How many shop online for hydro equipment?

This is regarding Canadian users so posting it here. How many of you buy grow equipment/vaping equipment online? Do you order from only Canadian stores or US also? I'm not still convinced about vaping equipment as I don't know much about the industry/products so that will be down the line

I'm thinking of starting an online store separate from my brick and mortar store. I realize there are a few pretty good online retailers in Canada but there more the merrier I guess. As the store progresses the plan is to eventually sell my current store and be an online only retailer. I'll have to use my current store as the supplier as most of the wholesaler in Canada are ass backwards and will not give account to online only stores even if you have a valid business license.

Are you talking about growing equipment or head-shop smoking gear? Those things are normally found at different kinds of establishments.

For growing equipment, I buy my lighting kits, fans and bulbs online as the mark-ups and prices charged by my local stores for grow gear are just ridiculous. I'm all for supporting local businesses to a point......if something is going to cost me almost 100% more, I'm buying it online. For smaller items or items expensive to ship like soil and nutrients, I'll shop at the local hydro stores. For the big ticket items like lights, fans, tents, Ebay has many great stores that provide these items at a fraction of the cost for what they are asking locally.

For vapes and smoking gear, there is a local shop that I like to support, and I like being able to check out glass/vapes/etc in person before purchasing. I have bought smoking gear online in the past though from sites such as Smoketower and GC and have been happy with my purchases too. It depends on the objective I suppose.....if I'm just looking for an inexpensive and functional piece, I may buy online to save some bucks and for convenience's sake. If I'm looking to spend money on a nice new vape or piece of glass, I'm probably not going to drop $200+ on something that I can't hold in my hand an inspect and take home with me that day, and would prefer to make that type of purchase from a local head shop.

Devil Lettuce said:

Are you talking about growing equipment or head-shop smoking gear? Those things are normally found at different kinds of establishments.

For growing equipment, I buy my lighting kits, fans and bulbs online as the mark-ups and prices charged by my local stores for grow gear are just ridiculous. I'm all for supporting local businesses to a point......if something is going to cost me almost 100% more, I'm buying it online. For smaller items or items expensive to ship like soil and nutrients, I'll shop at the local hydro stores. For the big ticket items like lights, fans, tents, Ebay has many great stores that provide these items at a fraction of the cost for what they are asking locally.

For vapes and smoking gear, there is a local shop that I like to support, and I like being able to check out smoking glass in person before purchasing. I have bought smoking gear online though from sites such as Smoketower and GC and have been happy with my purchases.

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Mostly grow equipment as that's all I've done for the last 11 years. The head shop part I was thinking of working with a local shop that has insane amount of glass/accessories in such a small town but they don't have any online presence. Nutrients wise I wouldn't sell bigger than 4L bottles unless the customers requests something big and will pay the freight.

The main concern is with selling ballasts or lighting equipment thats made in China. The amount of capacitors replacement and ballast returns that happens between all the stores is crazy but this industry, especially now, relies on the lower common denominator for hardware equipment which is sad as getting ballasts with quality copper coils only really ads $25 to the cost of the ballast. With such high failure rate having to do warranties will be a killer since the store has to ship the new ballast back at the stores expense. When you're making $30 profit on a ballast and it costs you $30 to send it back you can see the problem that could arise with a bad batch of ballasts/electronics and it happens quite often.

CannaReview said:

Mostly grow equipment as that's all I've done for the last 11 years. The head shop part I was thinking of working with a local shop that has insane amount of glass/accessories in such a small town but they don't have any online presence. Nutrients wise I wouldn't sell bigger than 4L bottles unless the customers requests something big and will pay the freight.

The main concern is with selling ballasts or lighting equipment thats made in China. The amount of capacitors replacement and ballast returns that happens between all the stores is crazy but this industry, especially now, relies on the lower common denominator for hardware equipment which is sad as getting ballasts with quality copper coils only really ads $25 to the cost of the ballast. With such high failure rate having to do warranties will be a killer since the store has to ship the new ballast back at the stores expense. When you're making $30 profit on a ballast and it costs you $30 to send it back you can see the problem that could arise with a bad batch of ballasts/electronics and it happens quite often.

