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What do you folks think about pet shop employees? Are they generally trustworthy or are they numbskulls? Do you follow their advice in general, only trust certain ones, or rarely listen at all? I don't care if you hate them and think they're all crater-faced, lying teenagers, just let it all out. I'm curious because I often see worker-bashing on the Internet, and it just makes me laugh.]

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

All the stores I visit are privatly owned and they never seem to have that problem. If it is a younger person I will ask first what is their knowledge like concerning ????

The ones I have come across all appear to be perminent not part timers (by that I mean after school and the odd week end.)

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tanks]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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As for the age of employee thing that everyone seems to think younger employees incompetant at everything I must say that in my expierence (limited but some lol) I have been misinformed by both old and young employees my general method is to wait for either a manager or one of 2 employees that I know are reliable at my lfs. As for the part time workers being incompetant, do you have any idea how restrictive US labor laws are in some states.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Ok i was generalising about teenagers, I have seen an enthusiastic kid here and there, but you take someone who has the same interest and has lived with it and is now 30- or 40 and there simply is no comparison.

I find a lot of enthusiastic teenagers often give "beginners guide book answers" and that doesnt equate to someone who has significant experience. There is no replacement for time and experience even if a youngster is talented. There is a temperance that comes from age. If I must be honest the very best fishkeepers I know are all kind of between 40- 60 years old.

As weve all seen in previous threads the conditions of employment are a huge factor in how staff of any age react to the customer , or indeed learn the trade. There will be bad keeprs and shop assistants of all ages, but the persistance of time can turn even a bad keeper into a good one. Teens who are exceptional at fishkeeping should have the sense to not be insulted, I was using a truism, not a statement of absolute fact. Teens even though sometimes thinking they are a different species are in fact just old folks waiting to happen, but thats something you can only see from the other side. Every dog has their day. Ever wondered why prime ministers and presidents arent teenagers? Its one of those things, often the more you know, the less you know and the only people I know who happen to think they know everything about fishkeeping tend to be teenagers.

Its about odds, and id go with the oldies , but thats not because I discount the possibility that teenagers can contibute useful information,theres many on this site that are surprisingly advanced, its just that in a petshop situation... well ... you know. How many fish can you keep on such a small wage? How many books can you buy? And since when did working in a shop give anyone a sense of long term care?

I strongly suspect that petshops arent the best places to find authoratative information on fish, indeed shop culture can actually be completely contrary to ideals of captive care.

It can warp your fragile little minds


Last edited by longhairedgit at 12-Dec-2005 03:33

I want to add a story about a major chain fish store.

This one happens to be in Germany and during my last visit there we needed to buy a stroller (kids got too lazy to walk all day ) and were informed that some super-store has some. Now, these kinds of stores offer almost everything, like a Walmart, but the whole concept was new to me as I have left Germany before such philosophies were carried over the Atlantic.

Anyway, once we got the stroller I asked the information desk clerk if she knows any fish stores in the area and to my greatest surprise she points me to “Isle 7”. Once in the fish section, my jaw just dropped. Tank after tank filled with beautifully colored up fish and a large variety, very clean setups. Overall there must have been at least 80 tanks and I saw ONE dead fish. Plants for sale looked very healthy and lush.

I had a chat with the employee of the fish section and complimented him on their maintenance, assortment, etc. During that conversation I could identify that he took his job very serious and that he was a person who knows his fishies. I should mention that Germans are paid much better than American minimum wage.

Too bad I can’t go shopping there as it would a) be a very long transport to my tanks or b) require me to move back to Germany.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I work at a nice store. It's really geared toward SW, but FW is the best in the area, IMO. In our own defense, we get tired after a while. Unless you've worked in retail, you'll never know what I'm talking about. I can't begin to tell you how many people have come into the store ready to hoot and holler because those neons I just sold them died because their tank didn't have a heater or filter or was loaded with aggressive fish. Trust me, people lie all the time. They'll tell you they have this huge tank with great filtration when in reality they have a 10g tank horribly overstocked. But, some people just have a bad day every once in a while. We try our best to avoid them, but it happens.

A story is in order, from an employee's prespective. I think it was a Tuesday and these guys came in from the car dealership nearby. They want to buy an MBU puffer. No big deal, I let them know the facts (get huge, aggressive, etc), and ask, out of curiousity, what size tank they have. After letting me know they have a 10g with an Aquaclear 30 and no heater stocked with a silver arowana, RBP, exodon, gibbiceps pleco, and TSN, I gave up. These people were beyond help. "It's fine" they assured me, "I'm getting a 20-30g in a few weeks!" Fine...

