I don't work at a pet store. I have a couple friends that do, but I do not. I understand you've seen plenty of stores that don't take care of their animals, but telling someone to avoid an entire chain of stores despite the fact that their store might or might not take care of the animals is silly in my opinion. A breeder typically isn't going to have multiple independent places that could have different levels of care for their animals. I wouldn't buy a reptile from the Petsmart that's the next town over. But, the one by my house takes good care of their animals. The closest Petco to me is appalling and they aren't doing anything to fix it, but the Petco my friends work at is immaculate, and they have probes in addition to digital gauges and if they get an animal in that management wants to sell but none of them have cared for before [rare but they said it has happened before] then they personally go home and research it to make sure it's getting what it needs.

I understand I'm not going to change your opinion, just as you're not going to change mine, but I disagree with you. I say let someone judge for themselves based on what they see.