i've owned birds, fish, a rabbit, a guinea pig, a hamster, 2 dogs and several cats (not all at once though haha).
the ONLY animals out of all those that were ever bought at a large chain pet store were some of the fish & the 2 dogs (these were "adopted" from rescues using the store as base camp). all the other animals (except the cat) were purchased from a small pet store near our home. the cats were all rescued kittens abandoned by feral moms.
i visited a petsmart the other day to get a bag of bark to use in the mean time while i scrape up the funds for my usual stuff. i wanted to go see the reptiles there so bad but forced myself not to. i bought what i was there for and booked before i was pulled towards the animals.
i wont even look at the reptiles in the store i buy my feeder rats from.