Hello,
Speaking of the number of online vendors and size of the board, it reminds me of how Bill Gates used to say no PC needs more than a few Ks of RAM.
I remember a few years back when the only online forum around was MOPS (at least they are they only one I can remember), some local reefers said we will not be close to the size of the US boards. Well,.... I agreed and to this date I still do not think we will be super huge given our reefer population size and demographic.
However, there has been no doubt in my mind and to some of us also, that we will grow relatively fast. Given what we have observed, there are now many online vendors and forums that are Canadian based. For example, when I first knew of JL, they were more of a home based business ran by John and Lise. Then Allen joined, and now they are like the de facto standard in Canadian supply. Same applies to various other online retailers. And now even the retail stores are going to the online scene.
And for Canreef, while there has been no increase in business activitiy
we saw our member count and discussion activity multiply fast
. The other day I was talking to a new friend of mine and she said her boyfriend is always on Canreef every day.
So we will never know how big this will get. But the bigger the merrier.
As for the store for Canreef, it doesn't really matter financially speaking weather or not it is there. On an average year, there may be a few orders. After material and various other expenses, I will be suprised that we can break even. But because originally Canreef was started to make calcium reactors, I'd like to see the store be left there in its place. What I actually rather to see is to only list the products here as a manufacturer, and have them sold by real retailers.
Speaking of orders, low volume is always going to be the case for expensive orders such as calcium reactors and custom sumps and the like, and there are absolutely no reason of why the equipment list can not grow and take on the other brand names such as Precision Marine and Lifereef. Having said that, I'd much rather keep the volume low, do a good job of anything made, and spend more time visiting this board and read on the discussions. Don't get me wrong, more orders are always welcome. However, it is not something that I have planned or wanted to spend too much time to make happen.
One thing for sure, some have speculated in the past that Canreef will go under. Well, I didn't think so. And I don't think it'd ever happen.
Titus