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Annoyed with Pet stores Rant

2K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  bookachicken 
#1 ·
Sorry to rant but... this week I was in a PetValu and a Petsmart and just felt super awful about how they were keeping their bettas. In the PetValu the water was disgusting. I don't even want to know how many days the poor fish were in their own filth. I didn't even want to go to close to look at them because it was just too awful. At the Petsmart I saw some betta's pretty much ready to meet their maker. They were just laying on their sides, breathing but not moving, even when I tried to get them to move. I am super pissed at the state they are keeping them in. All the other types of fish get bigger tanks and they keep them in the tiny little cups and don't bother to even change the water?! And there are so many of them stacked in the cups with no dividers. It makes me wonder how many of them will just sit there and die without ever being purchased. WTH! I feel like going to just volunteer and change the water myself! I was sooooo tempted to take home the sick fish and try to revive them but I have no more space. I know people just think they are just fish but they are animals...they can feel pain too. They deserve to be treated better than they are. There should be a limit of how many betta's a store can carry. Besides that, so many of them don't know anything! They sold my husband two betta's in a 2.5gal tank and didn't tell him even about water conditioner or cycling. He wanted to surprise me and our daughter and I ended up rushing back to the store to get everything needed and bought a used 10 gal tank for them. I also asked them about my betta's fins which were getting tattered and they had no clue. Thank God I joined this forum and was told it was fin biting. Ugh. If they can't hire experienced workers they should still be responsible to properly train and educate them. OK... sorry for the long rant but I had to get that off my chest.
 
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#2 ·
It is unfortunate that pet stores have uninformed help. IMO, this is because most people do not see box stores as a path to a career. I believe this is why PetCo, PetSmart, et.al., don't spend the resources to educate them.

We have many people on this forum who work at box stores and they can tell you that trying to convince a person to buy a proper tank, filter and heater is often impossible. People read on the Internet that Betta don't need such and believe it. I know at the local PetCo they recommend at least a 2.5, filter, heater, thermomenter, conditioner, etc., and the manager told me 90% of customers look at them as if they are trying to over-sell.

Why the stores can't at the least keep the cups clean is beyond me; it isn't that difficult to do.
 
#4 ·
Yes, I know how hard retail can be, I had many years experience selling things. I'm sure a lot of the employees try their best. Personally, I think it would be better to say they didn't know something then to make it up or say nothing at all. Unfortunately, my husband was not even told about water conditioner. Knowing my husband, if they told him to buy a larger tank, heater, filter, etc. he would have bought it. I am more angry with how poorly the bettas are being treated than anything else. I know they are big chains are in the business of making money but seeing any animal like that would upset me. I'm thinking about speaking to the manager about it (politely of course) next time I go there.
 
#5 ·
I work at a pet store, often times it's the manager in charge of Pet Care that makes the decisions regarding fish, not the employees you see taking care of them. For example, our manager would rather feed our Bettas horrible Top Fin food rather than spend a few dollars more on Omega One and avoid bloat and SBD issues with our fish, despite being asked to do so numerous time by the employees in Pet Care. She also does not allow Prime to be used, just Top Fin products. Our employees try to sneak Prime in anyway, but we can't always get it past her safely, and she's the 'fire for something tiny' type.

It depends on the store really, ours takes better care of our Bettas than most, but it's still not ideal. I and all of the employees in Pet Care try to recommend ideal setups, 1g at the very minimum. I have sold 3.5g tanks, Prime, heaters, and Omega One food successfully in the past, but it really isn't easy. You get tired after a while, everyone gives you an attitude like you're trying to rob them of their money for something that's just a fish. Maybe they're just tired.. Or don't know any better. Our training is minimal, most people at my store who work with the fish have their own tanks and speak from experience, but it's not a requirement for the job.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the insight. That's too bad about the manager and more difficult customers. It's sad to think that people don't care as much because they are fish. I wish everyone would do their research first. After getting my bettas I did my best to find out their needs and found a used 10 gal with a filter for a very low price and they are much happier. When I couldn't figure out why by betta's tails were all tattered I researched as much as I could and when I couldn't figure it out I found and joined this forum. People who buy pets need to give them the best life possible whether its a dog, cat, or fish but of course there will always be people who don't think that way.
 
