The TRUTH about PetSmart | perspective from an ex-PetSmart employee

[@RealToWonder]

in my experience, i've seen both petsmart and petco employees do their best to steer customers away from poor husbandry decisions. once, a woman came with her daughter to get a goldfish and a bowl and the employee was trying to get her to pick "a cuter, littler fish" and a 5 or 10 gal tank kit. when the woman asked why, the employee just looked at the little girl and back to the mom and said, "so your daughter doesnt cry in a week". idk what the woman ended up doing, but it's not the only time i've seen the employees try to influence better decisions.

[@imchase7796]

Bruhhh I struggled to talk a customer out of buying a 1 gallon betta tank. She just didn’t understand that the companies aren’t always correct in the “betta fish compatible”

[@RealToWonder]

@@imchase7796 a kid is technically compatable with a dog crate, but it doesnt mean you should put one in a crate

[@_phong.huynh_]

@@RealToWonder well said, and they can also fit in a stove, but nobody wants that or a dead child in less than a week (or day)

[@am_Nein]

Im Chase I would just smash the 1 gals- nvm, try to RESELL them as.. idk shrimp tanks? (Whatever can live in a 1 gal)

[@am_Nein]

americandumpsterfire yes

[@patriciamuszynski1328]

When I worked at Petsmart in 2002 I got in trouble when I over heard some people talking about their oscar fish having ick and they where going to just flush it. I was like we have medicine for that and you shouldn't flush LIVE ANIMALS! The customers told my boss on me and a manager talked to me about. I flat out told them if someone was talking about drowning a bucket of kittens should I not suggest they get taken to a shelter instead of killing them?

[@affend4915]

that must be a karen

[@shamarab4632]

@@affend4915 🤣🤣

[@andifishgallery9400]

Bruh definitely a Karen,and the poor Oscar ;-;

[@toxictabby1307]

I work at petco and I was telling a woman that the 3 female bettas shes buying might possibly fight or kill each other. And to have an extra tank on hand in case you need to separate them. She told on me to my manager and same thing, had to have a sit down. Apparently we can't tell them the truth.

[@Ryan-cg4sp]

If we don't hear from u in a month we'll assume petsmart got u

[@am_Nein]

We’ll also assume that KZbin has noticed complaints and whipped you with a demonitization nugget

[@hokipokithecactus9101]

@@am_Nein XD

[@itsjusteli_9864]

Petsmart special discipline 😈

[@astro-lame9674]

i’m a petsmart employee now and having pets all my life i’m constantly catching my coworkers lacking on super basic knowledge that’s very worrying :/

[@thomas1brad]

Astro-lame • same in Pets at Home in the UK owned by petsmart, I ended up leaving when the company cares more about gathering people’s data through loyalty cards than animal welfare.

[@SonyEnthusiast]

Sometimes, I fuck with them acting like I'm a beginner just to test out their fish knowledge (lacking big time smfh) 😂🤣😂🤣. BTW I'm an experienced aquarist and here's my current baby: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i2fdpYaaepWeaLs

[@joki3976]

Hopefully your coworkers are sensible and will listen if you gently offer to educate them. If not, it is your live animal managers responsibility to make sure EVERYONE THERE has a basic knowledge about the available animals or knows where to find pertinent information in your database. And if your manager refuses to do their job I encourage you to contact HR. I'm a manager at a large pet store and consider the welfare of the animals and pet parent education my top priorities, not profit. Profit comes naturally when people see that the store's primary focus is on helping to create healthy human-pet relationships, and selling stuff is an afterthought. I also encourage adoption to be the potential buyers first choice if possible, and it usually is a viable option. Try not to let other's ignorance intimidate you. Just let them try to penalise you for doing the right thing: HR will mess them up. Good luck.

[@louisetaylor283]

Is that part of your job, and are you getting paid for it?

[@sschario60]

@@SonyEnthusiast, hopefully you'll outgrow that juvenile attitude/behavior.

[@furiousstyles08]

Petsmart employee: Can I help you? Me: I know more than you.

[@schybux632]

Furious Styles You’d be surprised how many PetSmart employees have an actual zoo in their home. Some people just work here to get discounts on pet supplies. It’s true that they don’t require you to know animal care but plenty do, and if you said that to me I’d show you the door lol

[@furiousstyles08]

@@schybux632 or just show me what I don't know. Then I'll spend money. People talk shit about PetSmart, but I see them as a good resource for experienced fishkeepers for two things: supplies and the occasional community fish. If something goes wrong and it's beyond my Facebook group, I'm going to a proper LFS.

[@FedUpZebra]

@@schybux632 You also get petsmart/Petco employees that have a whole zoo at home but still don't know anything and convince themselves they do. Then try to convince others they know things and these poor fools fall for it because "they own so many, they must know all the things". So their animals are stressed and suffering and dying yet they think "oh that's just normal behavior for them". One of my coworkers (yeah, I was an employee too) had a sub-40 gallon tank with SIX species cohabitating! One of them a boa too large for the tank! The rest were various lizards and geckos. She also put beta fish, among other tropical fish, in with her axolotl (two very seriously different habitat requirements) and she kept getting confused why the Betta fish would always get eaten by the axolotl as if it wasn't going to happen the next time she tried. I seriously don't think just cuz someone works at the store and has a zoo at home correlates to them knowing anything about animal care. More like, having those discounts and constant exposure to exciting new animals leads to a serious hoarding/pet shopping issue and major disguised neglect.

[@theone5404]

Sure you are.

[@SnazzyZubloids]

"Oh good, then you can head right on over to PetCo with that attitude."

[@podzolblock3952]

When I was 8 or 9 I went to pet smart and an employee told me I could put 3 Bala sharks in a 20 gal,I chose guppies instead thank god

[@FishForThought]

Very good choice. Yes bala sharks are such a typical bad fish to recommend.... Not every employee will know this fish gets HUGE

[@ohrats731]

Yeah when I was little I got two in an unheated 2 gallon. Poor things didn’t even last the night

[@jeffreyklima7612]

@@FishForThought they don't get HUGE, they grow to enclosure size

[@jeffreyklima7612]

@@royr1016 misinformation? I have them in my personal aquariums you moron

[@jeffreyklima7612]

@@royr1016 quick Google search will tell you all about it....

[@georgiabraundel522]

The petco near me used to actually be OK, I was buying plecos (I don’t support them anymore) and the lady who was catching the fish was talking about how long they live, how much they poop, how they get huge and need big tanks and honestly I love that 👌 don’t worry the plecos went in our 1400 gallon pond (it’s 4 feet deep so it’s warm enough)

[@FishForThought]

awesome!!

[@am_Nein]

Wow u have amazing pond I want one like that (Lol I wish)

[@abbytheredwolf174]

I love going into a store and the person helping me get fish or what ever asks about my set up, the care of the animal and things about them and if I worked there I would definitely be that person

[@Mr.Plant1994]

I’m just glad the pet smarts near me don’t sell to many “larger” fish anymore. Not much that require more then a 55 gallon.

[@FishForThought]

That's great!

[@19801emmanuel]

I’m pretty sure there stocked with koi fishes tho 🤣

[@Mr.Plant1994]

Jadoe Hustles they have goldfish, but not koi. They have a catalog where you can special order larger fish, but you have to make the effort to order them. Goldfish, and some Medium sized cichlids are the largest fish they carry. They could still give a goldfish to someone buying a 5-10 gallon, but Atleast they won’t be giving a young Oscar, or red tail catfish, to someone buying such.

[@paigek9923]

My petsmart still sells oscars but as babies and I feel really bad for them especially if they get bought by someone who thinks they will stay small and don’t know the proper care it sadly happens a lot

[@am_Nein]

Whew. If they gonna sell super big fish, they should.. idk DO SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT IT WHICH DOESN’T HURT PEOPLE MONEY AND FISH

[@Shanna2323]

I’ll never forget the answers to my questions from a Petco “fish expert” when buying my first goldfish for a first mini pond setup. “Goldfish actually prefer colder water below 60” “You could start with feeders. If they die, who cares, they only cost 35c” “To grow plants just put these in there and random plants will grow” *hands me API Root Tabs*

[@sportsfails4998]

That second answer disgusts me...

