Another pet store story, go figure...

[Adrya]

This happened yesterday...

Okay, so there's this little pet store I hadn't been to in a LONG time, and they moved to a new bigger location up the street from their previous spot.

So I go in there, passing one of the employers by the front door smoking, looking for the ExoTerra heat tape, the medium size... I find that and it was like $30 bucks! I remember the store being cheaper in their prices... so anyways, I knew I could find it cheaper.. but I just wandered around and looked at all the animals and stuff.....

All the birds and rodents were in a backroom where the cages were behind glass display windows, so you could see the birds and rodents in there... the door going back in there was open like only an inch, and it freakin' REEKED. The litter was dirty as and so were the bird cages, and their water was dirty and they'd looked like they ate all their food and poo was piled up...

And on to the reptiles.. they had two little hatchling ball pythons that were skinny and needed food... for $50 each I could have gotten both of them, bulked them up and then resold them myself, but that would just be supporting their business.. GOD i hate the true fact that I can't save them all. They had a little water dragon that was skinny also... at least the cages were humid and they had water.. little food though.

I was the only customer in the store I think... no actually there was another guy that came in... but anyways, there was a guy and two girls that worked there and they were standing up front at the register just talking and not doing anything.

There was nothing there I wanted to buy because I knew I could find it cheaper at another pet store across town that is SO much better and cleaner and just a nice atmosphere in general with some cheaper prices and more variety of stuff. But I was afraid of walking out with nothing and them saying something to me. Well I had no choice, I didn't want to buy anything and there were other specific things that I was looking for that they didn't have...

So as I started leaving the store the guy asked me if he could help me with something, and I had just had it with that store in general every time I've gone in there... SO I said..

"Yeah, you sure can do something for me. You can help those animals by watering and feeding them, especially those poor little baby ball pythons and the water dragon, and you can ESPECIALLY clean those rodent and bird cages instead of STANDING here TALKING and SMOKING!"

And I just walked out.

[Slithers]

some people.

[Sleepy_FF]

GO AYDRA!!!!!

i hate people like that.

[joker_8]

yea i not allowed in the only pet store in town due to the same nearly exact speech lol. Way to Go.

[boafiend]

good job! that gave me some inspiration! maybe ill run down to the petco and chew some heads off!

[VoodooChile]

crappy thing about PetCo is that the employees are doing exactly what they are told to do.
Blake, my reptile guy @ PetCo here, says the mgmnt and corporate give you sets of instructions as to WHAT you can put in each animals home. So the leos are kept on sand, baby beardies the same.
They are only supposed to clean tanks when they completely sell out of an animal and get new stock..And only to change the water bowls 1ce a week.
The mgmnt keeps the Small Pets people busy enough here that they really dont get a chance to do much. Unfortunately they may only have 1 Small Pets Professional working on a shift. Therefore that person is the ONLY one with keys..So if they are too busy catching fish for other customers, helping cashier as well as stock shelves and wait on customers, they dont get much time to be available to do much else. I applied for a job there, and was told "they dont just hire people off the street".
Its not very fair to the employees or the animals. Blake has been written up for cleaning cages out before they were due. Its considered "a waste of company time"
IMO, every lrg pet store should have a cashier and a small pets expert in each area of pets..birds, mammals, aquaria, and reptiles/amphibians. When each of those employees is NOT busy waiting on customers, they can stock shelves and clean the cages out. The animals should be checked on every shift change: When you get there and before you leave. PetCo can afford to have enough staff there to do this. I also think the animal person should be someone experienced in the animal dept they are working in. Maybe not specifically, but at leased versed enough to give proper care instructions..

Oh and PetCo's caresheets suck btw!

	In My Opinon IMO = In My Opinion and IMHO = In My Honest Opinion

[joker_8]

yup

[CharlieJ]

Adrya,
THANKS for sticking up for the animals. TOO many people working in stores seem to think they are there to pick up a paycheck on Fridays, ring up a sale now & then and possibly take out the trash (but only if they're told to do so). When the store is NOT busy with customers, they have NO EXCUSE for not taking care of the animals! :::stepping down from soapbox:::