WTH is wrong with TSC? Chick purchasing nightmare.

[Chicken Junkies]

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Same here, kids with dirty hands, running noses and coughing. Just scaring the chicks and ducklings to death. So sad. Parents off in la-la land. Gates are good... stupid people... not so much.

 

[columbiacritter]

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They are expensive and people can't see the chicks under them so will not impulsively purchase.

 

[ChooksChick]

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They are expensive and people can't see the chicks under them so will not impulsively purchase.

Yes, but going from a 250 watt to 18 watts will pay for them in less that a season. Further, they don't stay under incessantly...folks will still buy!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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Eco-glo? They should just put them in a commercial brooder like many stores do. It would save them a lot of room, there would be no hot lamps, and the chicks would be protected from kids' hands.

 

[kstaven]

I tend to agree with the barriers, and likely a more secure system by next year.

I think if you look at the real world, companies like TSC are being overrun with chick shoppers and window shoppers because of the fad nature of Back Yard Chickens in general. Sales and volumes have taken these outlets by surprise and now they have to scramble to deal with that and increased liability issues. Personally I would give them credit for what they do rather than finding fault.

 

[Cpntherfan]

i guess we are lucky i dont know if it has to do if its states or if your in the country. here the TSC have to compete with actual feed and seed stores that have been in communities for ages. But our TSC employee is country and actually has chickens her self she actually took some home after a August Chick Week which failed due to heat. I just wish they would make clear to newbies that the Cornish X are for meat and wont live long.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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The local feed stores have been doing it for years. TSC is taking the feed store to suburbia though and selling "farm life" to folks in the 'burbs, where such things are new and interesting (as well as slightly faddish).

We have one about 30 minutes from here in a very small city in the middle of rural Wisconsin. The problem is that there are any number of farmers' co-ops and ag supply stores all around, including a family owned True Value hardware and ag supply store that has been selling everything TSC sells, and then some, for decades. I've been to that TSC about a half a dozen times and I might have been one of three people in the store each time. The locals stick to the suppliers where they have been doing business for years and there really is no suburban market to try to tap into, it is pretty much just a very small rural city surrounded by farmland and numerous other suppliers.

 

[flying_babyb]

Hey mac, would the TSC store be the one in Marinette? Just wondering. If thats the one, I agree with you!

 

[Mac in Wisco]

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No, the other side of the state in Viroqua, one-third the size of Marinette. Maybe 4500 people...

 

[Mac in Wisco]

The TSC I used to visit in Abilene, TX was always packed, but it was quite different down there. They had a TSC in a metropolitan area of 160,000 people, across the street from a Wal-Mart and next door a large car dealership. Most agriculture in the area was either running cattle or growing cotton. That's not what drove their sales though, it was basically people with backyard animals. I lived in a small subdivision just outside of the city that was divided into 1 to 2 acre lots. Everybody had animals. The lady next door ran two horses on a half acre parcel next to her house, the kid who lived behind us had two hogs in a pen for a 4-H project, the guy across the street ran a dozen sheep on an acre parcel next to the house. One fellow down the street had a small two acre parcel and he managed to squeeze in a roping area. He had chutes set up for steers and would rent a dozen steers at a time from local ranchers. He'd send them down the chutes and release them one at time so him and his buddy could practice roping them from horses. Those were the kind of folks that were keeping TSC in business down there.