Big Als Closing Down
 

Big Als Calgary is having a closing down sale.

For the past two years we have been locked in a legal dispute involving our landlord over our lease, we lost the case. Two years of very high legal bills have forced the owners to shut the doors forever. Big Als would like to thank all of the customers that have supported us over the years. The close out sale is effective today Feb 28 2005.
Everything is being liquidated including store fixtures, and equipment.

If anyone has any questions feel free to drop by the store.

Thank You

Brodie

big als
 

that sucks!

That really sucks.. I am sorry to hear that.

Thanks for letting all of us know about the sale though

Was just there.......sorry to hear about that kind of situation. 25% off EVERYTHING. Not too much SW livestock, couple anthias, etc. Good deal on tanks though!

Steve

Good lord! This is horrible news!

:(

Sad to hear.

who get the huge tank and the giant groupers??

i have plastic (-=

No love lost here. I personally hated big al's and all thier practices in Calgary.

Im gonna be stopping by there tmrw... That really sucks for the owners... but i've never been a huge fan, as I've never recieved very good advice there...

There is another opening in Calgary north...so probably just moving

http://www.bigalscanada.com/images/f...itoriesweb.jpg

I hope all the livestock find good homes. :cry:

That just say's that they're looking to get someone to spend money on a BA's franchise in north Calgary. (Not that one is opening soon.)

But I guess now that you pointed it out.............. There's sure to be a huge line of investors looking to open a BA's franchise close to Petland, Petcetera and Petsmart.

:lol:

That's really quite horrible news! This isn't April 1 is it?! Man alive.

When i talked to Brodie he mentioned that there was no other plans for a Big Al's in Calgary. Also he said everything wont go lower then 25% as it will be below cost (cough cough 40% markup). Instead they will ship everything off to another one of their stores.

Still a sad day for me as this was a close drive to grab some goods. Looks like Petcetera will be getting all my business now (pukes)

Steve

40% Bah Close to 100% on Hardware. But I will be sad as they had decent prices on livestock every now and then.

I have always enjoyed going to Big Al's there are some really good people that work there that I will really miss seeing on the weekends :(

When they got in good coral and fish shipments there was some really nice stuff at good prices. If we want to talk about 40-100% markups I can think of only one (unnamed) store in this city that doesn't have that kind markup. I have found in this hobby you MUST shop around, you can go to 5 different stores looking for a heater say and you would get 5 different prices.. I have just learned which stores are better at what and shop accordingly. Big Al's is also some what close to my house so I never had to travel far to pick up a things I neeed in short order.

The nice thing about Big Al's is a great place for the casual fish keeper, way better than going to petland and not as intense as the specialized stores in the city. I think alot of people are going to miss out on that now and will end up going to the petlands and petsmarts to get their stuff.

I'm actually really sad about this and still find it a little hard to believe. I don't know why a big chain would pull out of the city due to a lease fight. There are lots of new developments coming up that could house a store like theirs, and in the end they are just throwing revenue out the door. .. But what do I know.. I'm just a simple Oilman :p

It was a lease fight that was fought over the period of 2 years. The lease and court costs were so high it caused them to go Bankrupt.

I think Big Al's would actually be a safe investment. People know the business and the products, hmmmmm got myself thinking.......

Steve

Hey I am sure the franchisee is just decinding not to continue. I am sure some entrepreneur will come along and open the franchise again. i just hope its in the South. The North has enough SW fish stores. I would actually look into this myself if I had more capital. lol. Isnt that always the case.

Name Of Franchise

Big Al’s
441 Chrislea Road Woodbridge Ont. L4L 8N4
Tel: (905) 851-1858
NATURE OF BUSINESS
Retail Sale of Tropical and Marine Fish and Related Products
# OF OUTLETS - 20

INITIAL FRANCHISE FEE $50,000.00
MINIMUM INVESTMENT* $500,000.00

* OPTIONAL FINANCING AVAILABLE
MINIMUM CASH INVESTMENT $300,000.00
BALANCE ON AN APPROVED SBL (GOVERNMENT BANK LOAN)

Please Write to:
ALLAN SAUL
President
E-MAIL:asaul@bigalscanada.com

I'd actually guess that BA's has a minimum 100% markup, which is perfectly normal in the retail world. I can't imagine them only going 40%, you usually only see that kind of thing in very specific commodity type retail sectors.

Well, maybe the store only goes 40% but the rest is taken by the franchise company. It is normal for a franchisor to mandate that all or at least most products be purchased from them. I can't see how the store would be able to cover their cost base in that situation though.

You want to talk about markup look at the retail gasoline sector. 350% is average.