[@CD-ol7xi]

Yeah...

[@desolatedreams21]

Sports Fails they’re great to cycle tank or feed to other fish.

[@desolatedreams21]

Le Baguette they are still a cheap food source for monster fish like puffers or cichlids. I kept mine in a humane feeder tank with a filter, light and plants

[@BaughbeSauce]

I never acted like the animal's life didn't matter. They're right that goldfish prefer cool water (in the wild the water they're in is FREEZING, trust me). But when recommending feeders for a risky project, I'd usually word it more like "I'd recommend starting off with a few feeders. That way if your project needs tweaking or flat out fails you're only out a few dollars instead of several $12-30 fish." You always hope they'll be OK and even when being purchased to be eaten you treat them with respect. They're doing a noble thing dying that others might live. Also root tabs. 🤣🤣 that's like planting a garden by putting a bag of fertilizer on the ground.

[@BaughbeSauce]

I'm a former PetSmart employee as well. It used to be a good company. They USED to train about animal care. Now they don't. According to a friend who was with the company for about 18 years, they used to have to get certified in different things like birds, small animals, reptiles, etc. And would receive a pin to put on their shirt showing they were knowledgeable in that field. It was slowly phased out bit by bit. About 2 years ago they stopped the standardized trainings altogether. Now it says to "read the care guides" which are not always accurate. They imply that Bearded Dragons can eat melon, mango, and banana daily or 3x a week.... uhhhh, no they can't... they also don't inform employees that hatchling dragons (we would frequently get dragons 2 weeks and younger) need to eat up to 4x a day. Habitats are becoming more style over actual care. It's very disappointing. My last store manager wouldn't make it possible to get animals to the vet. It was supposed to be ONLY me and I ALWAYS closed. Vet closes at 6. Just because she and the others didn't like the vet and he was a little hard to deal with. I get his attitude. If they can't be bothered to read the chart and tell him what is wrong with it, he has other patients. I was a Customer Engagement Leader. They did away with the Pet Care Manager, Front End Manager, and Cashier Manager and just combined the 3 into 1. So you also don't have any time to really train people on every detail of animal care. Closing all of the time, I NEVER saw my openers which the SL did on purpose. She knew I wanted them to do a thorough job which took more time. If she told them to half-ass it, it was done quickly and she could get off register to dooooo... nothing. Or slap them on less important projects like helping to stock when the stocking team should have been held accountable for that. So yeah. There's my story and why I left.

[@BB-dj8sm]

I'm currently CEL, and I agree with everything you said

[@meggrotte4760]

Oh that's really sad you go from training your employees and not well no wonder if he's poor animals are suffering

[@jalexoneschanel1356]

Now they’ve gotten rid of established pet care associates, everyone is catch and nobody is trained to do it. People start and quit within a week because they get told they’ll be pet care and then end up stocking at 5:00 am

[@meggrotte4760]

It's all about money it's never about quality anymore. There was a time in America's history where quality mattered. because you cared about quality and you cared about your customers people came and spent their money. people think that capitalism is the problem but actually that's not the problem. I would say mega corporations are the problem. if I had a chain of pet stores the number one thing I would be concerned about is that my staff were trained in the animal that they were meant to care for. for example I would have a staff member for betas I'd have a staff member for guppies I have a staff member for every form of fish and they would have to be knowledgeable in that area birds yeah I'd have as many staff members as I needed who would specialize specifically on one type of animal. you know why because people come in and yes some people do research but then damn it to hell they put betas in a half gallon tank although compared to what they do in Taiwan that's a lot better

[@benblassingourami984]

I think this is a great perspective on PetSmart (and petco too). The lower ranking employees vary wildly in experience and knowledge and really aren’t at fault most of the time when things go wrong. The upper management needs to rethink how they hire and market though.

[@Claire-rq4ug]

I work at a PetSmart in the pet care department. I know a lot about animals from doing my own research. The company literature sucks, and the manager doesn't care. If you tell people about how to actually take care of animals, you can get reprimanded. If I tell people about proper hamster cages and tank sizes, I get scolded for making us lose sales. It's so annoying.

[@ricogaras9613]

Corripo I work at Petsmart too, hired as a Petcare Associate and is working towards Petcare Leader. It vary’s wildly from Store to store. Training sucks, but you learn as you work. And that’s the downfall of our training.

[@ricogaras9613]

Corripo also, I have three Hamsters myself, two LH Syrian Hamsters, and one Russian, I’ve done my research regarding proper care and have used that information to properly inform pet parents.

[@JH-gp1xi]

A few weeks ago I was looking for something to finish stocking my 20 gallon tank. I had a dwarf gourami and 5 platies. The pet store employee tried telling me I could buy this fish which was already around 5 inches and very thick bodied.. some sort of catfish shark thing... and I looked at the tag and it said it grows to 8 inches.. I was like first of all my tank is not the proper size, second of all who even knows if it would be compatible with my fish.... but if I was an inexperienced fish keeper like many people shopping at pet stores are, that could have been a huge disaster for my tank..

[@joki3976]

@@Claire-rq4ug I'm the animal care manager at a large pet store. Please call HR and tell them your manager is directly contradicting your company policy & procedure regarding animal wellfare. Don't let them bully you into making a sale at the cost of an animals welfare.

[@tinaleighton6390]

Don’t expect to get much better information at locally owned a pet stores either. I have a Petsmart, a Petco and a local pet store who also animals and none of them know a damn thing about them.

[@theblooper9631]

My local pet store tells me real stuff when I ask. Of course they're the kind of pet store that keeps their Bettas in tanks large enough for them to live in properly (with some other community fish ie cories)

[@Schillysrh]

None of the local pet stores around me looked like they took good care of their bettas :/ Petco actually had the healthiest looking ones but who knows. One of the local guys told me they had cycle starter that I could put in the tank once I got my fish

[@muffet5076]

Yes when i transferred to petcare i thought there would be some lessons and tests on the pets we're working with regarding husbandry but no there wasn't. I had to do my own personal research on each animal to get proper knowledge and also build up enough self confidence to tell people no when they didn't want to establish proper habitats for the pets. Its also important to encourage others to do their own research on the pet they're getting which can be very difficult.

[@fileshawiltse4423]

My favourite part is when a small child does the research to prove they are responsible enough for their new pet. They come into the store and argue with their parents " no the hamster needs a larger tank". I love telling parents that their 8 year old is right and they are completely wrong lol. I'll never understand why parents expect their children to do research but are never willing to do any themselves.

[@Dire-Wolf]

My store would not put me in pet care after I told them I was not going to sell a betta or goldfish destined for a bowl or anything smaller than a 5g. My recommended minimum is a 10g but bare minimum is a 5.

[@muffet5076]

@@Dire-Wolf for me bettas need a bare minimum of 2 gallon with filter and i tell every week to do 50% wc. And gold fish wont go in a bag unless they go in 10 gallons for 1 gf and they only get 1 gf if they want more than 1 than another 5 gallon added to that.

[@korynflanagan5878]

@@fileshawiltse4423 Yea I love that too. A few weeks ago I had a parent come in to get her child a guinea pig, her child said they need to get two so they wouldn't be lonely and the parent thought he was just saying that to get two pets. She ended up leaving with two guinea pigs after me and my coworker both recommended getting a pair.

[@officialbigmemes]

how do you get hired in Petcare? What’s it called on the career page of petsmart

[@cassiecwilliams]

As a current PetSmart employee in the petcare section, I totally agree! I had to do all of my research on my own time, and we often buy supplies for the animals with our own money, to keep them as happy and healthy as possible. Especially the reptiles! They are my absolute favorite babies in the store! We have to buy salad ingredients for the baby beardies, because they are seen as a treat! I, like you, am lucky that I work at a store that does care a bit more, and has very knowledgeable people in Petcare, one of our Petcare managers is actually a zoo keeper! She is beyond awesome to learn from!

