First of all, thank you for your service. Secondly, I have no doubts that you know what you're doing and can select quality fish. I have to admit that I did paint with a broad brush and I apologize for that, but I never said anything bad about the walmart employees, just the company. There are probably locations that have knowledgeable staff, but it just seems as though with the company there is little to no training which results in tons of fish suffering. That's great that you were able to teach the manager at the one store a few things. I suppose it would be better to teach them, but I just avoid going near the pet section. Where I live now I'm fortune enough to have a couple really great fish stores near me. One of which is only about a 10 min. drive from my house.
I don't appreciate you implying that I if I drive "110 miles" to get fish that I'm excessively stressing them. Fish get shipped all the time, and travel well over 110 miles. Where do you think your walmart fish come from? Unless they're raised from a local breeder, they get shipped hundreds if not thousands of miles. I just got some rams last week that came from a breeder in California 2000 miles away. They were warm when I got them, and within a day or two they were colored up great and looked as if they were at home. I'm sure the journey wasn't too fun, but like I said, almost all fish in our hobby get shipped.