With online selling becoming the ever-popular option for aquarium retailers, we take a look at one store that has moved all its trade over to a mail order basis.
RETAILER FOCUS
THE FIRST TIME I visited Sims back in 2021, I was—and I don’t use the word lightly—daunted by the sheer volume of ‘monster’ fish.
Potential giants leered from almost every tank, yet I clearly recall erven then that owner Martyn was on the lookout for yet more. If I knew of any, he enquired, could I let him know, as he had a considerable waiting list. There were several things that stuck with me that day: the huge rescue pond for fish that have outgrown their tanks with home aquarists; the number of high calibre oddballs available; and the presence of many ‘old school’ species not typically stocked elsewhere.
That was when the store was open for walk-ins, but things have since changed. While the building was originally intended be a fish showroom, that early ambition saw the premises rapidly morph into a distributions centre to cope with the weight of online orders coming in. As the online side expanded, I’m informed that the relentless staff activity of catching and bagging orders made it less and less feasible to have customers milling around. The decision was made to take the business online only.
I’m a relatively late subscriber to the fishy mail-order scene (I’ve always been a stickler for picking out my own fish), but when I was asked to give Sims a try I planned a tank accordingly and took the plunge. I’ve had some fish from another online seller in the last year and they were great, so…
Revamped website
Sims’ website has had a recent overhaul, which has tidied up a lot of loose ends. From the home page you’ll see a range of menus, with livestock divided up by tropical, coldwater, brackish, axolotls, shrimps, turtles, Betta (specifically a ‘Betta Boutique’), and an as-yet unpopulated marine category.
A perusal of the tropical fish section reveals that big fish still make up a decent chunk of what’s offered, with the likes of peacock bass, African tiger fish, Datnoids, stingrays, gars, knifefish and the like still going strong, but so is the rescue facility. Some of the fish offered are undeniably contentious, and I know that some aquarists will baulk at the likes of arapaima on offer, while others will be affronted by the likes of dye-dipped parrotfish, and while neither are to my tastes, they are all legal to trade in.
Still, despite the store’s arowana logo, there’s