[@clognog8049]

They were rather rough with the snails I got from them. All the black mystery snails had crushed or cracked shells.

[@FishForThought]

Oh yeah that's a common thing too.

[@BaughbeSauce]

Sounds like either their supplier didn't supplement them with calcium or the store didn't if they were there for an extended period of time. You'd have to push really hard to crack those shells if they weren't deficient already.

[@113brittany]

I work at petsmart and the snails come in with cracked shells and most are not healthy from the time they arrive. Either way I completely disagree and am disgusted by petsmarts lack of care for their living animals. I have thought of quitting many times and the time seems go be getting close. It kills me to know that when I leave the store I work at the animals will be much more worse off then if I'm there to do what needs to be done for them. I know most of the other petcare workers dont even feed them most of the time.. it's really sad.

[@rachelfaust8681]

Woah! I never knew you were a conservation biologist! That's what I'm wanting to do, what's your favorite part about it??

[@FishForThought]

that I get to have a real and hands-on impact on saving our planet! and of course all the science behind it. I'm a real science fan :) Good luck Rachel, I'm glad you are also pursuing this!

[@rachelfaust8681]

@@FishForThought That's awesome! Thanks for sharing, I hope to make a positive impact on our planet while I'm here

[@krustykrab1310]

Same

[@ohrats731]

Fish For Thought we def need episodes about it!!

[@kitkatw321]

I wish I could actually get a job in the field :(

[@leliel.online]

I used to work at PetCo for several years. Everything stated in this video is the same for PetCo as well. It's incredibly sad just how low the bar is set for information and training. I've seen many people leave with healthy ferrets (which I specialized in) and come back with their ferret looking terrible because of other employees not giving the information needed to care for these babies. Most people believe that taking care of an animal is incredibly easy because of how easy it is to obtain animals now, but the truth is that it isn't and I wish that was laid out for the customer more.

[@lakshmana2008]

Dealt with petsmart this past week bc I had a gift card from Christmas and didn't want it to go to waste, and bought 2 long tailed grass lizards and the worker pulled out a juvenile Bahaman anole. And broke it's leg in the process of putting it in the container. (Eye witnessed) I don't feel comfortable taking the anole back for the grass lizard I was supposed to get judging by how she reacted to hurting it initially, so now I'm Trying to figure out how to help this little dude and gonna get the other grass lizard from somewhere trustworthy.

[@Chubbytoad12]

That sick human

[@slayerbosskingslay6033]

Unfortunately PetSmart and Petco are my only option

[@nathanparris1368]

Slayer Boss King Slay sadly this is the same for many other people but if you look up a shop in you’re area you might be supprised

[@dianewurzer3019]

Slayer Boss King Slay Try going online to ordering your fish or whatever you need , from aquarium co-op or flip aquatics you can go on KZbin and see what they’re all about I used to go to Petsmart but I stopped going there about five years ago and now I order everything for my aquarium from either one of these top rated Fish stores Also Amazon is OK to order filters , sponges ,water purifiers. Things like that and they are less expensive. Good luck hope this helps .

[@slayerbosskingslay6033]

Thanks

[@slayerbosskingslay6033]

Thank you for the tip

[@PrimBear3]

There are a lot of good retailers online that you can find. I just got dart frogs and whites tree frogs from Joshsfrogs.com. They’re a very reputable company if you’re looking for amphibians or reptiles. And there’s lots of places to buy fish from. I purchase bettas from coastgem

[@sana7039]

This video was really well thought out and very similar to my situation. I worked at Petco for 3+ years and we were on the similar boat. We were just lucky we hired people that cared, we were just lucky they had pets at home, we were just lucky they wanted to learn more but like the same as PetSmart-we really needed more support from corporate. We couldn't do what they wanted us to do by giving us a short time frame + our daily maintenance with live animals. I was the main reptile/aquatic opener + aquatic specialist, so I fed/received/ordered/did maintenance on the systems without really a second hand until they realized I was getting burned out and having melt downs at work. There's so much pressure that corporate didn't seem to understand but I *must* finish my maintenance because if I don't do it, no one can (lack of time) . Management teams really make it or break it for a store. I had a really good companion animal leader that cared, reminded us animals came first. Animal care: We strive for perfection even though we know its unattainable because the animals under our care deserve it.

[@mikeloomis5554]

How hard would it be to develop a online training course that gauges knowledge and helps them choose a candidate for a specific position

[@FishForThought]

I wouldn't know... Not too experienced in that regard. But that's a rly good idea.

[@namelesswolf2625]

They already force you to take a dumb personality quiz, why not add some pet care questions in there

[@mikeloomis5554]

At alot of the plants i do work for, they require you take a online class using Gatefeed which is a online based training course company. Periodically during the course they quiz what you retain and at the end you take one long quiz covering the entire class. I think petco/petsmart could afford to develope something with Gatefeed

[@averyr1061]

Chris: asks for likes Chris: *gets likes Chris: it's rewind time

[@FishForThought]

ayy :))

[@michelleb2722]

Thank you for this video Chris. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said. I'm still currently employed at a Petsmart in the petcare department and I'm in the same situation as you were. My team is pretty great, we have experience and knowledge about the animals kept at the store. But the issue is, like you said, there is NO training regimen for new hires in petcare. We all learned what we know from working at Petsmart. Sometimes this results in knowledge gaps like you said. I don't know anything about Pacman frogs because we no longer sell them in our stores. I agree that Petsmart needs to move away from that "retail store" structure, but I think another issue is with the average customer who comes into our stores. They aren't looking to care for an animal properly. They want to spend the least amount of money possible to have a new "decoration" (especially with the fish). It is extremely rare that a customer comes in to the store already having done research on an animal they're going to buy! So it falls on petcare to educate them, and sometimes certain people will fail to do this. It sucks, because petcare workers are really just retail workers. We are paid like retail and expected to do everything a retail worker does, plus care for live animals. Yet we are treated like we should know every aspect of husbandry for every animal, which, like you said, there is no vetting process so this just doesn't make sense. I agree with your viewpoint Chris, this was a good video. I'd like to hear more about your career!

[@FishForThought]

Thank you for agreeing and elaborating!!

[@ashokazuni9966]

As a current PetSmart petcare employee,I wish I could give this comment a million likes.

[@mariajohnson8548]

I work at petco and we are all required training and quizzes on animal care, once you get higher up as animal specialists you have to do more training and quizzes that are more in depth with certain topics. As he said most pet store employees have their own pets and have more knowledge based on the research they do on their own time for their animal babies ❤️ (also we always encourage doing your own research because not one person is going to know everything and there are hundreds of sources to get the best information from) You can never stop improving! 😊

[@aaronmcintyre6481]

I’m sad to say as a 15 year old I know more about how to care for fish than the average PetSmart employee

[@iminabox842]

A bit late, but my sister recently turned 13, and she takes amazing care of them. She also took the time to actually research the pet she was getting beforehand, and was readily prepared when the time came. It's sad people don't ever take a moment to consider it's a living creature and not a prop

[@BiggieJ4224]

13 yr o here

[@GirlTalksFish]

Thanks for sharing your story. Very interesting to hear your side of things and what you saw.

[@elizabethrowden7445]

As someone who currently works at PetSmart and has worked there for almost 3 years, I have found the petcare crew to be very similar. We all came in with our own knowledge on certain animals and have taught each other. They do now have a small standardized test for petcare associates and (in our store) we do not hire people directly into petcare without prior experience.

[@lorenamorello2581]

I work at Petco now and I have dogs, cats, a snake and 8 fish tanks and I've had people treat me like i have no idea what I'm talking about and it's annoying. People come in and just say i want a bowl for a goldfish and when I explain that it's not a good idea it's always the same thing "I did that when I was younger and it worked fine" I know more than you ma'am.