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I guess it just comes down to consumers doing their homework before purchasing. I've been growing for quite a while and have not had any issues with failing/faulty ballasts or bulbs in the last 5 years. There's certain things that I'll spend more money on (decent ballasts, Hortilux bulbs, etc.) and even the made in Canada/USA gear can be found a lot cheaper online than what I can source locally.

The worst culprits at the local shops are Cool-tubes and air-cooled hoods........they literally want twice as much as you can find the exact same unit for online. $200 just for the Cool Tube and $400 for an air-cooled hood? Thanks, but no thanks.

I've never purchased online.
The thought of giving up my home address didn't sit well with me.

Can you not have the customer ship the ballast directly to the distributor for warranty evaluation. Remove yourself completely.

Devil Lettuce said:

I guess it just comes down to consumers doing their homework before purchasing. I've been growing for quite a while and have not had any issues with failing/faulty ballasts or bulbs in the last 5 years. There's certain things that I'll spend more money on (decent ballasts, Hortilux bulbs, etc.) and even the made in Canada/USA gear can be found a lot cheaper online than what I can source locally.

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Because they don't have to carry low margin dirt.

Devil Lettuce said:

I guess it just comes down to consumers doing their homework before purchasing. I've been growing for quite a while and have not had any issues with failing/faulty ballasts or bulbs in the last 5 years. There's certain things that I'll spend more money on (decent ballasts, Hortilux bulbs, etc.) and even the made in Canada/USA gear can be found a lot cheaper online than what I can source locally.

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Well any local shop should be able to meet the price for most online shops of they make it clear to the customer that that is a price match for them and not to let it out. Usually that works. I've sold stuff for 5-10% over cost to match a price where normally I would make 30-35% on the item. There are shops in the US that even sell equipment lower or at the same price that the local wholesaler sell since a lot of US supplier/wholesale companies don't care too much about the Canadian market

leaffan said:

I've never purchased online.
The thought of giving up my home address didn't sit well with me.

Can you not have the customer ship the ballast directly to the distributor for warranty evaluation. Remove yourself completely.

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I'm the extremely cautious type myself, and didn't start buying things online until the last 6-7 years or so. I've lived in smaller northern locations where you were forced to buy online if you wanted certain MJ-related merchandise, so I had to make the leap. Again, it's important for customers to do their homework and figure out who they are giving their money and information to before making a purchase.

CannaReview said:

Well any local shop should be able to meet the price for most online shops of they make it clear to the customer that that is a price match for them and not to let it out. Usually that works. I've sold stuff for 5-10% over cost to match a price where normally I would make 30-35% on the item. There are shops in the US that even sell equipment lower or at the same price that the local wholesaler sell since a lot of US supplier/wholesale companies don't care too much about the Canadian market

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I've tried that, and would 100% support the local guys if they were even willing/able to drop the price of certain items to be remotely close to the price I paid online....I was offered a very minimal discount (no tax) and that was the best they could do. I'm not swimming in money, so saving $150 on a hood or $100 on a ballast makes a big difference. There are also some pretty sweet volume discounts available online for things like Hortilux bulbs where you can only pay $60-70 per bulb instead of $105-110 in the stores. For those that replace bulbs every couple of cycles like I do, these savings can add up quickly.

leaffan said:

Can you not have the customer ship the ballast directly to the distributor for warranty evaluation. Remove yourself completely.

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Get all the stores to agree to sell promix for $50/bale !

leaffan said:

I've never purchased online.
The thought of giving up my home address didn't sit well with me.

Can you not have the customer ship the ballast directly to the distributor for warranty evaluation. Remove yourself completely.

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I've shipped quite a bit over the years to other provinces to peoples addresses with out issues and lots to Greyhound depos Yes you take a chance but that''s just how it is.

