A word about pet stores from an employee

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

guinea

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Feb 26, 2014
Messages
8
I've noticed on this website there's a lot of hate towards pet stores and the employees. I would like to clear a few things up. I work at a large chain pet store, and I can understand a lot of the complaints, but the employees are usually not to blame. The pet store does a terrible job training employees. They only give the very basic information about fish-keeping and expect you to know everything else on your own. They don't invest a lot of time training because most employees are part time and many only last a few months. So if an employee gives you false information, who's fault is it? Usually, it's the pet store's.

Sure, there are some employees who don't care at all and will make up answers if they don't know something, but most of us genuinely care about the fish and want to send them to proper homes. In fact, I have to fight with people to save a lot of fish from dying of ammonia poisoning. Most of the customers are complete idiots who don't care if their fish live or die. I often refuse to give people fish if their tank is too small or overpopulated with incompatible fish. Sometimes these people throw a fit and then the manager FORCES me to sell them the fish.

Sometimes experienced fish-keepers are rude to me when I ask them a question like "how big is your tank" before giving them a fish. I suspect those are the kind of people who badmouth pet store employees on these forums. The majority of these employees mean well but may be misinformed or not properly trained by the pet store. I'm not saying the pet stores are good, in a lot of ways they're not...their goal is to make money and satisfy customers, and that comes before sending the animals to good homes. But the employees like me usually care a lot about the animals and have good intentions. So next time you want to talk badly about an employee, consider that usually the pet store is to blame.
 
Not so much hate.. more so.. "don't rely on the information from lfs employees because it s usually wrong" I understand most employees would rather be working elsewhere in the store or another store all together. It's just lazy on the consumers part to go into a store and but living creatures without doing research, no excuse this day and age. Smartphones will put you into anything you need to know in 10 seconds..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
Not so much hate.. more so.. "don't rely on the information from lfs employees because it s usually wrong" I understand most employees would rather be working elsewhere in the store or another store all together. It's just lazy on the consumers part to go into a store and but living creatures without doing research, no excuse this day and age. Smartphones will put you into anything you need to know in 10 seconds..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Aquarium Advice mobile app


+1. I believe it's the hobbyists responsibility to do the research themselves, and that's the advice i see given most of the time


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
 
The fun thing is I applied to a pet smart and didn't get the job :D

But agreed, we don't "hate" the pet store employees but rather don't trust what they say.

Yes the pet store doesn't train for crap, but what's preventing the employees from going out and researching a little if they really cared? It's pretty simple to do.
 
Actually I did a lot of research on my own about all the animals we sell and water quality etc. so I could give customers the right information, that's how I found this forum. Several of my coworkers have done the same because we DO care. You're right that customers should research on their own before getting any pet. Some people show up with an animal they JUST bought on impulse (like a rabbit, poor things) and ask me what they need. And usually they don't want to buy what they need because it's "too expensive."

Brookster123, you're right that most employees would rather work somewhere else in the store, and that's because the fish customers are the ABSOLUTE WORST. Sometimes the kids start crying because you tell them they can't add any more fish to their tank, and then the parents demand I give them whatever they want. Every day I get at least one person wanting a goldfish for their fish bowl. Sometimes they don't take no for an answer. I can't even imagine how many fish go home to their slow and painful deaths in ammonia-ridden water.

A lot of information given isn't incorrect but has multiple answers. When I researched certain things about fish online I found tons of conflicting information from experienced hobbyists. So you may hear an employee give information you don't agree with, but that doesn't make it wrong. But yes, some people are just blatantly wrong.
 
A lot of information given isn't incorrect but has multiple answers. When I researched certain things about fish online I found tons of conflicting information from experienced hobbyists. So you may hear an employee give information you don't agree with, but that doesn't make it wrong. But yes, some people are just blatantly wrong.

That's when you start to realize that there is more than 1 way to skin a cat.
 
This is a great thread! I 100% agree, the big chain pet stores do not train their employees with every single ounce of knowledge. It takes years to learn what skilled hobbyist's know! Unfortunately not everyone new to the aquarium world knows to research before hand, they expect the employees to know everything. It's a huge thing to expect, and expectations are way too high. They learn the hard way after they get misinformed, but everyone makes mistakes. Especially with this world. There is a lot to know. Most people consider a goldfish in a bowl wonderful, they have no clue. No one I talk to that hasn't owned an aquarium knows anything about water parameters, heaters, substrate, plants, cycling. It's not common knowledge.

I have a great LFS I trust. But that took a long time. I even avoid Specific employees because I know they blow smoke up people's ... Well you know lol I always go into a new LFS as a "newbie" and ask a bunch of questions, like a test. And see what they say haha if they pass all my questions we can get started with a real discussion. That's how I do it :)
 
I was the Fish Nazi at my Petsmart. I was the Petcare Lead ( like an asst mngr).

I taught the other employees about fish and the other pets.

If I refused a fish sale, my store manager backed me up.