[@samnic1999]

I work at PetSmart and I 100% agree with everything you have said. Most of us in petcare know a lot about animals because we have them but along the way management has hired people who know absolutely nothing. We have to correct them before they give out the wrong info and potentially put an animals life at risk.🤷🏼‍♀️

[@Tokes_Outdoors]

You must've worked at a 1 in a million PetSmart.... because the ones around me are a freakin nightmare!

[@SkyxPrince]

I honestly have worked with both companies (PetSmart and Petco). I feel like Petco trains it's employees better than PetSmart. Going into PetSmart my knowledge on fish was already experienced more than most employees. When I was brought into petco, the training was more in depth and you couldn't work the department until you finished the training. Petco is going strides to prioritize animal Care and nutrition while I feel like PetSmart has remained stagnant. People are constantly going "oh, I'm going to PetSmart, their prices are better". But sometimes price isn't everything. I agree, the stores and management aren't great. My previous PetSmart manager was horrible and took side of the majority rather than the guy who was doing all the work. Petco really kept things fair and are more considerate of others and their workers. At least, that is based on my experiences. I just feel like PetSmart is all about the money and Petco is more about the animals. If I had to pick the better of both evils, I'd go with Petco.

[@loura246]

I worked in pet care for over a year, and my experience was pretty much the same as yours. My pet care team was good, but there were gaps in knowledge and everything was up to us to research. We tried to do some things to improve the lives of animals in the store and we would refuse sales sometimes to people who didnt listen to our advice, but the management wouldnt back us up.

[@fileshawiltse4423]

This is an amazing video and you do a great job explaining the whole process at petsmart. I too feel like our store's care is much better then some others in the area but I think that is because we have great employees who understand that we are responsible for providing the best knowledge to new pet owners. We spend countless hours doing research and learning how to care for the massive amount of animals we sell. Unfortunately we are not compensated for our efforts and are stuck in part time positions making minimum wage. The people to who choose to stay do so because we are trying our best to make a difference in the lives of the animals in our care.

[@FishForThought]

I agree

[@ellie2108]

The only time I got to petsmart is strictly for supplies. Never purchase animals from petsmart.

[@FishForThought]

That's a good way to go about things!

[@ellie2108]

Fish For Thought I know people experiences with petsmart vary, and they aren’t all awful with animals care, I don’t like supporting where the animals themselves are supplied from. If that makes sense.

[@maggie2268]

That’s what I did as well

[@zephalmanzar6363]

Sadly my local petsmart doesn’t use the quarantine room for fish cause literally all there fish have ick 24/7

[@kinglyzard]

Most run their fish rooms all on one filtration system, putting all their fish at risk of exposure to just one sick fish. Hugely bad, cheap ass thinking that doesn't allow extra $$ for extra baskets for all those eggs. Smart stores have multiple systems, as to arrest and treat any sort of outbreak. Ich sucks.

[@emilymccraw4336]

Most stores have one quarantine tank. Ick is super contagious and the system runs on one filtration system. Vendors sell us fish with ick. It’s definitely an issue but, not necessarily the employees fault.

[@lxix1067]

There’s hella cuties that work at the 3 petsmarts around me. Only good thing about petsmart

[@nickjoy6389]

- LXIX get the digits henny 😂😂😂💕

[@alexanderwiggin846]

Lol

[@salviersoul2151]

@Reclusiarch Grimaldus hope they find out who they are

[@marsmallowtoast]

@Reclusiarch Grimaldus why does that matter dude

[@LadyDeath6666]

My Petsmart is horrendous. Dead fish, I had to educate the “fish worker” on which was a male or female Molly. Their goldfish feeder tanks heaters were broken for a month and they were kept at 90F. They kept getting more goldfish in, and they all died. Their fish are floating dead, or bent spines. No one knows anything. Sadly it’s my only choice.

[@sarasthoughts]

Buy online from private shops!!

[@Jackdiddly1]

Ok the female and male fish thing depending on the fish is kinda hard. Molly's have a very small additional extension on the bottom fin. Cichlids are easy tho

[@LadyDeath6666]

@@Jackdiddly1 nah livebearers are the easiest. The female anal fin is completely different from the males.

[@MarkBoulders]

I have two privately owned fish and animal care stores within 2 miles of where I live. They get my service. They are passionate and care deeply on how the animals are treated and cared for when sold. If someone looks like be oblivious to caring for something they want... The owners will refuse to sell. I tell my fiancé our service goes to them and them only. Not these large corporations. Outstanding video. Keep up the good fight. You are not alone in it!

[@greykitten6158]

My parents were cheap when I got my Leopard geckos, so they came from petco. The lady who got them out of the tank for me told me it would be best to have a 20 gal. tank with 3 females and two males, sand in the bottom and just feed them repashie....Luckily i had done two months of research before and still almost three years later do my own pet care research and have treated my two better than they advised.

[@taylor6266]

Is that the minecraft song I hear?😂

[@kevinhood7854]

Eh yo it's a good song

[@metalqueen237]

I work at petsmart now in the pet care section. Most employees do genuinely care about the animals, but not everyone is super knowledgeable & we do still get the occasional person who’s just looking for a paycheck. Aside from getting the proper certifications, a lot of the training i was given in my first couple of weeks boiled down to coworkers saying stuff like “well this is how you’re supposed to do it, but i dont feel like doing that right now so just ask someone else to show you later” I have learned a lot from experience, but i think I’d be able to take way better care of all our pets and help customers better if I had gotten way more in depth training right from the start.

[@SandyCheeks92837]

I hate pet stores so much even tho I work at one. It’s one of my biggest regrets because as an animal lover, it hurts encountering so many people who don’t care about the pets they get even though you help them.

[@jasminerodriguez8369]

I'm so glad that you took this by the wheel and went in detail about fish care. Please keep up dude cause you're my teacher right now.

[@borisbuliak3626]

The most important take away is that it all starts from the attitude from up on down. You said it perfectly mgmt forces betta jar sales, while holding dogs and cats to a higher standard. Am fortunate to have a good relationship with my LFS but wouldn’t mind rescuing a betta or two from Bigbox store. But my money 💰 mostly never reaches them anymore.

[@mikeyjohnson7075]

I work at petsmart and 100% agree with this. It could actually be good if they trained us correctly. I’m trying my best to learn on my off time but it could be so much better if they hired more experienced people or took the time to train new people properly.

[@mikeyjohnson7075]

My store managers care more about stock than pet care. All the pet care people have a true passion for animals but management doesn’t seem to care

[@CamilaJoy02]

I am a simple (wo)man. I see Fish For Thought, I like.

[@FishForThought]

Haha thank you :))

[@xmedina07]

I wonder whats the truth (spoiler: they don’t know crap about fish)

[@FishForThought]

Kinda

[@xmedina07]

Yeah they kinda do just a little bit

[@mrman5937]

At least they know their names lol

[@xmedina07]

True

[@Eiangames]

They refused to sell African cichlids so I went Petco and got 3 and PetSmart probably did not sell me them because I'm a kid and the also said I did not anything about the fish but little did they I know alot African cichlids

[@destinationaddictionsamsar7894]

I work at a barn around horses just miled stuff like cleaning out their stalls, giving fresh water, and leading them here and there. I really only had a very short time of the day learning what I need to do but lucky I'm really interested in natural horsemanship and all that stuff and had a good idea what I am doing most of the time. But if someone came up to me about the care, food, minerals, meds, all breeds, cost, ect I would know shit. I think that it's interesting that dogs are really a simple animal to care for cats are a little more complex, then rodents, fish, reptiles you really have to look into their care but very few places actually have a pet store so wildly spread around the U.S and its left for them to give knowledge to the people even if it's wrong. I really want to set up a good pet store in my small town but I'm only 16 and I'm poor child.

[@kinglyzard]

You'd get along famously with my sister. She adores horses first, then all other furry critters.

