pet store employee's these days

I don't know if I'd say it's the generations fault...None of my local pet stores(both chain and mom & pop) seem to have knowledgable staff-especially in reptiles. Actually, the only two stores that I've ever been too which had knowledgable staff employed people of the younger generation. I can think of MANY employees who know close to nothing about animals that work in pet stores, and MOST of them are from a generation older than my own.
I think that the safest thing to say is that manager's and business owners need to step their game up, but it probably won't happen. Be thankful for the internet and do your research first s you know what you need when you go into a pet store. Buying a pet(from a retail store) is like buying anything else, if you don't know what you want/need then, most likely, they're going to try and sell you as much as possible.

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Originally Posted by JaGv

i heard of that store i just haven't had time to go. do they sell nice bp's?

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It's a small store. I only saw normals there, but the guy says they have a lot of local breeders they know and can get you just about anything you want.

The newer generation of workers don't really understand the value of hard work or knowledge of their jobs. There are a lot of factors that sometimes go into that as well. I worked at a Petco like 10-11 years ago and there was always someone in the store that knew their department or was able to cross departments. Of all the animals and workers I'd say there was less knowledge of dogs and cats than everything else. Now, I think that particular store is lucky if there are 1-2 people who know what animals are in the store.

A break down of the stores near me as a reference:

Petco- The workers seem to know little/nothing then walk away when I interject to help their customer. A far cry from what they once were.

Petsmart- Have knowledgeable workers with fish and reptiles(the one new guy is actually interested in learning). Not sure of other departments, but they run a clean store. Petsmart is one store I think does a good job of at least properly staffing departments, there is always 1-2 people per department.

PetsPlus(local chain/kinda mom and pop)- Pricey stuff but the workers are very knowledgeable. The head reptile guy runs the department for all the stores(3-4 I believe). One of the manager's has a nice setup in the store for his 3 foot albino mojave(I want to steal that snake in the worst way).

Hidden Reef(mom and pop)- An aquarium store that sells stuff for other animals and has a small reptile department. If one person doesn't know, they will point you to someone who does. The workers range in age and specialties.


My new favorite hobby is to window shop at any of these stores with a snake around my neck or hanging off me, then educate people on snakes or the animal that they are about to get/inherited a week before. Sent a few people to this site and to a turtle forum that I frequent. :)

They have a couple that runs a place down here and they wont hire anyone that knows more then them guess it makes them look bad or something

When I was researching before I got my first BP, I was mostly researching over the internet. I went into Petsmart one day to check and make sure they had all of the supplies I would need. On my way out, I grabbed one of their pet care brochures for BP's, out of curiousity. There was false information in it! I know that most employee's that work there aren't trained properly and have no idea what they're doing (with a few exceptions), but really? If they were going to type it up, they should have gotten it right.
It doesn't upset me that much that most pet stores have no idea what they're doing, it upsets me that they pretend to.

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Originally Posted by JaGv

this store was smaller than petco/petsmart. but the employee's at the petco/petsmart near me suck at what they do. some employee's are scared to handle the snakes.

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You also have to have a reasonable expectation of who you are dealing with. Usually when I go in to Pet* its a high school kid working a minimum wage job because Mommy/Daddy said to get a job. They have no vested interest in the animals or their care. I'm sure there are exceptions though.

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Originally Posted by VooDooDoc

You also have to have a reasonable expectation of who you are dealing with. Usually when I go in to Pet* its a high school kid working a minimum wage job because Mommy/Daddy said to get a job. They have no vested interest in the animals or their care. I'm sure there are exceptions though.

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the people at the petco i went weren't teens though they were probably close to their 30's. the petsmart only 1 person would handle the snakes and he was from the fish department

I know I'm a big exception to the rule, but I work at Petco and know far more about dogs than most people. The same goes for mice, rats, and guinea pigs. I'm less familiar with hamsters and ferrets.

My reptile knowledge is growing- I was previously completely inexperienced with reptiles but having owned a ball python for about a month, I'm learning quite a bit. I am nowhere near the point where I could give anyone advice on how to care for their reptile though.

I know nothing about fish.

There are many people who work in my store who know a ton about their animal of choice and many people who think they know more than they actually do. It varies widely. But I don't think it's a generation issue. I think the main problem is that corporations like Petco are more concerned about making money than they are about educating the consumer- though I will say, since I last worked at Petco, I have become increasingly impressed with the training program new associates go through.

I have to avoid going in the big evil box stores because every time I do I feel really depressed and like I should try to save all their reptiles. I'm not saying that there's not good petco's out their that take care of their animals but the majority of the ones I go into I'm horrified. I'm a little extreme though and really don't like big businesses at all. I think (there is exceptions like I said) that Petco doesn't want people that know about how to take care of reptiles for the same reason Lowe's doesn't hire anyone that knows anything about construction, Why? because knowledge is power and if Lowe's hired someone that knows about construction their going to need to eventually pay them more money because they can always get a job at another place with the knowledge they have. They just want drones that will never question their 15 cent raises. In the construction business there's is this saying "keep them dumb and keep them down." So it's no surprise to me at all that they won't hire people that know how to take the proper care of their reptiles. I really hope no one takes offense to this because if your own this website checking out these forums you obviously care about reptiles.

I can't even go into the big pet stores in town anymore, I always end up looking at the BPs and just feeling so sad because they're covered in stuck shed, skinny, piled up in a corner with three others... I lucked out with Aradia, she had only been there for about a week and a half. Some of the snakes I was seeing had been there for months and just got skinnier.

The pet store near me seems to have good care of their small animals, but I'm finding their reptile care lacking. They've had the same two '12 normals and much larger spider and fire in the same tank for more than a month, with one half-log hide, what looks like dirt substrate (eco-earth, maybe?) and just last week I noticed one of the hatchlings has the start of scale rot. Single bulb, screen top, no apparent under-tank heating, not even any dial temp/humidity gauges.

I feel like I should say something - the owner is nice and seems open to being given advice and she really seems to care about her animals, but I'm not sure how to go about it without seeming condescending or demeaning. I think she would be willing to listen, it just would be awkward to get into an argument because that's the only place I can go to buy my feeders besides resorting to Petsmart's frozen ones that I've had troubles with before.