+ 1 DodgerBlue
Mystic reef is probably the best lfs store I have been to for corals in the riverside area, yes it is true that there coral tanks are nice and clean and they have a big selection, there fish section is not clean and they have a small selection. As for the service, its alright, probably having someone in there that is a little older and has good customer service skills would be better. The little guy (don't know his name) is the one who is always helping people (in between (like ten minutes in between) other duties of the store (ie:cleaning tanks and other things that can wait till no customers are in the store), the other guy (the bigger one, older brother I guess) seems to always be on the side doing nothing, the last 3 times I've been in there he just seems to hang around, even after waiting the 15 min for 10gals of water with no other customers, (i can see that if you take a longer time to get water maybe a customer will see something he likes and buy it while he waits) but hell I don't want to wait that long to get water everytime i go there. And then when you do want to buy something and you ask a price its always different even though you asked about the same frag last week, "Do you have cash, do you have cash", thats all I here, "I can make you a deal", it like going to a used car salesman. After a while you get tired of it.
Maybe it just me, but i don't like going into a fish store and have someone try to sell me something I don't want just because they can cut me a deal on it, if I liked a certain coral and it was at a decent price i will purchase it on my own. Corals sell themselves, if i like it I will buy it.
If the guy would cut back a little on his aggressive sales techniques I guarantee he would sell more corals. even if he can "cut you a deal" or not