[@yolo9050]

I'm a more assertive petsmart employee, I was given the "ok" that I'm allowed to refuse to sell a pet to a customer if I feel the animal won't be going to a good home and I sometimes get people who come in and want to put goldfish in their 10gal aquarium. I've turned down a few pleco buyers who want to put their plecos in 30gal aquariums. It's frustrating and stressful to have to turn people down, because then you get a lot of unhappy customers who leave the store and most likely go somewhere else to get their baby megafish they want to put in their 10gal. But at least I feel I've protected a few of our animals.

[@cathy3392]

I’ve always found my store to be very clean in the animal department. The pet department employees were knowledgeable and tried to give the best advice. My experience shows most people working with animals really cared. They didn’t know everything but were willing to look up what they didn’t know

[@axo4191]

Woah! You're a conservation biologist! I want be one :) Well, I wish you still worked there! You'd save so many animals...

[@FishForThought]

You can definitely become one if you want to! Unfortunately they didn't give me that many shifts anyway :(

[@axo4191]

Fish For Thought :D

[@fia521]

I’m an aspiring zoologist, I want to be a conservation biologist and ornithologist. Which is why I sought out this job, thing is I soon realized that I have massive inconsistencies with fish and small mammal care. So here I am trying my best to research as much as possible

[@beccasimmons4073]

This is nice to see an inside perspective of a chain petstore. I prefer myself to support local petstores even if prices are higher and in my area when a Petsmart was built it took away all business to small petstores around me and they shut down. It was sad. There are definately pros and cons to chain petstores.

[@AkkeeGamer]

I work in the pet care department and with the pandemic happening. They've really gone downhill in terms of animal care. Like I do my very best to give the animals and fish what they need but now I'm rushed to do customer service since we only have three people on the sales floor.

[@JRae.92]

There should be more training for petcare specialist 100%! I used to work for PetSmart and the store I was at really just threw bodies into the department without even training them. I'm pretty sure I learned more from my regular customers than I did from management, excluding the petcare manager that was brought in a few months before I left. She was very knowledgeable and I picked her brain alot. The Bettas made me sad. There were literally 3 of us that actually took care of the Bettas.

[@John-cj1xd]

My Petco keeps there Bettas in actual tanks

[@meggrotte4760]

See that's what every store should be doing in America and Taiwan I have lived in Taiwan for 15 years got in the bait a happy 3 years ago of must have had a hundred bettas die. didn't die in a drinking cup because that's usually where they're put except for females they're putting one giant tank now to be fair in Taiwan fish are taking care of pretty well but beta's are the one of the most neglected fish I have ever come across in my life they sold me a half gallon tank and said put your bait in there no almond leaves no aquarium salt. They didn't tell me to buy Frozen bloodworms but they did have a high quality pellet not to mention nobody knows that Taiwan water is not suitable for tropical fish you have to actually put in one teaspoon of salt into the water so it neutralizes the water it's aquarium salt now I get tropical aquarium salt with aloe vera because it protects their slime coats and helps with you know illness I finally found guava leaves which are dried they have the same kind of effects as almond leaves took 3 years to figure this out Had these people been trained I would have had 100 betas that were healthy literally. now I gave them great tanks and I did the best I could with what I had that was mostly natural live plants driftwood natural looking gravel for the most part and you know they died and went to heaven That's a different story but thank God I finally figured it out now I've got to do water changes two to three times a week even with that and at least 40% of the water goes out and and I need to add new aquarium salt now I hope I can get other plants to live that are water column feeders now so far only any kind of a newbius has been able to live. For those of you living in Western countries there are 40 kinds of anubias and remember wood is good

[@qweenvr7460]

I used to work for Petco, we had one quarantine room and it was mostly used for reptiles and not much else... sick rodents were separated but still sold at a discount, fish... no one cared they went from truck to tank on the floor... I've always found Petsmart to take better care than Petco... I went from Nursing to pet care after an injury.

[@wildflower0000]

My petsmart has this really nice employ who actually knows about bettas. When I got my betta she recommended me some really good tanks for bettas :)

[@lokeyacolyte2145]

Just my experience as a petstore worker, have been in a petstore that sounds much like this one (but in Australia) for almost five years: Most of the time, our employees try to get the customer to do the right thing. As you say, it absolutely depends on the particular team as some are definitely more knowledgable than others. But usually you get a few good employees who educate the others, and so the knowledge is passed around. The unfortunate thing is that the customer is always right, and we can't actually tell a customer 'Hey, you're abusing animals, I refuse to sell you this.' The customer will threaten us, call Customer Service, speak to the manager, ect. And then it's all over. I really think that if we could just tell customers NO then things would be different. But unfortunately there are too many Karens in this world, both male and female. And so when a customer says they want a pair of fantails in a fish bowl, or a fighter in a jar? We give them the information, we try to convince them as best we can, but in the end you can lead a customer to knowledge but you can't make them think. I wish we had a culture were people actually did research PRIOR to buying their pets. I am going to be getting a marine tank in the future and am doing a lot of research beforehand to reduce mistakes and to learn about the hobby. Most people simply don't do this and don't care enough about animals to put in the time to research them. Anyway, enough ranting. I enjoyed the video, like I enjoy all your videos. Thank you!

[@rat_dragon]

Omg, there are 666 comments 🤣 Anyway, I was going to say thank you for speaking your honest opinion with us! I've always had a bad opinion about PetSmart, and that's probably never going to change unless they change themselves for the better. Unfortunately, my pet stores here aren't the best, but the Petcos are definitely doing better than the others. Sadly, I only have 1 LFS and it's not that great. Personally, when I walk into a PetSmart, I immediately ask about their "Betta adoptions" and head straight to the sick Betta fish. You see, Petco has a real adoption process which is helping to support millions of animal shelters every day. They'll take in other's pets, give them a large enclosure, and put them up for adoption. I've seen a pair of Blood Parrots for adoption in a clean, planted 40 or 50 Breeder! I've also seen a beautiful pair of older Comet Goldfish for adoption in either a 50 Breeder or 75, of course planted with LIVE plants and just a few artificial pieces of decor. Some adoptable animals aren't in the best condition, but you can't blame Petco for someone else's mistakes. They advertise all over the store about their adoption program and always post signs of "Think Adoption First". One of my favorite things about Petco is that they're starting to catch on about Goldfish and how big they get! The tanks for selling Goldfish are pretty big (at least a 20 Long) and they'll make sure to post and/or signs on or near the Goldfish tanks stating how "Goldfish get big, some getting more than a foot in length, and they need big tanks!" I don't remember the exact wording, but that's basically what it reads. The employees are pretty nice and, what made me absolutely ecstatic is that they've been getting more and more employees who are highly experienced in certain types of pets! I've met more experience Betta lovers at Petco than I probably ever have! I, of course, cannot leave out the more proper pet care they've been trying to provide. I'm sure you've heard how Petco switched all of their pet food products to natural? And this isn't just Dog and Cat food, this also includes food for small mammals, Fish, and Hermit Crabs! They've been promoting planted Shrimp tanks like crazy, which is great for the smaller tanks they sell. Unfortunately, I'll still find a sick Betta or two that needs in need of some extra TLC, but that's my specialty! You can clearly see that Petco is trying as hard as they can to take better care of their animals and to promote better care for the consumers! In fact, I've heard that they're even planning on getting rid of store-bought animals altogether! That's fantastic! I believe this'll come in a few years, if we're lucky. From tiny, dirty, cold fish bowls in the 80's to beautiful planted aquariums and decor, I'm proud how far they've come! As for PetSmart, unfortunately, I am still absolutely disgusted by them. Sure, their Goldfish are really impressive, and sure, they may have a really cool Betta or two, and sure, their male Mice are super sweet in temperament, but other than that, their pet care sucks. HAVE YOU SEEN THEIR TINY TAILS CAGES!?!? @Munchie'sPlace promotes good husbandry for small animals such as Hamsters, Gerbils, Mice, and even Guinea Pigs or Bettas occasionally, so go watch her videos if you're interested! When entering a PetSmart, I will not give them a dime. I take a look around, go back to the Bettas in their tiny, horrible cups, look for sick fish that need rescuing, newly born fry, or "pest Snails" to bring home for free, and I leave without spending a penny. If you didn't know, PetSmart's "adoption process" is nothing like Petco's. They don't promote good pet care, they don't support animal shelters, they don't even support bringing your small animals to the vet. It's insane just how little these people care for animals. That's not to say I've met a good apple in the dozens of bad ones, and that's also not to say I will never enter or purchase a nice tank at a PetSmart, but both are very rare. Overall, PetSmart is just a leech compared to Petco. Can you believe PetSmart bought Chewy for 8 bil when they were already 11 bil in debt? Now they're 19 BILLION dollars into debt, and yes, that's will a capital B! I've been sjopping at Chewy since 2011, before anybody even knew it was a thing. Now, it's more popular than ever, but every time you buy something on Chewy, you're supporting PetSmart and their horrific care and abuse. I'm just hoping they go out of business soon, so Chewy can get back to being great, LFS's can start rising above, and Petco can run the show to promote good husbandry! That's all I wish for 😊

