pet store employee

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Originally Posted by big d

i work at petsmart.

i've also heard a lot of petsmart "horror stories"

all I have to say is that it isn't about sales. There is no commissions and no benefit in making the "big sale."

I know I care about the well-being of all the animals I work with (even the hamster, which I despise)

Its not fair to base such a hated opinion on one bad employee.

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Its not the employees that bother me because I have ran into some that know there stuff and others who don't but the way the store is ran. I know people who love herps and fish and try very hard to have rules changes but the managers and owners don't want to hear that because it raises cost. I generally think they should either take better care or stop selling but I doubt my opinion is worth the money they get from animal sales :mad:

I am going to say this and I hope I don't get bashed for being one of the "bad guys".

I co-own pet store and we only sell reptiles and supplies, saltwater fish, corals and supplies for fresh and salt water.

It is a tough business. Of the reptiles we have all (except the 2 left there from the old owner) have been hand picked by me, most of them from breeders who only breed one or two species. I either offer books or care sheets for all the animals we sell and I try really hard to make sure people have what they need and not necesarlly what they want when it comes to set ups.

Here is the issue we have. The majority of my customers are willing to learn to a certain extent but we live in a small town and it is really hard to get them to buy what they need. I have refused sales because of this but it makes it really difficult to keep the doors open sometimes.

It really SUCKS to hear everyone say pet stores are garbage and they keep their animals in crappy conditions and give poor advise. Because the truth of the matter is most of them do and are.

I have had owners of other stores tell me I can't run the store like I do it costs to much money and I will eventually fold. In order to make it in "the business" I have to buy wild caught cheap animals and sell people what they want and not what they need. To me I would rather go out of business than do this. I tell people all the time if I have to sell sick and dying animals to "make it" I would just rather not. Unfortunatley that is what will probably happen in the long run:(.

I do have customers that understand that we go out of our way to make sure the animals they get are healthy, I have a shop vet and if anyone comes in sick they go get treated, our rats are feed Mazuri and our crickets are feed greens. Our Snakes and most other herps are kept 1 to a cage (unless they can live communaly like cresteds/gargoyles). They are fed properly and wormed and/or quarintined (if I do happen to purchase a wild caught animal which has only happened twice).

What I am trying to say is not all pet shops are "bad" but because most of them are, people like myself have the deck stacked against us.

another thought about poor housing conditions in pet stores;

it bothers me when I see a poorly kept reptiles in a small or dirty enclosure,
and although there is no excuse for lesser living conditions,
reptiles in pet stores sell.

Where I work, if the reptile doesn't find a home within a certain amount of time, he is put up for adoption. (which I usually end up with if it is a reptile)

Keep in mind that any poor housing you see in pet stores is, thankfully, not permanent.