Yes, I had angry customers. But I had many more happy customers. One man called me Fish Dr. I helped save his 17yo Fancy Goldfish. I had a customer losing tank after tank of fish due to not cycling. I made him slow down and add some plants. He showed up one day with 30 Cherry Barb fry...so happy ?

I'm an adult woman, I still learn new things every day. I will say, if you read Petsmart hand outs and training manuals, and follow them... They do get some things right. They do recommend 29g min tank size for a single Fancy Goldfish.

I stopped selling bowls mostly. I sold our 2.5g tanks for Bettas.

I stopped selling pH up/down products. But our repeat sales of other products went up. I had managers from competing stores, buying fish from me.

Training can be better. Associates and customers still need to read up and learn on their own as well.

The stories I could tell *shaking head*.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice
 
Coursair, you're lucky your manager backed you up when refusing a sale. All my manager says is "just tell them they don't get a guarantee," meaning let the fish die but don't refund them. Even the manager in charge of fish will give customers whatever they want if they throw a fit. Extremely hypocritical. They say we care about pets...but we'll sell them to complete idiots who basically kill them.

I too could tell ridiculous stories about the idiot customers we get. One person poured bleach into her tank because it looked dirty, and she was surprised when all the fish died! I really wish the fish were more expensive so people would think twice before buying them. Everyone wants the 30 cent feeder goldfish for their fish bowl. I tell them the fish will die and they say that's ok.
 
I agree. In a day with the internet in everyone's homes, phones, etc.......its the job of the pet owner to research the pet they are interested in taking care of. When I got back into fish, I researched everything as some things have changed since I used to have fish 15 years ago. I looked up everything I could find, and I benefited from it. People in general tend to be morons and like to place blame on others, instead of taking responsibility for themselves. Good post!
 
These posts remind me why I like animals more than people (most the time). I have been a Veterinary Technician for 14 years. People have the same problem with clients with new pets. They often adopted a pet that is "cute" without any knowledge of the breed. The result is usually sad.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
At one of my chain stores I go too, there is a very knowledgeable lady, who trains inexperienced workers herself, and she's not even a manager.

Although she didn't know what alkalinity was...


Fishobsessed7
 
It seems that there are certain people who know what they are talking about at the big box store i go into occasionally, and others that have no clue.

Can't win them all i guess

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Aquarium Advice mobile app
 
I've noticed on this website there's a lot of hate towards pet stores and the employees.

.....Most of the customers are complete idiots

I didn't see anyone remark on the juxtaposition of these two statements.

Maybe this thread will engender some mutual understanding, but it sure does not seem like it was intended to, since you are talking to your customers. :banghead:
 
I'll admit in the years I've been keeping fish, I've seen a lot more education going on in petstores, at least where I am. There was one pet store that had dead fish everywhere - I'm talking 10 fish in one small tank sucked into the filter, dead, while the others were on their way out. I never bought fish from there, and even when I did they'd usually die fairly quickly. Maybe I'm in the minority that it's gotten slightly better (only slightly) - for example, I see less of the injected glass tetras. They also seem very conscious now of other pet stores and criticize and tell you who to avoid. They still don't know everything with stocking, but to be fair stocking can depend on the personality of the fish and to some extent personal experience from fishkeeper to fishkeeper (if a goldfish needs a 75 or 55, for example). I notice they all generally stock less of the big guys that most people can't keep, as well. EDIT: I don't usually buy from PetSmart or Petco, however. I avoid them because they don't apply to those qualities. I buy from small town/local business type stores.

This is just based off my area and doing this for a while, though.

And some of fishkeeping is influenced by culture (thus, people think it's totally fine to go in and demand a goldfish despite having a 1 gallon tank). We go to carnivals and see goldfish getting handed out in tiny tanks to kids who don't know a thing about temperature or ammonia or nitrates or any of it and then they go home and wonder why the goldfish is dead with a bent spine and all their neon tetras were eaten. If you want to help change cultural perception, write to assemblymen and small-government type leaders asking them to stop carnival goldfish in your area. I did and I got an answer - we will be speaking on the phone. :)
 
All im gonna say, a LFS employee is a salesperson. They are there to make a sale, that's it. IMHO most LFS will sell you anything to make the sale.
 
That is very true. They will do anything especially if they see you don't know much and they take advantage of that. Most of us learned that the hard way.
 
That is very true. They will do anything especially if they see you don't know much and they take advantage of that. Most of us learned that the hard way.

Its the same with anything. If you go to a car lot, and know nothing about cars, the salesperson is going to take advantage of you. A salesperson is a salesperson, regardless of industry.
 
My local Petsmart I've asked all the fish employees about their tanks. All of them but one have a very small tank. The one that doesn't I have sorta befriended and he is very knowledgeable, along with quite a few tanks salt and fresh. He will advise people about fish out of their league and tank size but he won't refuse the sale(job security) if they are going to pitch a fit. He has helped me learn a lot more on a fish friend level than a salesperson.


Caleb

Might have a slight obsession with my fish
 
Back
Top Bottom