[@Noodleandthepoodles]

My true story. I worked at petsmart 15 years ago in Southern California. I contracted rat bite fever(safety protocols were not enforced) from a rat scratching me while working pet care and ended up with a severe case that was misdiagnosed multiple times before it was finally cultured in a lab. I was hospitalized for over a week, could not walk or move and had my heart and joints majorly effected. Workman’s comp took care of it and paid the 100k hospital bill I rang up. This was at the same time that the San Diego boy passed from the same zoonotic disease. Our cases were months apart.

[@heavenking2065]

I work at Petsmart now and my manager's name is Alex too. What a coincidence. I'm straight out of high school and this is my first job. I wanted this job because I really love animals and I thought that it would be a great environment for me and very therapeutic. But when I started working there, it was the total opposite and really not what I was expecting. Plus I got no training at all what's so ever and I got treated very poorly. I had no idea what I was doing and when ever I would ask for help, other coworkers would catch hostile attitudes with me and the managers would avoid helping me and ignore me. I feel like I may quit this job very soon.

[@vinsm0ke756]

do you still work there? and is your position petcare?

[@meggrotte4760]

I did it. I found dried leaves that have botanical properties in them I finally figured out how to control the pH in my water with aquarium salt and I think I can help this beta to recover that I purchased he's in pretty bad shape

[@JessicaRay86]

Petsmart was the first place I was employed when I moved away from home. I was 18 and so naive that I didn't know different states had different min wages. Back then my home state was 6 bucks & change( same as federal back then) and the state I moved was 10. I put down the federal min as recommended by my parents so I could gain employment fast and be able to pay rent. The manager said "We're going to pay you 6.25 an hr since that's what you wrote down" and it sounded weird to me but she was older like my mom and they needed to fill positions so I trusted that they would pay an employee at least enough to remain an employee. Doing differently would cause their turnover rate & training costs to rise and it made no sense for them to hurt the company like that. There was no way that the federal min wasn't enough to live anywhere in the US and get by otherwise it wouldn't be federal (entire country) level pay, I mistakenly believed. My naivety must have looked like a golden goose opportunity of exploitation. Anyway, I ended up training a guy in college during my second month there and he was the one that told me they were paying him 10 an hr and there I was with my power off, empty fridge and an eviction notice - doing nothing each day but working and sleeping. By the 3rd month I was moving home to recover from what drs called clinical fatigue and malnutrition. They tried HARD to convince me that staying on and commuting 4 hrs from my home state to there would be worth it. I guess I should have offered to lie down on the floor so they could clean the bottom of their shoes off on me. lol

[@JessicaRay86]

​@@terawalker5495Yep.

[@JessicaRay86]

@@terawalker5495 Do you mean trade school sort of skills or?

[@911tani]

Isn't that illegal? No matter what your wrote down don't they have to pay you the state minimum?

[@JessicaRay86]

@@911tani Maybe that's why she worded it the way she did, with this weird tone that tripped my instincts and made me take notice. That's the choice that manager made I suppose. Looking back, I remember making suggestions or asking questions about the company and always getting this look like "Why are you bothering me? Just collect a paycheck like everyone else and go home." My young and eager self must have annoyed or something. I just wanted to do the best job possible at that age. Thankfully I've learned since then.

[@breezy1370]

I had a very similar experience to yours. I was a petsmart employee and worked at pet care because i had like several years of being in the fish hobby. And without my own research and personal experience on fish i feel like i wouldn't have been very good at my job, they don't train there employees on animal welfare (they only had like a quike training program with a few facts that weren't all that accurate). My fellow staff were awesome n some of them knew more about hamsters and reptiles than i did so it was a nice balance. What sucked was the hours they cut back on us for no reason and no warning. And the fish conditions were atrocious at my store. So much ammonia poisoning and i'd measure the water parameters every day but didn't have the power to do much about it . They're supposed to have one of the bosses check the water systems and add whatever is necessary to the water to keep the ph from killing off fish, i ended up having to do it because i was the only one who knew what i was doing. I loved working there but as an organization i really wish they'd stop selling live animals, the company isn't responsible enough for there welfare

[@roguerat812]

I had experience with Animals in my everyday life and I was declined a job at the pet stores saying that I was over qualified which is bs as it was supposed to be my first real job.

[@ByterSweet]

I only had one Pet Care manager that knew more than I did about the department. Three managers later never knew anything. I had to train all of them and they didn't care about anything.

[@vampirepug3318]

Honestly I'm very happy you are coming forward! I'm working at PetSmart now and honestly it is my favorite job. I know that the petcare associates in my store know a crap ton and are safety certified, they go through hours and hours of training. I'm only a dog bather and cashier rn, but I'm not allowed to to anything with animals other than crickets or Feeder fish. Honestly I'm very proud of my work, we all do so much to take care of our pets.

[@christineaquino5555]

I love petsmart... they gave great customer service though i feel 1 person in the pet area should be added as they take care of pets, answer calls and tend with customers... a bit too much for one person but yeah... great store

[@dippertheservicepupintrain1537]

I have 2 petsmarts near me. And i trust one over the other because of how their bettas are. One store i bought 2 bettas, one had swim bladder disease, i kept him, the other was blind due to ammonia burns and an employee told me a 1 gallon was MORE then enough for a betta, and all their bettas were floating at the top, clamped fins, dull etc. I took the blind one(blink) to a different petsmart because i couldn't care for him. They had more bettas to care for yet all of them were bright, active, healthy, flaring etc. And they dont sell fish bowls there either! Blink actually immediately found a knowledgeable home with one of the employees as soon as i explained why i cant keep him. So he's now in a 5.5 gallon tank. And while i was there i got another betta who is super active and healthy

[@JaeElle]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I had a friend that worked at Petco, a fishy employee (see what I did there) had spoke with management and was allowed to put betta in each fishtank that had appropriate potential fish friends. It shocked me to walk up and see betta cruising around these 10 gallon tanks with endlers, guppies e.t.c super awesome since it also shows that betta can be kept with other fish. Side note I have a 55 gallon with 5 female betta, one female cichlid (who thinks she's a betta) two little ottos (every tank needs ottos imho, most adorable clean up crew ever!) and two glass catfish, oh and the shrimp and snails (I purposely raise snails! Poor things get a bad rep! Lol). My 75 has a bit of a mix too... all of my 20 gallon breeding tanks have one male betta too. Never had problems *knock on wood* I think it's great that Petco person is doing that in the store. Baby steps! (Not that I'm suggesting buying from them, just noting a change that an employee made that didn't come down from higher management, just ive employee trying to make a difference... and a better world for bettas lol)

[@toriannconiffer]

I have a local store in my area called Pisces Fish Emporium that was stared by my father's old highschool biology teacher. The staff are super friendly and they are often well versed in the fish they sell, often asking what fish you already have and how big the tank is. They will make recommendations based on that. Most of the people there are super passionate and the store owner lets his employees aquascape some of the tanks at the store and had seminars for first time fish owners. Anyways, what I'm saying that Pisces has done really well getting people from even out of province ( like 10 hrs away) there is no reason why other companies can not adapt the same ideology.

