I am constantly hearing and reading about the horrors of Pe....you know.

I don't love to go there and see 12 snakes in a shoe box sized tank (I knew that was wrong the first time I saw it and I didn't know crap about snakes), or Uromastyx in a 10 gallon breeder, or feather plucking baby Conures.

We've all seen it and we all know it isn't right. Some freak out on the nearest associate and some tsk and walk away. Obviously, neither of those reactions change anything.

This is a big " What if", as I don't know if corporate would allow it even if the store was on board, but what if some of you really knowledgeable herpers offered some of your time to your local big chain store? As much or as little as you can spare. Maybe offer to have a two hour "training session" with the staff. Offer to supply good caresheets for them to hand out. Maybe see if you can just be there for X number of hours per week/month to answer customer questions.

They must have a ton of space in "the back". Is there any chance they'd set up a cheap(er) rack system for back stock and display one animal at a time?

Obviously, you can't threaten their business. You can't tell a customer, "These hides are too expensive, make your own, here's how!" A person doing this would probably have to compromise their true beliefs sometimes, like if you're asked if, "this habitat-in-a-box" will work. If it "will work" you'd have to say yes, even if you know of something better and cheaper.

I'd go as far as to predict that having volunteers like this in every department would help sales, and certainly these stores' reputation.

I believe the employees are not at fault, usually. Most of them work there because they like the animals. Most of them would probably welcome the opportunity to learn the right way.

I'm not naive enough to believe something like this will change the world. But I do believe it could help.