Petsmart... Makes me laugh!

So, I was out killing time at a local petsmart cause I needed some dog food when I over heard a guy asking an employee where do you keep your venomous reptiles? The employee replied we don't carry them here because of liability reasons but all the local pet stores have them. Now I'm not certain on the keeping laws in NC (I think you have to have a permit if they are allowed at all) but I know they can not be sold. Being the kind hearted guy I am, I had to walk over and tell him he was misinformed. He replied a "buddy" of mine bought one the other day from the lps. Now I buy my rats from this store and have been friends with the employees for years and know they have never sold venomous. I had to walk away, I was laughing so hard at the guy I forgot to buy dog food.

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Originally Posted by ChrisS

So, I was out killing time at a local petsmart cause I needed some dog food when I over heard a guy asking an employee where do you keep your venomous reptiles? The employee replied we don't carry them here because of liability reasons but all the local pet stores have them. Now I'm not certain on the keeping laws in NC (I think you have to have a permit if they are allowed at all) but I know they can not be sold. Being the kind hearted guy I am, I had to walk over and tell him he was misinformed. He replied a "buddy" of mine bought one the other day from the lps. Now I buy my rats from this store and have been friends with the employees for years and know they have never sold venomous. I had to walk away, I was laughing so hard at the guy I forgot to buy dog food.

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LOL I love big chain pet stores!! They are always a source of entertainment for me. I struck up a conversation with a guy at the Petsmart by me. We got into talking about different morphs and he said that he hated when people come in and know more than he does about the reptiles. I went on to say that I am currently working on a pastel axanthic project and I was looking for a Mojave female for my BEL project.. I am now one of the people he hates...

Reminds me of the conversation I had in my local Petco some time back. Was standing near the old reptile section when this guy and his girlfriend come in. He goes over and gets an employee to open the tank with the baby BP's in it. He's holding one and talking to his girlfriend about it, so I figure he's trying to talk her in to getting one. So, me being a girl who already likes them, I thought maybe I could say a word to sway her a little bit.

I go over and tell them I have some of my own, and that they make good pets. The girl was interested and asked how big mine were. I answered my biggest girl (then) was about 4 and a half feet long and weighed probably 2800 grams. Her boyfriend snorted real loud and told me he used to have one that was 8 feet long and weighed at least 12 pounds! He said it got too big for him so he gave it to the zoo, and I could still see it at the zoo.

This is where I just lost it. I started snorting laughter and couldn't stop. He swelled up like an old wet hen, and demanded what was so funny. I told him there was no way he had an 8 foot ball, since a 6 footer was damn near record size, and if it was 12 pounds it would be as big around as a telephone pole. I told him zoo's don't accept animals from private owners anymore, and even if they did I'd been to the zoo and I knew for a fact there were no giant ball pythons there.

The guy gets all crabby and ugly and starts calling me names, until his girlfriend elbowed him hard in the ribs and told him that's what he gets for being a lair all the time. For once he met someone who knew enough to call his bluff. I thought I was gonna wet myself.

Gale

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Originally Posted by angllady2

Reminds me of the conversation I had in my local Petco some time back. Was standing near the old reptile section when this guy and his girlfriend come in. He goes over and gets an employee to open the tank with the baby BP's in it. He's holding one and talking to his girlfriend about it, so I figure he's trying to talk her in to getting one. So, me being a girl who already likes them, I thought maybe I could say a word to sway her a little bit.

I go over and tell them I have some of my own, and that they make good pets. The girl was interested and asked how big mine were. I answered my biggest girl (then) was about 4 and a half feet long and weighed probably 2800 grams. Her boyfriend snorted real loud and told me he used to have one that was 8 feet long and weighed at least 12 pounds! He said it got too big for him so he gave it to the zoo, and I could still see it at the zoo.

This is where I just lost it. I started snorting laughter and couldn't stop. He swelled up like an old wet hen, and demanded what was so funny. I told him there was no way he had an 8 foot ball, since a 6 footer was damn near record size, and if it was 12 pounds it would be as big around as a telephone pole. I told him zoo's don't accept animals from private owners anymore, and even if they did I'd been to the zoo and I knew for a fact there were no giant ball pythons there.

The guy gets all crabby and ugly and starts calling me names, until his girlfriend elbowed him hard in the ribs and told him that's what he gets for being a lair all the time. For once he met someone who knew enough to call his bluff. I thought I was gonna wet myself.

Gale

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ahahhaha that's awesome!

Now I've heard some funny crap in pet stores but I still can't believe the things you have al heard. Its quite amusing. I just hope there are more good stories coming.

Cant wait till Skiploder sees this thread lmao he always gets pissed at petsmart/petco threads. But in my opinion they are entertaining :gj:

While it is entertaining to hear about these things, I think some people get mad about Petsmart/Petco threads because they usually end up turning into a Petsmart/Petco bashing thread. And for those of us who work, or have worked, at these stores, it is very insulting.

I've heard some misinformation given before and as a customer I have stepped in and corrected employees before. When I worked at a Petsmart though, my co-workers were pretty knowledgeable and gave good information.