[@charliethecairnterrier]

A local pet shop sold my family 3 baby KOI fish in a literal VASE when I was like 6 or 7. They told us they would stay small. Unfortunately we only found a good aquarium shop (with a biologist as owner) after 2 of them had passed. We had good intentions and wanted to provide a good and loving home for them but got so much wrong information from a lot of people, we felt absolutely horrible ( and it was such a long time ago there was so little information online then). The last one survived for 15 years. He was stunted and stayed "small" (+- 25 cm) even though he was in a 135 gallon after that. He died because his organs were failing from being so compacted. We tried to help him but our exotic vet said we couldn't. I feel horrible for ever buying them but we didn't know better. He got put to sleep before he was in too much pain. In a humane way may I add, so with medications from the vet. The only positive thing that came from this is these fish got me in the hobby. Man I loved that fish. But it breaks my heart when I think back at what we did. I feel disgusted, poor animals. Years later, my "new" fish are happy and healthy and I know what I'm doing now. I just wish that employee never told us to buy them and sold them to someone with a pond instead. They deserved better.

[@Jonny_Black]

I used to work at Petco. A lot of my co-workers were very passionate about animals, and at my store, all of us had to know quite a bit about most of the animals, but there were "head" people of each animal department who were experts. I agree that a lot of the problems that arose in that store came from corporate, especially when it came to like hiring the right amount of people.. the one thing I really liked about working at PetSmart was that they did allow us to refuse service to people who wanted a fish but weren't prepared for one (they didn't know they needed to buy a tank months in advance/ their tank was already overstocked or to small, etc) or who wanted to buy a bunch of feeder goldfish for a kid's school fair or something like that. It was retail and it wasn't perfect AND I developed allergies from my time there, but it was one of my favorite jobs.

[@willnorgren5744]

As a manager of a small PetSmart in Ohio. I can agree with a lot of stuff that you have spoken about. There are many things that a lot of stores can improve on. One of the things that PetSmart has done recently has started to construct smaller stores. I am assuming it is to focus on less employees and more experience for those employees.

[@MegaTheRatman]

4 years later...Have they actually done that or was it just some sales corporate jargon that you were fed due to negative press that never came to fruition?

[@noodlemother]

I currently work at Petsmart because I love animals but when I was first hired, I knew absolutely nothing about fish. my coworkers helped a good amount teaching me what I know now but for the most part I had to do research on my own. some Petsmart employees actually know what they are talking about, but sadly most don't. I have some coworkers wanting to become veterinarians but will tell customers that mites in a snakes heat pits are "boogers" or that baby corn snakes eat crickets. My store manager constantly sells multiple bettas in a one gallon bowl and does not let us refuse a sale even if we know the fish isn't going to a good home. I do wish there was some sort of test for the entry level because the "training" honestly isn't enough. I've been working there for 5 months now and have learned so much, even have animals of my own to better help customers with my own experiences, but I still have lots to learn and am willing to do my own research on more animals to make sure our babies go to good homes and will be happy and thrive for the rest of their lives.

[@skipsnapdoesfish8457]

I work at petco. Guy is in the fish section looking around. I ask him if he needed any help and this man arrogantly said “I don’t need help from uneducated petco employees.” I told him that I am a small dwarf cichlid and discus breeder. I then told him that the gold rams in the tank were from my extra stock (I was relatively new to breeding and selling, so I had a lot of leftover stock I couldn’t get rid of, so I gave it to petco.) He shut up after that and just left the store. I have never felt so good in my entire life.

[@dawnt6791]

My 2 biggest complaints about the Petsmart in the town nearest me - they constantly had ich in their fish tanks, and their employees kept young male and female guinea pigs together. Those precocious buggers can get pregnant very young, but it's not healthy for them. I dealt with that quite often when I was doing guinea pig rescue - people would bring pregnant females to me because they bought a piggy for their kid, not expecting it to be pregnant and NOT wanting to deal with babies. EVERY time, those female pigs had been bought in the previous weeks from Petsmart, and the family had no other guinea pigs to impregnate those girls. I haven't been in there for a couple of years, so I don't know if they've ever resolved those issues. I sure hope so.

[@mellywell]

Your openness and passion about animal welfare is impressive. Thumbs up!

[@allisonb6921]

My grandfather used to work a few days a week at a petco. He was also working at an aquarium at the time. He totally turned the fish department around in that store, but couldn't deal with the lack of management so he upped his time at the aquarium

[@dr.liljay2874]

The Petsmart in my area is actually really nice. First I thought they were really bad, they're fish tanks looked pretty dirty, but they removed all the tanks and now they have new amazing tank systems. The people who work there know quite a lot about fish, in fact I got some ghost shrimp from there today. And they also don't keep fish that are too big, for example the biggest fish I saw there today were some Oscars.

[@yeonjunjeon]

I'm currently working at PetSmart, and just recently I got the flu, I called and let them know I'm sick, and I'm going to get a Covid test just to make sure. The hiring manager called me yesterday asking if I'm coming in, I told her no because I'm sick and that I told the general manager that the day before. She got upset and said "Don't worry about coming in tomorrow or next week, I'll have Doug give you a call. " So this morning, I woke up feeling a little bit better and my sister and I decided to watch some Naruto, a few minutes later I get a call from the general manager saying "so you think this is the right fit for you" I can't tell you how upset I am because it sounds like they're trying to fire me for being sick. I just started three weeks ago and they're trying to say I've been late, when in fact I've been 10 minutes early. Did anyone else have go through this?

[@artisanic9326]

My petsmart has gotten better over the years with constant improvement. They used to not care about the tank size but now they won't sell you the fish unless you have a big enough tank or are getting one. It's really nice and when I go there for food or ask about it they tell me what they feed them and what they seem to like the most.

[@jarodcallan4756]

I currently work in petcare at a petsmart and i completely agree with this assesment my store is in just about the same conditions as what you have explained the employees i work with are fantastic but the corporate decisions are odd to me

[@Ghostrnaut]

I am a current Petsmart employee. Unfortunately not too much has changed. However, there is a different policy now when it comes to pet care hire. You start for five months outside of pet care. And you are required to learn the basic keeping of all the pet care animals prior to working on the floor. I do agree that there still is not enough experience before being thrown into Pat care. My store also actively discourages the sale of small tanks. I’m not sure if this is policy but we are told to inform the customer that the size of the tank is not sufficient. Now days as well we also have the right to deny sale of live animals. If you have any other questions just let me know.

[@FishForThought]

That sounds like a good change!

[@Dire-Wolf]

The Petsmart I work at has a few pet care employees that have done a lot of research before the job and during. One gal found out that tortoises need fresh veggies every day and they like to burrow. Thankfully the management team allows her to buy the fresh vegies from a store instead of using the dried veggies. That particular employee and a few others have animals like snakes, beardies, birds, rodents, and fish. The other employees don't put in the effort to really learn how to properly take care of the animals. I can also vouch for the training a groomer has to go through. Just the basics but a great a stepping stone into the grooming world.

[@brinamonroe6985]

As an employee of a PetSmart currently. I 100% agree with this video. Over the years I have kept lots of animals successfully but I am not pet care. I'm just a cashier. The pet care staff aren't terrible but the mangers and staff constantly ask me what to do with fish and other animals sold. The "training course" is too simple and most of the pet care people mistreat fish and have no knowledge on them.

[@marletschkotho6994]

living in germany it's just so crazy to me how these kinda jobs are "for school kids or students" in the us or canada...like here it's an actual profession for which you have to take a 3-year apprenticeship.

[@foxfaith24]

The ceos don’t view the smaller animals as living things. They are just easily obtainable products that need to be sold as fast as possible and applying common sense to a customer might turn them away from buying it because is more investment then thought. So of course the company lies to its employees on care just to assure a sale. It’s really sick honestly.

