Petsmart employees

[Kurt]

I feel that pet store employees need to go through training programs before working out on the floor.

That would be nice. Unfortunately, the ones that actually do this, still don't educate enough.

[John]

The majority of pet store jobs are low wage and the majority of pet store owners aren't graced with the conscience to override their desire to maximise profits.

[into]

yeah and low wage means little to no real training/education. I remember those days right after high school... I worked in a sporting goods store and kept getting calls from people asking about hunting equiptment. Many callers were frustrated that I couldn't help them, so I asked my manager for reference/training materials and he just gave me a funny look and kept walking. (this was before the internet boom)

[adawinters]

I honestly do feel bad, though, for the pet store clerks who DO know what they're doing. So many of us automatically assume the worst of them, and so they must spring back and forth from refusing to sell the goldfish to the girl who wants to keep it in a cup, to getting lectured by someone who assumes they're ignorant and uncaring. Then again, it is rare enough to find people who really know their stuff working in petstores.

I'd honestly like to know how much of the mismanagement of animal husbandry in chains is fostered/mandated by corporate policy (i.e. HQ says we can't open the UV light for the suchandsuch lizard as it eats away profits.) Now and then, I get the nagging suspicion that a clerk/store manager is doing the best s/he can... within the confines of a bigger, inhibitive system. (Maybe I'm just paranoid or jaded. Am I the only one who thinks this way?)

[Kurt]

I used to work in the pet industry and compared to what I know now to what I knew then, I was an ignorant little bugger. Still I was the most knowledgeable person in the store. I knew more than the store owner. (This was when Ronald Reagan was President and before the big chain stores came to town.)

So you are right, there are meaningful employees out there, but unfortunately they are in the minority, and a lot of those meaningful employees have very limited knowledge.

I use to see applicants that would state that a relative had a fish tank, so that made them qualified for a job with us. Sure it does. I have also seen employees make s**t up as they go. Or stores that would make up new names for different animal species. That made life harder for the rest of us. My old boss used to label many types of fish as "sharks" so they would sell better.

Then in the early 90's I worked at the crème de la crème of aquarium stores. We got paid more than your average pet store employee, but we also had to know a lot more than your average pet store employee. The store owner is an ichthyologist and had kept exotic animals for years. I used to hear stores of the old days and be blown away by what they used to have before the laws had changed. Can you say big cats? They are still pretty interesting and knowledgeable and carry interesting stuff. The owner told me recently that he plans to expand into reptiles.

[JeffX]

From my personal experience it all depends on where you go. I know some people who will stay away from Petco/Petsmart and the chain stores because they feel that they don't know as much. That is part of the truth. I've heard some really ignorant advice from local or independent pet stores. I had spoken to a lady who was told to take her Chinese Water Dragon outside for for it's vitamin d3. I live in Iowa and frankly this suggestion is rather absurd especially when winter comes around.

Also when I worked at Petco I can tell you I had people that worked in my departments and the managers who didn't know a thing about most of our animals. The training was focused on product placement and shelving. I was their head guy in Aquatics/Reptiles before I was given their training. I had maybe five little paragraphs on animal care. Luckily I already knew what I was doing and had enough sense to study at home. The way they setup their displays are all done through a corparate offie and they have no desire to do what the animal needs. I had twenty or more Ball Pythons stuffed into a ten gallon tank because they wouldn't bother to see what your on hands were and would just send you 15 or more. You couldn't keep them in the back either. They ALL had to be out on the floor.

[adawinters]

Yeah. I worked at a corporately owned vet's office for a while, and we had to HIDE frontline and heartguard when the corporate babysitter came around. Thing was, they wouldn't let us order more if X packages were on the shelves, even if we told them that it was in high demand, and we knew for a fact that it would sell out from the appointments later in the week alone. Strange stuff. You'd think, in that case, they'd listen, since it would mean more profit to turn over more product more frequently, but they were only concerned with the day to day.

I spent the first 17 years of my life living in New York City with petstores close to my apartment that kept horrible conditions. (When most of the staff has never seen a tree-covered hill, let alone a frog in its natural habitat, you know you're in for a treat.)Then I spent the next decade in a small town with a petstore that, for the most part, cared and researched and made an effort, (although I will say that, if you want a pet mouse in the hudson valley, be advised that ALL mice you'll find are former lab animals or their offspring; learned that one the hard way).

Now I'm somewhere in between. I've spotted the places that seem to care, but I've also been exposed to chains for the first time ever, (I'd always avoided them, how's that for bias) and have flashed back a little to my previous city experiences.

Last chain I was in, there was a really sweet old man, telling me how friendly and active the tomato frogs, but he had no idea what he was talking about. Said they'd max out at 2 inches. (I just didn't have the heart to correct him. He really liked them, and he was nice, and I was only passing through. I had errands to run.)

[Kurt]

I would've corrected him. Of course, I can be a total ******* at times! LOL