthy email about their struggles as a small business and asking the community for support/ideas. Makes me kind of sad because it’s pretty local to me so I go there for mostly supplies and every time I’ve gone Kent is just awesome and goes out of his way to help you and always drops some knowledge. I’ll copy/paste the email below if anyone wants to give it a read
“
Fellow aquarists,
First, I want to let you know that we will be closed this weekend (3/22-3/25) to provide us with some time and space to make some long overdue repairs. We plan to reopen next weekend.
But I am also messaging you today to apologize. I am sorry because I feel that I have failed you
Ten years ago I set out to create the aquarium store that I would have loved to visit as a hobbyist: one that catered to the serious reef or planted aquarium designer, sourced unique and niche products at competitive prices, and cultivated a boutique like atmosphere to inspire nature-lovers. Armed with a few months of unemployment insurance and the youthful exuberance of a 27 year old, I founded Aqua Lab out of a second-story apartment office in Mountain View, CA. Slowly I began to grow our resale business while taking on service clients to generate revenue. After 2 years, we relocated to our first Willow Glen store which was sublet from a tattoo removal business. Every weekend morning, we would essentially have to pack up our store and move it into the back office so the tattoo removal business could conduct its clinic. It was a crazy arrangement, but rent was cheap and we made it work. Two more years passed and we finally moved into our current home at 955 Lincoln Ave., where we have been the last 6 years.
When we moved into 955 Lincoln, I knew we were making a big leap forward; and honestly, it was a leap of faith. Our rent would increase nearly 8-fold. Although money had always been tight, this time we would have a much bigger space to try to make a permanent home. It would require a considerable amount of infrastructure design and buildout, and as many of you know the store is still a work in progress even 6 years later due to the trials and tribulations of growing a brick-n-mortar business in the 21st century. Despite the challenges, I always believed that if there was a will, there was a way.
It has been a challenging 10 years, and I must admit that I've been a little burned out and demoralized lately. I have been running the business more or less solo for the last year, all the while growing a young family with my wife. I have not been able to dedicate the time I used to for this endeavor, as I now have other responsibilities as a father and husband. I have had to wear many hats to continue growing because I can't afford professional services; acting as my own IT admin, handyman, fabricator, security, developer, bookkeeper, auto-tech etc. in addition to aquarium related duties. Don't get me wrong, I love gaining new skills, but it does make things much harder and slower. I don't want to give up, but at times it seems like the challenges are insurmountable. Our store has been in a state of disrepair for a while and I am ashamed of that. I have not managed to finish creating the store I had imagined making when I set out creating Aqua Lab, and for that I apologize.
But if I may, I had a few things I've been wanting to get off my chest...
I feel that I am at a crossroad. I want so badly to have a beautiful store that our Bay Area aquarium hobbyist community loves, but a brick-n-mortar this day in age is incredibly difficult with the competitive pressures of online juggernauts who throw their weight around to crush competition, the cost of rent and labor in California, and lack of access to a financial system that favors the asset rich and extracts from the asset poor. With no assets to my name, I have had to take on high-interest loans and credit cards to build this business, drastically cutting into my profitability with the store. Without capital, it is difficult to make the large purchases necessary to reduce my costs and drive up profits. The supply chain has also completely changed, and now you are often competing directly with the very companies from whom you need to purchase products from to resell. Distributors and manufacturers are now competing with their wholesalers and retailers through online marketplaces and direct sales. What this means is that small businesses in ALL industries are struggling more and more for survival as they are eliminated from the supply chain. Ultimately, this culminates in power and opportunity consolidating to a few big players which we all know is not good for these industries and society at large. As small, community-based businesses falter, local tax revenue takes a hit and either public services are reduced or eliminated, or citizens ultimately make up the difference on the back end through taxes or inflation. People often think they're saving money shopping at Amazon, but the price gets paid in other ways (and not by Amazon!). The other branches of Aqua Lab, service and e-commerce, have largely been the revenue drivers for my business with the physical store being a loss-leader. I would have a "successful" business if the brick-n-mortar store was eliminated, but I have always cared more about fulfilling the vision than being extremely profitable.
Finally, our economy and culture doesn't seem to be helping either. The increasing wealth-gap and inflating dollar makes many customers very price sensitive, so that even if they want to support a local business, they feel they can't because of the need to preserve every precious penny of purchasing power. Trust me, I understand where they are coming from (which is why I save in Bitcoin). Many people still fail to realize you can't go to a store and extract their knowledge and time, but then take your business elsewhere to save a few bucks. Then when a store is guarded with its knowledge, they get in a hussy and give you a bad review making it often feel like a thankless endeavor to provide these resources. Screens, virtual worlds, and social media preoccupy our free time, and costly time-consuming physical hobbies are pursued less and less. And finally, we live in a culture and economy that prioritizes convenience, speed, and cheapness over beauty, community, and sacrifice. I don't want to seem like a complainer, but these are real forces that do make things harder for independent business owners who aren't driven by money alone and don't want to compromise, especially in the hobby industries.
I love the community of customers that we have managed to attract, and I am truly grateful for your support and ongoing loyalty. It means the world to me and it really is what keeps me going. But alas, I must remain profitable to continue to conduct business and create a flourishing organization; and I need to be able to support my family. I have brainstormed on many ideas for how we could leverage our community to make the store possible. Sales alone, and the margin they provide, have been somewhat insufficient to justify the cost of our retail store. I have floated the idea of memberships, donations, customer loan programs, etc. but I don't know what would be palatable and acceptable for customers.
I now open this up to you, fellow aquarist, as I am looking to source ideas and help from the Aqua Lab community.
Maybe you have professional or technical skills you'd be willing to donate or barter with us on. Or maybe you have some ideas for new revenue streams (and are willing to help conduct them, paid of course). Perhaps you have some cash sitting around and need to find a place to park it so you can stick it to Wall Street and the banksters running our country. I am still optimistic that together we could pull this off. I don't want a hand-out, but rather a collaboration with my customer base that would be mutually beneficial. The following skills would be particularly valuable for us:
-Advanced aquarists who really know the craft and have an eye for design
-CAD designers, CNC fabricators, and other tinkerers
-IT admins and business tech stack developers
-Teachers willing to lead workshops
-Business owners in adjacent niches that could be complimentary and want to consolidate or sublet (bonsai, house plants, etc)
-Bookkeeping, CPAs, and financial gurus
-Bitcoiners
Please respond to this email with anything from a quick comment, to a well developed proposal, if you want to be involved in this transformation and weigh in with your opinion. I want to brainstorm with passionate customers to come up with a solution that will work for everyone. I have a lot of my own ideas, but I want to craft them together with YOU!
Thanks again for the business, love, and support you have provided us on this journey.
God bless,
Kent”