[@kinglyzard]

The CEOs don't need to know shit. The employees on the retail front, however, need to be trained and paid as professionals. You have to spend it to make it, and Petsmart, Petco, Pet World and others stores like these could really profit by investing in both their trained staff and their stock. A knowledgeable staff and healthy stock will go a long way in the long run.

[@mercedeswarrenash5929]

I had this challenge with Petco. I asked for a Siamese Algae eater & was sold a Chinese Algae eater. As a juvenile it was challenging to tell the difference. I luckily have a larger tank & have further educated myself so I can protect my tank and his other tank mates.

[@noiz1762]

I'm lucky at my PetSmart every employee is a pet care specialist and they know so much about the animals and try their hardest to get people to buy minimum requirements

[@rockangel1525]

Working in petcare at petsmart dude... I had to restrain myself from really going off on people. I ALWAYS asked, “what size tank do you have” at the fish wall and if they said they were about to put 5 fish in a bowl, I would say “im sorry I cant sell you any fish today” and people would get soooooo pissed. When it came to reptiles, beardies where always dying bc of malnutrition. Birds were being fed poor diets and had like no toys. Small animals had like no bedding (they are burrowers), wheels were too small, hamsters would fight. I tried sooooo hard to make small changes where I could but nobody cared at all. I just ended up leaving bc it was really starting to fuck with me watching so many animals die or suffer. The management at my store was awful and only cared about money.

[@mokko759]

One of my first jobs was at a pet shop, primarily in live stock care ( Meaning I was the person that did all the feeding/enclosure cleaning). While I was not amazing ( I was like 19), I at least had years of bird/cat experience and I bloody well tried my best with everything else and learned as much as I could. I was proud to be the one with the lowest number of animal sales. I wasn't even letting a betta leave if I knew it was going to end up in some stupid-ass vase. I had some damned stupid/lazy co-workers, though. You are absolutely right, there is no real standards or vetting of employees. Corporate doesn't care about actual animal husbandry, they just want you to be able to sell, sell, sell. Hell, my regional manager at the time was a useless bitch. Store manager didn't order the hamster staple in time, regional happened came by, crabbed at me for taking the same but smaller, retail hamster cubes off the shelf, writing it off and feeding the rodents the proper diet. She then started feeding them god damned bird seed and most of the rodents died over the weekend from wet tail. Another time, I was away for a long weekend and during that time, none of the rodents or birds were cared for. I came back to filthy enclosures, many partially cannibalized rodents, five dead budgies and a dead canary. Manager didn't think to get anybody to do their damned job and at least feed the poor animals. Needless to say, I was pissed. I wrote a scathing letter to the president of the company, detailing the events and it ended with the words " Humane Society" Fired a couple days later. I cannot think of a single chain pet shop that I'd feel comfortable purchasing live animals from.

[@ChaosSauce17]

I’ve worked at petsmart for about 4 years. I hate it, but I hate management mostly. I hate that there is no proper training done by the company for employees and most of what the employees know is either of their own research or listening to advice other employees are giving to customers. I’ve worked at 2 stores and they both had a good team in pet care, minus a few people here and there. I’m not the biggest fish person, so here I am watching fish people on KZbin trying to get the information I need to teach other people about fish because NOBODY DOES RESEARCH 🤦🏽‍♀️ I do my best to steer people away from the suggested things to buy from the store if they aren’t good for the pet. I try my best to be as educated as possible to give people the best advice I can give, and if I don’t know the answer to a question they are asking I tell them I don’t know and that’s something they’ll have to research on their own time and then I do that research myself. BUT not every petsmart employee does that. One of my current managers will give people fish no matter what tank size they have. Another employee and I both refused a sale on an angelfish and goldfish because they only had one 8 gallon tank, and he sold them the fish anyway. It’s very frustrating and corporate refuses to take employee criticism about animal husbandry while the animal is in the store. The care guides they provide customers suck and if I give them to a customer I have taken a marker and changed almost all of the information in some of them. I do my best, but I can only do so much when the company is giving out poor information. I take the best care possible for my own animals and I am constantly trying to learn and improve on that care, and I am always trying to expand my knowledge on things I’m not as educated on. Petsmart honestly does some things right, they take animals to the vet, they quarantine birds and small animals, and they (usually) hire people who care about animals. But they need to step up their game and have actual training in the pet care department about the animals they are selling and not just throw them out on the floor with little knowledge.

[@katherine5861]

I unfortunately worked at PetSmart for around half a year. It started out as a decent team who is knowledgeable and cared. But then corporate put its foot down and things changed real fast people transferred and with the change in the team training was messed up, people didn't know their jobs, and the others who had to take up the slack were just swamped. Turned out that our manager transferred and we got a new manager who did not know the ins and outs of the job. Pet Care was put under such strain that are quality of work failed. PetSmart has really fallen and failed their employees. One of the reasons I said goodbye.

[@StinkiSlinki]

When I was going to college I worked at a Walmart part-time this is before they got rid of the fish... it took me an Electronics associate harassing management for over a month to finally let me clean the fish tanks, get out all the dead fish, medicate them, ect... because they hadn't had a manager over that department for who-knows-how-long and no one was taking care of the fish there was so much f****** scum on the glass of the tanks. half of them you couldn't even see into... and more than half of them at the didn't even have working lights. They hired a new manager about a month before they announced that they were getting rid of the fish that actually took really good care of them because go figure the dude had a fish room in his basement with over 40 tanks himself... in my opinion these big box f****** retail stores like Walmart and Meijer shouldn't be allowed to have live pet sales... because most management only see them as merchandise and if you try to take care of something outside of your area you get written up or fired.

[@wolfygrl24]

Unfortunataly this pretty much is the same within all pet stores big and small. I’ve worked at Petco, Petsmart and currently work at a small family owned pet store. Just because someone is working with pets doesn’t mean they actually know what they’re doing. The pet industry makes billions of dollars each year, animals=$$ so they are treated as such, it’s all just a business. From my experiences sometimes the small “mom and pop” stores can even be worse than the big corporate ones, at least the corporate stores make sure sick or injured animals get vet treatment and meds if needed, where I work sick or injured animals are never taken to the vet and have us just use antibiotic sprays that we sell or use similar meds that we have as store use and self treat, and not everyone knows or uses the correct dosing all the time. I have seen so many animals die there from fish to sm. animals and reptiles. It breaks my heart. The only thing keeping me there is my love for animals and that I have a lot of knowledge in animal/fish care and are one of few that can correctly care for them all. I dedicate a lot of my time doing research on the animals we have and share it with my co workers, and try to always educate customers on proper care, although some of them don’t really care to learn and I hate selling animals to those kind of people. My coworkers are all pretty great about taking care of them but are restricted by the rules of the owners and how they only see them as profit and not living beings. A lot needs to change in the pet industry world wide but sadly I doubt we will see much change for a long time. My advise is always be willing to do your own research on an animal, if you’re not willing to and don’t strive to recreate as closely as possible to it’s natural living environment then you really shouldn’t have that pet. Also keep in mind almost all pets in pet stores come from some form of “pet mill” situation, not just dogs but cats, sm. animals and fish. No reputable breeder will sell to a pet store. Always check shelters and rescues first, a lot of them even have sm. animals.

[@k8gr]

I work in petcare right now, with my specialty being fish, at least at my location everyone has a pretty solid specialty. But there is a good amount of training as far as petcare is concerned. I had to do a crazy amount of training on each level of petcare. New arrivals are not directly sent to quarantine. We watch them for a week before we put them on the floor. It’s true we try to quarantine and take care of as many fish and animals, but there’s usually 2 on clock at a time. I know fish and small hamsters. The other knows birds and lizards. It’s a super easy and VERY VETTED team. Petsmart had been working very hard to improve petcare and training.

[@emilymccraw4336]

I work at petsmart and I just started watching your channel, and I never knew you worked at PetSmart. I have been working here about a year during school. I will be leaving in 4 months. I love my animals and we do our best (with what our corporate overlords allow) but I am so glad to be leaving.