#7 ·
As someone who also works at a chain pet store we do get training over the computer about most aquatic life. I spent prolly over 40 hours taking online training for our store and they continue to give us new training on various things. Having us look at pictures of what fin rot or ich looks like so on and so forth. It's more that sometimes sitting on the computer doing these classes are frustrating and people just want to get through them more than learn from them. I had one employee ask me if I would do his training. I was like, yeah no? He later proceeded to ask another employee on how to sell a fish he didn't know about. He was our "Aquatic specialist" but couldn't handle it and walked out one day.

As for the whole "I don't understand how we can't keep the cups clean" It's not that we don't want to, it's more that we just don't have enough time to. Some stores (like mine) have 4 managers and 2 normal employees. We are meant to do EVERYTHING which is exhausting and there isn't even enough time in the day to do everything. We are meant to clean and stock shelves, unpack shipping pallets, do inventory counts, handle customers, register, put up signs, make sure products are in the right places, find stuff for customers can't find for themselves, clean the animal habitats (cats, reptiles, birds, rodents, and fish). Fish tanks take the longest because we have to clean the sides, siphon the gravel, do water changes, remove dead fish and plants. Customers are meant to come first and that's why most things don't get done. People will come in and ask questions about products or animals. A lot of people just don't look around and find the products themselves so they hunt one of us down and we have to drop everything. I had a woman come up to me and says "how do I get the $10 off?" "I'm like well it's prolly a sale, do you have a rewards card?" She rustles around in her purse a bit and then gives me her number. It's not in our system and I tell her she can sign up for it. She signs up for it and the $10 doesn't come off the bag of dog food. I tell her this and run back to where she got the bag and it says it had to be the 38lb which she had the 33lb. I come back and let her know about this and she then proceeds to get upset and says "Just ring it up, I want to go home." Excuse me? YOU want to go home? I just ran my ass to the back of the store, look at the sale tag that says what gives you the discount that you obviously didn't read and YOU WANT TO GO HOME. I have been standing here and helping people like you for 8hrs and YOU WANT TO GO HOME... She pulled this three times in the last month like this is new to her so this isn't her just having a bad day. I went home and cried that day because I was that frustrated about how people just get upset with me over something corporate has decided that I can't fix.

I used to keep my bettas in 1 gallon bowls but I also would do water changes every other day. It got to the point I just couldn't carry them back and forth and got an actual tank.Some people just don't want to listen to what is best for the animal and just get the cheapest thing they can. I have tried on multiple occasions to get people to stop buying bowls for bettas but they don't care. I had a woman take her anger out on me because her baby betta died. I asked what kind of tank she had and she looked at me like I had 3 heads. She explained it was one of those .25 pour the water in cubes. I shook my head and told her she needed to buy something with a real filter and small heater. After I told her this, she got upset that the other employee said this product was fine, why would we tell her two different things?!? She was very upset that instead of spending $15 her bill was $30 some over a fish. I asked the other employee if they suggested that "tank" and they said absolutely not, the woman wanted it and she wasn't gonna budge.

Sometimes I wish that people could see past that we aren't there playing with the animals (which I thought some stores did to get them to be handle-able) but there just isn't enough time to do any of it sometimes. Retail is a pain in the butt to do which I somewhat want to leave but at the same time I can't afford to. All my coworkers do their best to educate and keep all the animals healthy but I wish customers would be a bit more polite to us sometimes. Our store tries it's best but I can't speak for any other stores. Finding your own products, doing your own research, looking at the sale and price tags and placing items back on the hooks and shelves would be a great start. Unfortunately, that would be a perfect retail world and we don't live in that.
 
#8 ·
I totally understand how difficult retail can be. I worked retail for 7 years. It is one of the hardest jobs out there. Dealing with customers is difficult at times and they take their frustrations out on you even though you had nothing to do with the problem. You work long hours and weekends too so I get it. I never talk rudely to any retail employee and as I understand how it is. I do not doubt how hard they work at maintaining the store and I'm sure you all do your best. Of course I do not know the exact situation of these specific stores I was talking about in terms of how many staff or managers there are or what their policies are but from what I have seen, it is not a super busy store during the times I have been there (its not a big city store) and I have seen about 2-3 staff standing around before too. Everyone is very polite to me for sure. I am glad to hear the staff at your store are trained and try to stay educated. I was completely ranting as I was upset from seeing these poor betta's dying in the little cups. I am so happy to have insight from you all who are working in the stores themselves.
 
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