Russell and Sheri Wall with their dog Lexi, in front of their store, Exotic Fish and Pet World in Southampton which will be closing. (Photo by Carol Lollis)
By CHRIS LINDAHL
@cmlindahl
Daily Hampshire Gazette
SOUTHAMPTON — As Exotic Fish & Pet World co-owner Russell Wall readies to wind down the retail arm of his aquarium business after four decades, he said he had no regrets — even when one of his ecology lessons results in a would-be customer walking away empty handed.
“We have always preferred to explain to people what their options are,” Wall, 61, said from inside the store, which is set to close at the end of February.
Business has been good at the College Highway store Wall owns with his wife, Shari.
“We have no financial need to close the store, that’s not the point — it’s time,” he said. “I value the name that I’ve spent 40 years building. I’d like to retire that name with me.”
In an age when a dizzying supply of expert-level aquarium knowledge is just a click away, Wall said the brick-and-mortar store has been able to thrive on a foundation of education and meaningful customer relations — even when the store’s prices are sometimes higher than those on the web.
“People, myself included, tend to now go to the Internet as their first source for any subject,” Wall said. But unlike a book geared to a beginner aquarium enthusiast, online research tends to result in a scattered, non-linear grasp on the hobby’s basics, which leaves the consumer confused.
“They’ll come in and have read page 60, page 2, page 9,” Wall said. “They’re asking involved questions when the basics are not understood.”
So, Wall, armed with a degree in zoology and decades of fish-keeping experience, and his staff will spend the half-hour needed to explain those nuts and bolts to people eager to dive into the hobby.
“At the end they’re so thankful that someone took the time and walked them through,” he said.
Time to close
Both Russell and Shari are lifelong animal lovers.
“It began when I was 8-years-old, 6-years-old, I don’t really know,” Russell Wall said. “I’ve had animals all my life.”
“When I was a kid growing up my dream was to own a pet store,” Shari Wall said.
Since his teenage years, Wall says he has been focused on educating people about animals. It started when he was 14, when he would deliver talks on snakes and their care at a children’s museum in North Dartmouth.
After focusing on herpetology while studying for a zoology degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Wall took his knowledge to Exotic Fish & Pet World in 1976.
At that time, the store was in the Hadley Village Barn Shops and carried birds, small animals and reptiles as well as fish. The store was founded by David and Elaine Root in the early 1970s.
After working there for 10 years, Wall bought the store from the Roots.
In the early days, Wall said the store had quite the cast of characters, including Bene the cockatoo and Avenger the python.
At 15 feet long, the snake understandably left quite an impression on those who passed through Exotic Fish & Pet World’s doors.
Avenger is still “well-known in the Valley by those of a certain age group,” Wall said.
Shari Wall, who had worked in banking, joined the shop full time around a decade ago.
The store moved to Southampton in 2008. While the space was smaller — going from 360 fish tanks to 175 — the move allowed the Walls to increase their selection of pond equipment, thanks to a fenced-in outdoor area.
While the retail arm of the Walls’ business will cease to exist, the couple will continue their pond and aquarium maintenance and consulting business in a move of “semi-retirement,” Shari Wall said.
“You’ll see the fish van around with a new name,” she said, referring to the colorful minivan that totes around Russell when he visits some of his 50 customers. Shari Wall will be behind the scenes, managing the books.
That name will be Exotic Aquarium & Pond Service, and Wall will continue to work on aquariums and ponds and places like Cooley Dickinson Hospital, dentists offices and private residences.
Customer-focused
As a tenet of their business plan, the Walls had very specific hiring requirements, in that most of their employees started out as customers.
“We’ve never actually had an interview process,” Russell Wall said.
In reality, though, the interview for a position at Exotic Fish & Pet World is years long, as the Walls build relationships with young hobbyists until they’re of working age.
Those employees/hobbyists often went on to become science majors who are told by their bosses to make sure their studies come first.
“If they need a night off because they had a lab, we’d switch them,” Russell Wall said.
He admits that he’s never been able to pay a $15-an-hour wage, so in exchange employees are given flexibility and the opportunity to deepen their understanding of aquatic life while imparting knowledge to others.
“Many of them enjoy what they can learn as well as talk to people about their own interests,” Russell Wall said.
Wall said many customers have been coming to the store since the 1970s when he started working there.
Karlene and David Foster, of Huntington, have been customers since the early 1980s, they said, on a recent visit to the shop.
“We come in once a week,” David Foster said. “Kind of like (the way) you’d go out for coffee.”
The Fosters have several large aquariums at their Hilltown “mini-farm,” largely stocked with supplies and animals from Exotic Fish & Pet.
“That’s going to be a bummer, you guys not being open,” David Foster said.
Despite those years in the hobby, the Fosters were still learning something new at their Thursday visit to the store.
They were asking Shari Wall about a specific type of fish food.
“It’s like if you ate French fries and nothing else,” she said, noting the lack of nutritional value of the particular brand. “Like dog food or people food — you eat good and you’re healthy.”
Indeed, the Walls firmly understand that fish are living creatures to be cared for in the same way one would look any other small animal.
“We like our customers to know fish are not disposable,” Shari Wall said of her mantra.
That’s a sentiment Karlene Foster firmly agrees with. She said she cried after her school of discus fish died after her home lost power for nine days in the wake of the 2011 ice storm.
Shari Wall said her care for animals means she’s often grown attached to certain specimens, like one huge oscar of years past.
“I’ve had fish over the years that stand out that I miss,” she said.
Shari Wall said she’s looking forward to having more free time — working three or four days a week instead of seven — so that she can see more of her grandchildren, ages 5, 4, and 2.
“It’s like being a farmer, you’ve got to get up and milk the cows,” she said.
Chris Lindahl can be reached at [email protected].