Sorry mods this is off topic, but his statement is VERY untrue. Please read the following:

"Gasoline retailers must keep their markup razor thin. Markups, which are less then 10%, cover: land, salary, buildings, fuel delivery, site maintenance, profit (about one cent a litre).

With such small markups, the main way to stay in business is to sell huge volumes. And the primary way to increase volumes is to reduce retail margains. Despite huge volumes, margains are so thin, that virtually all stations depend on non-fuel products such as snacks to increase revenues and margains."

[END]Steve's smart fact for the day

Steve

This is more accurate - I've seen the paperwork for this.

When you are buying wholesale from yourself (Esso, Shell, PCan) you can shift the money wherever you want. See also - Enron. The 1 cent / litre proffit number is PR.

One more comment before the mods shut this down......

Most gasoline retailers are independent dealers. The gasoline margins are made at the refinery and corporate level, not at the independently owned gas retailers. Margins at the retail level are very slim

jezz you guys nice way to crash a thread..

If I may comment -

Gas prices aside, this thread is about Big Al's closing. Personally I am extremely saddened at this development. With the vast majority of SW stores in the north it was a nice place for a southerner like me to be able to visit on a whim. Franchise rules and hardware prices notwithstanding, I got most of my supplies (cleaning things, fish food, etc.) from there and the loss to me personally is, well, large. I was always on friendly terms with most of their employees, as well as Rick and Tom the owners, and ALWAYS appreciated the friendly "hello" and chats we would have every time I would go in. I don't get that kind of treatment anywhere else. I also depended on Big Als to scope out livestock items that I would be looking for, and I appreciated the extra mile they would go to find me something. Like my gigantea carpets. Nate finally finds a place he can import them from, and now they go out of business. Again, I might add, no other vendor I have ever dealt with has been willing to the same extent to work with me to the extent that Nate would.

I guess nothing lasts forever, but still, this sucks. Now I worry about my friends who work there and what will become of them. This sucks, sucks, sucks.

I never frequented Big Al's, but mainly due to the fact that it is the furthest saltwater shop from my house. I found their livestock selection to be unpredictable and limited lately, but it was still good to have another option when looking for something. Given this situation I can now see perhaps why their stock was not as good lately. I have bouhgt a variety of items there over the years, in fact I was there last week and picked up a school of green chromis.

It is never a good thing when a store has to close. One less store means less competition for the rest, which could lead to higher prices. Hopefully that will not happen and the business shift brings higher volumes and thus lower prices. I do plan to stop round to see about the sale merchandise.

More stores is good for everybody, it gets more people into the hobby. I was never a big customer at BAs but I am sorry to see them go for such a unfortunate reason.

I did not mind big al's they had a good selection of crabs and shrimp.I did not like the fish there tanks were always overstocked.But I do like haveing veriaty of fish stores.Thanks for the mantis shrimp big al's.

Big al's was the first store I went to when I got into this hobby, and the staff there was always great and always went out of their way to help.

Too bad........ I hope the owners come out of bankruptcy ok.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

"Also he said everything wont go lower then 25% as it will be below cost (cough cough 40% markup)"
.
One has to remember that 40% mark up is almost the same as 25% discount!
$1.00+40% =$1.40p $1.40p -25% =$ 1.05p!!

I hate to get off topic again but this needs correction as well. Markup cannot be figured out by simple multiplication.

MARKUP
$1.00/(1-40%) = $1.67

DISCOUNT
$1.67 x 0.75 (25% discount) = $1.25

Steve

Hope you guys soon get another store in the area .

I would think that markup means the amount marked up from cost. So a 40% markup from $1 is $1.40. Whereas 40% is the gross margin for an item that was marked up by 67% from $1 to $1.67 (.67/1.67).

See:

http://www.cbsc.org/servlet/ContentS...GuideFactSheet (See bottom of page)

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/ProfitMargin.html

http://www.csgnetwork.com/marginmarkuptable.html

What Sam says :) :)

Cost a dollar ,retail a dollar forty, knock of thirty five cents you've made five cents ??

Went by tonight.. kinda to say goodbye to the store I guess. Picked up some food at 25% off :) Got me the copy of The Reef Aquarium #1 ... good deals on books - 50% off.

I was told that if they were still open today, then they would stay open for 30 more days. Otherwise yesterday would have been the last day. Can anyone from Big Al's comment.

50% off books? so now thier the same price as amazon.com ?

Ha! True.. but atleast this way I didn't have to pay shipping and wait for it :p

i went there tonight as well, too late for tanks, only kits left. they are even selling the display cases. and damn someone bought the Seio that was there.:(