Returning equipment to the supplier/manufacturer doesn't work like that in this industry. Everything is left to the store to absorb first then wait for the credit from the wholesaler.Just rry phoneing say Lumatek and tell them your ballast is burnt out and you want to do warranty. I do have one Canadian Manufacturer/Supplier that will drop ship for me and even accept the warranty returns but I would need to have a drop shipping custom built into my store to be able to do that BUT they said they would work with me on it.

The thing with electronic equipment is very little of it is made in Canada or the US these days so everyone brings in shit cap/core ballasts that will last max 2 years and dies from capacitor/ignitor failers or from arching out because the aluminum wire runs too hot and eventually the insulation breaks down.

leaffan said:

Get all the stores to agree to sell promix for $50/bale !

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You'd have to get Walmart and Crappy Tire on board too, I see them all carrying ProMix HP now as well for the standard $32-35/bale. I also saw a bunch of GH nutes for sale in my local Canadian Tire and Rona stores......really strange, I've never seen that before.

Devil Lettuce said:

I've tried that, and would 100% support the local guys if they were even willing/able to drop the price of certain items to be remotely close to the price I paid online....I was offered a very minimal discount (no tax) and that was the best they could do. I'm not swimming in money, so saving $150 on a hood or $100 on a ballast makes a big difference. There are also some pretty sweet volume discounts available online for things like Hortilux bulbs where you can only pay $60-70 per bulb instead of $105-110 in the stores. For those that replace bulbs every couple of cycles like I do, these savings can add up quickly.

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Damn I wish I could change $105-110 for Hortilux as I have to compete with some fishy stores and sell them for $69+ tax lol For example I had a big ass sale this week and had to match another stores price for Sylvania 1000W at $33 tax in. They bought 8 bulbs so you need to look at it from the whole order profit vs per item profit.

CannaReview said:

Damn I wish I could change $105-110 for Hortilux as I have to compete with some fishy stores and sell them for $69+ tax lol For example I had a big ass sale this week and had to match another stores price for Sylvania 1000W at $33 tax in. They bought 8 bulbs so you need to look at it from the whole order profit vs per item profit.

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I wish you were nearby, I'd definitely be shopping with you. I can't find a 100W Hortilux bulb here for less than $100 locally.

Devil Lettuce said:

You'd have to get Walmart and Crappy Tire on board too, I see them all carrying ProMix HP now as well for the standard $32-35/bale. I also saw a bunch of GH nutes for sale in my local Canadian Tire and Rona stores......really strange, I've never seen that before.

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I sell sunshine for $25.50 and Promix at $28.50 so make $3 on each bail just use it as a loss leader. There's another store that sells ProMix at $25.50 but again how do you compete with money laundering...

CannaReview said:

I sell sunshine for $25.50 and Promix at $28.50 so make $3 on each bail just use it as a loss leader. There's another store that sells ProMix at $25.50 but again how do you compete with money laundering...

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Sounds like you have some really great prices, I'd kill for a reasonable grow shop owner near where I live. There are a few shops here locally, but they all seem to gouge and have the same prices across the board. I am not in a hotbed for MJ, so that has a lot to do with it.

Good luck on the expansion plans...You're one step ahead of the rest by not being static. It's a tough gig for sure.

Devil Lettuce said:

I wish you were nearby, I'd definitely be shopping with you. I can't find a 100W Hortilux bulb here for less than $100.

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Believe it or not that's a normal price in Lower Mainland give or take $3. Most stores here are pretty much broke as BC gets the shaft product price wise vs the other provinces. Since the injunction I've lost probably 1/2 of my customers. My over head is small so I can survive but as long as everything is in limbo it'll be like that till the final court session.

Hmmmm....ever consider expanding to London?

CannaReview said:

Believe it or not that's a normal price in Lower Mainland give or take $3. Most stores here are pretty much broke as BC gets the shaft product price wise vs the other provinces. Since the injunction I've lost probably 1/2 of my customers. My over head is small so I can survive but as long as everything is in limbo it'll be like that till the final court session.

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I'm stuck in Alberta cattle country.....not the friendliest (or most affordable) place for anything MJ-related. I most likely will not be here for that much longer though, as I'm looking to follow MMJ-related opportunities that just aren't available locally.