The only way these threads work is if your remove peoples accountability otherwise you won't get honest replies. While some can still hide behind usernames for the most part I think Edmonton is one of the most actively meeting cities so chances are you know who people are or could easily find out. Now not saying you would hold grudges but most probably just won't take the chance, despite the fact you're trying to improve things people will take the easy way out and remain quiet, everyone would rather remain friends than enemies with LFS unless the store offended the person in some way.
That said I've never had an issue speaking my mind and although I've never been to the store I find a couple things about it troubling and I think others might agree but maybe not.
First relates to your quarantine procedure which just sounds quite strange. 3 weeks, where does that come from and exactly what are you achieving with that? Unless you have multiple setups that you rotate fish to and from and you only bring in orders every three weeks I see no way of it being effective at disease control. Obviously there is cost involved in treating all your fish, off site I might add, so customers are paying a premium for it so I think they should now more about the process and what's involved.
The second thing I have troubles with is the fact the store is located in your basement. Basement operations are not typically something I favor, while it's one thing to sell some frags or start out small and home based with the intention of eventually moving up to an actual store front it's a whole other thing to actually setup an official store with business hours in a residence. It's amazing you can even be zoned for that, you must have good neighbors because I sure wouldn't like it if my neighbor opened a shop in his home. Personally I think if you want a salt store open a salt store with a retail location like everyone else and compete on an honest level. You already have an off-site quarantine location so why not open the store there? You could use your basement as the off site location for quarantine instead.
That's it from me and why if in Edmonton it's unlikely I'd stop by. I did speak with someone from Edmonton shortly after your opening and it was mentioned things were disorganized and not overly clean perhaps suggesting the official opening was premature. I have no idea if it's true or not or if it is to what scale. It was just briefly mentioned during normal conversation.
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