I have used these people a lot in the past.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hydroponics

What part of Canada do you live in? This could be helpful as I will try and find something close to you.

I use www.dogpile.com for my search engine. I typed in Canadian hydroponic stores and it gave me a good few stores.

I got a killer deal on a 400w switchable light from cheaphydroponics.com

What kind of system are you looking at? For many of them, such as DWC, you can pick up a lot of what you need from the local hardware store, Wal-Mart or even free from restaurants. Way cheaper than most hydro shops sell stuff for. I use soaker hose rather than air stones - works just as good and costs a fraction.

Mike

Soaker hose works just as good?
IMHO it works infinitely better! You can cut/shape it to fit any installation and you can't fix a clogged air stone with an ice pick. I wouldn't even use an air stone in a fish tank regardless of cost. Other than that I can't agree with you more Mike. Go to the hydro outfits for hydro only items. I just received my HM digital com-100 EC/TDS meter from filtersfirst.com. (a water filtration system distributor). Paid $54.95 +$5.95 S+H = $60.90. Hydro shops want $75.00 +. The only thing I buy hydro are nutes. My ultrasonic foggers come from mainlandmart.com. Just remember to include S&H in your cost when price shopping on line. Everything else comes from the local Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, or Dollar Store.
Ken

Thats the same price I brought my HM digital com-100 at ebay and shipping was $4 to europe, no one else would ship it for that cheap if they bothered to sell it to me at all.

On a side note HM digital are a top class company, mine started playing up after a couple of weeks so I sent the guy I brought it from a email but I never heard back so I sent one to HM digital, a couple of hours later they told me to send it to them with a printout of recipe and they will replace it, 10 days later I had a new one.

I honestly think it comes down to personal preferences on who you would choose to buy from. I myself usually check reviews, and the price after if the reviews are better, and the price is only a little bit more then the other one with not so great reviews of course I would purchase from the one with better reviews. I rather spend a little more money then to have to worry about my package, and other stuff later on in the long run. But again it is really up to you.

Best Regards,

TigerHydro

www.hydrofarm.com they are the oldest and the largesr.

les

Unfortunately I don't have a hydroponic supply store in town, I need to drive to Las Vegas, it's a 3 1/2 hour drive one way to get to the nearest hydroponic store for me. But when I am in Las Vegas, I check the phone book for the hydro stores close to my hotel, and then like to take a drive there to check out what they have (ask questions etc.). But just like any other retail business you have both kinds, the people that give you their honest opinion, an the ones that are just trying to sell you products. You just need to be objectively able to tell the difference.

I don't see anything wrong with buying from the net, although I would prefer buying direct from a brick and mortar business to save the shipping cost. However I wont buy from a site if I have any questions about the company's ethics. And I look for well established company's that have a physical address, as well as phone number. I will sometimes even call the phone number to ask questions, and/or make sure the number is valid.

I often even e-mail them a quick question just to see if they give a professional reply, as well as see how fast they respond. Any good company will answer within 24 hours, with the exception sometimes of the weekends. Any longer and they are giving potential costumers time to shop somewhere else. And if they don't think much of potential customers spending money, they will think even less if you have a problem you need resolved.

I can't really think of one time that I have had a bad online buying experience for anything. I don't generally buy from eBay or Amazon, not saying that buying from them is a bad idea, but you should be extra vigilant in determining if the seller is reputable. Again I always try to find out if they have a regular physical store address and phone, but most of the time that's hard to do with eBay and Amazon because they don't usually post links to the website (not a eBay store) to get that info, nor do they usually post the website name in order to do a Google search for it.

However I did buy some GH nutrients from a eBay seller about 4 years ago, and found that seller to be very helpful and prompt with shipping my order. But at the same time I have looked for those same nutrients both on eBay and commercial online sites, and found the savings from the eBay stores very minimal, and in a few cases even found better prices from the commercial online stores.

Just my 2 cents 4 cents

I got into a huge argument with a seller on ebay on time. He basically waited like two weeks to ship the item and then it was damaged. I simply gave him neutral feedback and he went ape shi. . ballistic about it. I don't use ebay anymore.
While admittedly, I probably had two dozen positive transactions before that one, I quit using ebay after that.
I like amazon m'self. they're always reliable and reasonable.

A hydroponic business with an actual building, and in-stock inventory may be a good investment. It all depends on what's available in your town, as well as the local interest in hydroponics. But an online only hydroponics storefront will be extremely difficult to make any real money with, simply because of all the competition that's already online. I dealt with the same issue with my GPS website, even though I narrowed it down to just Garmin products, there is just to many places selling them. Not to mention dealing with all the competition for the search engine rankings.

If your interested in a business, I would strongly suggest contacting the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), they work closely with the Small Business Administration (SBA), but the SBDC's purpose is to help new or already existing businesses be successful. That link is on the SBA website but is a list of local SBDC offices thought the country. There are often satellite offices that aren't on the list, but if you contact the closest office, they will let you know what is closest to you (usually at a community college). All their services and consultations are FREE, and they will help you work out a feasible business plan to be successful. They can even put you in contact with business owners in the same industry, to help you out from their experiences in the business. They have a vast amount or resources for helping small business be successful.

For information about running an online website there are a lot of websites/resources about it, some creditable and some not. First be extremely weary of anyone contacting you in regards to doing search engine optimization for your website, and if they say they guarantee to get you top rankings in the top search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN/Bing, that's a huge red flag and just hang up right then.

It can be very overwhelming for for anyone, even those like me that have experience with search engine optimization and website marketing, but it will be well worth the effort to learn and do it yourself. The best resource I know of that will let you know about all aspects involved is the publication Website Magazine. Weather you get the full subscription, the free subscription (4 issues a year), or just read through the online information and resources, that's the best way I know of to learn about what you will be dealing with for an online website.

P.S.
I just thought I would add this, I didn't really mention it because the SBDC will tell you about it, but the SBDC also works closely with another agency called "SCORE" that also provides free help for new and existing small business to be successful. SCORE also has more free Local and online workshops, as well as online chat. Read the "about SCORE" page to learn more about them.

SCORE.org