Reef Culture – A New Breed of Aquarium Store Begins
It becomes clear when you first walk into Reef Culture, it’s something different, a feeling you typically get when visiting an art gallery or museum. Few aquarium stores capture the imagination and create the inspiration to keep a saltwater aquarium in your home. Reef Culture, located in Tempe AZ, is one of the few in a new breed of aquarium stores truly challenging the status quo and changing the way hobbyists experience their trip to the local fish store.
At 26, fish store owner Nick Evans is still at the beginning of his career. “Most fish store owners call me a young pup and tell me I have a lot to learn. But I really think it’s quite the opposite when it comes to store design and making the overall experience for customers more enjoyable.” “Most people in this industry think that my age means a lack of experience but I beg to differ. Being young allows me to look at the business from a different perspective them most people, also I think it help me to embrace new technology unlike a lot of the “old salts” in the industry. Being young and environmentally conscious allowed me to approach the store design with a focus on being energy efficient.”
“Our retail store is mid-size compared to your typical aquarium shop,” notes Nick, “just 5,000 square feet. So crowding the space with lots of merchandise, signs and display would be antithetical to the Modernist mission of our store. Using Ecoxotic LED lighting allowed us to shape the store into a very Modern experience.” “Our store is not a big box store by any means, it’s only 4600sf with a 2200sf show room. We wanted to get as much as we could into the place but didn’t want to overwhelm our customers at the same time. We tried to maximize every square inch of the store but still give it an open boutique type feel. When designing it we used the Apple store and many either “high end” boutiques in the area as inspiration.
Nick recounts, “Ecoxotic was one of the first contacts we made who focused on LED technology, because of the quality, energy efficiency, and aesthetics of the products. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from the other local stores as well as embrace the future of the hobby, using exclusively Ecoxotic LED lighting in our store just became a no-brainer.”
A Catalyst for New Hobbyists
Reef Culture both anchors and amplifies the aquarium experience, and every aspect of its execution was carefully conceived. “The goal when designing our store was to inspire hobbyists and become a catalyst for new customers to think about keeping an aquarium in a modern and sustainable way,” explains Nick, “so it only seemed appropriate to rethink the store design and create a more inviting environment. Not only did we turn to the American retail boutiques for inspiration we also turned to European Saltwater fish stores as well as Japanese ones. Most of the European stores are very open and inviting while the Japanese stores seem to maximize every square millimeter of the store, so we decided to blend the two styles in a way.”
Re-design they did: in many directions at once. “One challenge,” continues Nick, “was how to educate our customers that LED lighting is truly a viable alternative to metal halides, power compacts and high output fluorescent lighting systems. We wanted to show hobbyists LED lighting can be used in every aspect of keeping an aquarium, so we decided to light the entire store with LED’s. It’s really proved to hobbyists that LED lights do grow corals – and it’s really increased our sales in lighting. Not to mention – it’s really saved on our electrical bill. I know for a fact that our electric bill would be 2-3 times higher if it wasn’t for the LED’s. It allows us to keep the store cool and dry, one of the first things most of our customers say is “wow this doesn’t feel like a fish store theres no humidity, its cool and it doesn’t smell”. The LED’s have more than show our repeat customers how well they can grow coral all of our SPS has beautiful growth tips and we have had to raise the lighting over a lot of our LPS corals out of worry that the LED’s are too powerful. Who would ever have that we would be saying that, Ill tell you a year ago I never would have thought that.”
The Clean Look
Most importantly, the retail fish section itself had to reflect Nick’s aesthetic. “We knew we didn’t want the fish holding systems to be similar to your typical aquarium store, cluttered with ugly light fixtures sucking lots of electricity,” says Nick. “We wanted to do something different — even reshaping the way hobbyists view their local aquarium store.”
Nick and his sales team had the idea of using Panorama LED modules with narrow optical lenses to light the aquariums from the ceiling. The modules effectively light the aquariums and create the shimmer lighting effect even from 4 feet overhead.
Taking this approach, says Nick, “allows to us access each aquarium easily and safer. The LED’s are just as bright as typical lights, yet don’t grow as much algae – so my sales team has more time to focus on customers and less on tank maintenance. Besides, it allows us to access all our holding tanks easily and with out the risk of dropping a fixture in the tank. Plus the LED’s really bring out the color on the fish provide beautiful shimmer lines in our sales tanks with out having to use halides and they barely grow algae. Instead of having to scrub algae every day all my guys can help our customers and give them the level of service that should be expected in any retail environment, and it helps to give the store a clean open modern look that would be impossible with out them.”
Visit Reef Culture at:
406 S. Price Rd.
Tempe, AZ 85282
p: 480.446.3474
f: 480.446.7333
See more photos by visiting his store gallery on Flickr here.
[...] opening, we had an opportunity to interview owner, Nick Evans, and talk to him about why he chose LED lighting for his store. Check out the video below for his interview and a short tour of his [...]