Though one time I was a customer in a local petsmart (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking about her leopard gecko. Apparently she had come in earlier and asked about what supplies she would need for a leopard gecko and the person had essencially given her a list of "required" equipment like UV lights. I overheard the employee confirming that she would need all these things and I went over and politely offered to help out. The employee admitted she knew very little about leopard geckos and let me handle the customer from there.

But its not just Petsmart and Petco employees that do this. I've walked into one of those small mom and pop stores and the employees there just shocked me with their lack of knowledge. I had to correct them several times and at one store, one of the employees flat out refused to get me frozen feeders from the freezer because they "grossed her out." I had to wait until another employee was done with a customer so he could get them for me. The lady who refused to help me literally stood at the register and waited for him to come over to help me.

What annoys me is when people walk in, say yup that's what I want, the employee may actually try to give them a little info on the animal, they just nod and roll their eyes until the animal is in their hands, and they walk out....I have seen this scenario so many times and I just know that animal is going to be negelcted. :(

Understand what you mean. I can sex a guinea pig and a bunny definitely after the mishap we went thru (our Joey was supposed to be a boy but oops, no she wasn't and we had 4 babies). I can also teach people a thing or two about birds that they don't know (my dad raised parrots for 10 yrs and I helped).

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

While it is entertaining to hear about these things, I think some people get mad about Petsmart/Petco threads because they usually end up turning into a Petsmart/Petco bashing thread. And for those of us who work, or have worked, at these stores, it is very insulting.

I've heard some misinformation given before and as a customer I have stepped in and corrected employees before. When I worked at a Petsmart though, my co-workers were pretty knowledgeable and gave good information.

Though one time I was a customer in a local petsmart (not the one I ended up working in) and a lady was asking about her leopard gecko. Apparently she had come in earlier and asked about what supplies she would need for a leopard gecko and the person had essencially given her a list of "required" equipment like UV lights. I overheard the employee confirming that she would need all these things and I went over and politely offered to help out. The employee admitted she knew very little about leopard geckos and let me handle the customer from there.

But its not just Petsmart and Petco employees that do this. I've walked into one of those small mom and pop stores and the employees there just shocked me with their lack of knowledge. I had to correct them several times and at one store, one of the employees flat out refused to get me frozen feeders from the freezer because they "grossed her out." I had to wait until another employee was done with a customer so he could get them for me. The lady who refused to help me literally stood at the register and waited for him to come over to help me.

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I believe you hit the mark perfectly.. most thread DO turn into a bashing one. Which is wrong.. I may have more info then all but one employee at my local petsmart, AND I do correct wrong husbandry advice employees give customers Politely but that's just me.. (and when that fails and they say I'm wrong I pull out the phone and show off my collection :D lmao) In the end it comes down to not the store, but the employees themselves. I will be honest... I find myself correcting BOTH local stores around her.. Oh well.. Let's hope this thread doesn't go south like so many others.

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Originally Posted by ChrisS

So, I was out killing time at a local petsmart cause I needed some dog food when I over heard a guy asking an employee where do you keep your venomous reptiles? The employee replied we don't carry them here because of liability reasons but all the local pet stores have them. Now I'm not certain on the keeping laws in NC (I think you have to have a permit if they are allowed at all) but I know they can not be sold. Being the kind hearted guy I am, I had to walk over and tell him he was misinformed. He replied a "buddy" of mine bought one the other day from the lps. Now I buy my rats from this store and have been friends with the employees for years and know they have never sold venomous. I had to walk away, I was laughing so hard at the guy I forgot to buy dog food.

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Question:

Has the local pet store sold bearded dragons?

Garter snakes?

Any sort of monitor lizard?

I try to avoid talking to people when I'm at petco or petsmart but I stopped there to pick up some superworms for my friend and the employee decided to let me know that I needed to cut the heads off of them or they would eat their way out of the lizard's stomach... I didn't bother correcting her haha

I can see where they go that idea though, they had them on top of the mealworm fridge and it was too hot for them so they were eating their way out of the plastic cups!


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Well I have had good luck with my Petco, real good people that know their jobs and about the snakes they sale, did not push a sale to make a sale. They relley care about who was gettng the pet. Gave very good advice and what the future of this pet would need and cost. But I have also got a deer in the head light look also with others in other places. If you can find someone how is a expert and a breeder of snakes and relley cares this is a plus for the store, pets, customer and a winner for all. But not all chain stores have this.

Store carefully, asked good question and come in with infomation about what you are looking for so you know if you are being feed a bull about it all..

Be armed do your homework, and do not buy on a whim, think it out. Give it 24 hrs for everyone can be on board and what is best for the snake you and all.

My main issue with the PetSmart / PETCO stores in my area is that every BP they sell is a CH and not a CB. THAT is a corporate policy and one I can't abide by. There are FAR too many normal BPs being hatched out every year in this country to have to pull CH from Africa. Yeah, yeah, I know that without wild caught animals the morph market would have never happended, but that's not the issue with the chain stores. They're pulling over CH just to maintain a profit margin. And let's not kid ourselves. That profit margin is huge! They sell BPs that might cost them a total of $10 for $79.99! They could just as easily use CB stock that would only cost them a few dollars more but would be much better animals in the long run.