alright i didn't decide to read everyone's comments but i'm actually an employee at a PetSmart and Pet Care is my department.
Yes, it is store policy. That's also why the prices are a little higher for those rodents. They're "fancy" mice and "fancy" rats (they have pretty color patterns. unlike plain white or whatever color your common feeder rodents are). But I don't care about the whole animal cruelty part behind live rodents as long as it isn't the snake being abused with ignorant snake keepers (too many bad pictures of injured snakes who were left unattended with their food running through my mind).
Lucky for me though, the Petco across the street does sell live feeder rodents (although everything else is pretty much crap). So when someone throws a fit about it we just tell them they can cross the street and take care of everything there.
Yes, we feed them frozen/thawed. No, the PetSmart I'm at hasn't force fed.
And this is why I'm a member of so many forums about so many animals.
Ball pythons, cichlids, loaches, goldfish, rodents of sorts, and so on.
I choose to be informed so I can inform customers.
Blame the individual for their own stupidity.
No need to generalize.
So then why do I hear all this rif-raf about people possibly getting fired for "informing customers".