Why work there then? If I' the customer, have tpo be the one to open the cage and remove the animal for inspection, then something is wrong.
Just pointing out something here. I work for a major-chain pet store (not PetCo but one of their direct competitors) and frankly, not every employee is there to attend to the animals. I was originally hired as a cashier...switched to core/stocking...later trained into the actual pet department...and am now comfortably settled as a groomer/petstylist in the salon. Hiring in as a cashier, it didn't matter that I'm hesitant of handling hamsters (those suckers bite HARD, man. SRSLY) and am outright afraid of most birds. Likewise we have several people who are afraid of catching feeder crickets. However, on days where we are slammed, if someone calls out or is otherwise too busy to cope alone, people who are crosstrained get called into those departments and have to try and cope with it as best they can. Yeah, I get really anxious when I have to catch a hamster for a prospective buyer...dwarf hamsters are usually vicious little pricks and syrians are more mellow but far more damaging when they DO bite. It isn't that I'm an animal-hater or unfamiliar with them or that I'm uneducated...it's just personal prefference. My job description, TECHNICALLY, is to wash and groom a dog's coat, NOT handle hamsters...but because of my crosstraining, that's just how it goes sometimes.

Frankly I'd rather get tagged BAD by my biggest python than get nipped by a hamster.

That being said...I would never buy a reptile from the store I work at or any of our major competitors. I always feel so badly for the little Balls we sell...especially since they removed the "CBB" tag on them and replaced it with a little notice that they're all "captive hatched"...that makes me very upset. I occasionally bring my big ol' male Mojave in for social calls...and let everyone see what a Ball SHOULD look like: nice a plump, no missing scales, no jutting spine and no blatant agression. When people stop me and ask "Did you buy him here?" I always say "No, I got him from a breeder" and explain how buying from a reputable breeder is ALWAYS better than buying from a pet store, be it a dog or a snake, and I try to push the nearest reptile expo, held every other Sunday, as a great way to meet local folk who like herps.

Likewise I never buy feeders from the store I work at OR PetCo...had too many issues with sickly, skinny, damaged or in one case outright ROTTING feeders. Seriously, I pulled a frozen pinkie out of the container to thaw for my Milk Snake, and it appeared to have been thawed and allowed to ROT before being re-frozen. It was black and gunky and had mould all over it.

Thankfully I found some nice folk who are at the local expo every month to every other month who have much better feeders, and a lot cheaper, too.