For the most part, wherever I have been around here people seeeem to know what they are talking about. There is one LFS near me where I had to explain to the woman what a "Mickey Mouse Platy" is b/c I couldn't remember the scientific name and anyone else I have mentioned "Mickey Mouse Platy" to, knew what I was talking about.

Then there is the Local Pet Store. Family owned and operated. . . the only issue is, the grandson of the owner will only do selective things... he will not touch the crickets, worms, etc. . he doesn't clean up, and he is always saying how much he wants to leave. Doesn't seem like a bad guy, but makes the place look bad.

Just random examples, I guess.

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

Doncha just hate people that wont "touch" things. Ooo i cant touch snails , worms, bugs eels etc. Makes you wonder how they get through a day doesnt it.

I have actually had to catch my own fish in pet shops before now because the assistant has all the netting skills of an epileptic with a baseball bat. Ive been like " LOOK just gimme the damn net before you kill it!".

Trouble with teenagers nowadays is that by the time ya get em all trained up on what they need to be doing around the place that they only have a short time before they grow up and leave home.
Actually, the guys at my local lfs are idiots who think they know about fish, the ones at my local chain store lfs are good, and much better since they unloaded the fish dept manager. What a waste of space she was. The ONLY thing that broad (no offense intended) knew about fish is what she read on the little signs on the wall. "No, angels won't work in a community tank, they're just too aggressive, see they are in the agressive section on the wall here". But in both, I have noticed a vast improvement in both personnel and overall quality of the tanks and such.

My own experience has tended to be as follows.

Small independent pet stores (especially if they were set up by enthusiasts in the first place) will always outdo the big chains. Because, apart from anything else, when they take on staff, they'll set about trying to impart some wisdom into those staff, so that even the so-called 'greenhorn' teenagers in such places will be more clued-up than the assorted downsizing fodder routinely processed by the big companies in a manner that has become known as the Pampers Theory Of Personnel Management here in the UK (after a brand of disposable nappy/diaper - I think you can guess the rest). First of all, your small dedicated pet shop owner (particularly if he's a fishkeeper himself) will weed out the chaff pretty quickly with the aid of about half a dozen pertinent questions, and probably end up taking on a fellow fish nut. Someone who's doing the job not just for the money, but because that person loves keeping fish, and getting to work in a place where he/she gets to look after exotica that's currently beyond the budget is fun. And if the grey cells are working, there's also the little matter of getting hold of some of those exotics at a nice healthy discount if you're on the staff

I have been to one place, incidentally (one of the infamous DIY conglomerates that branched out into pets a few years back - I'm sure my fellow UK FPilians will be able to guess which one) where the staff were obviously hired on the basis of ticking the right boxes on a multiple choice questionnaire without any in-depth questioning. Now this place had, apparently, managed to acquire what appeared to be Anomalochromis thomasi, a fish species whose rarity in the trade I've lamented all too often, and which has been about as rare as the proverbial rocking horse dollop in my neck of the woods for years. Thinking that I might have hit the jackpot here (they were also quite reasonably priced) I decided to collar one of the staff. Unfortunately, the person in question looked as if he was about to fill his underpants with fear within about two seconds of my opening my mouth. The conversation went something like this:

Me : "Excuse me ... these fish in this aquarium, are they Anomalochromsi thomasi by any chance?"

Staff #1 (pauses for at least 5 seconds before replying) "I'll get the manager"

* Waits 2 minutes or so *

Manager : "Hello, can I help you?"

Me : "I was wondering if these fish in this aquarium are Anomalochromis thomasi ..."

Manager : "Er, which ones?"

Staff #1 : "I think he means those kylids ..."

At this point I started thinking Er, what the hell are Kylids? Until it suddenly dawned upon me that the unfortunate product of an inadequate education (designed simply to turn him out onto the streets as a low grade cog in the macroeconomic machine) couldn't even ounce 'Cichlid' properly ...

Manager : "Er, we just got them in as African Jewel Fish ..."

Me : "Ok, thanks ... I'll check them out when they've grown a bit ..." * Leaves store muttering 'Kylids' indeed ... *

So, basically, I gave that place a miss from that point on. I dread to think what the fish went through in a place like that, being handled by people whose understanding of fishkeeping (including at a level in the hierarchy where such ignorance should have been a sacking offence) seemed to start and stop with "er, fish live in water don't they?"




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I visit lots of pet stores, it's an exciting "hobby" of mine! I'm pretty geeky about it I guess.
We have Petsmarts all around here, but if I'm in another state I'll say "Look hunny! A PetSmart I've never been to, lets go!" haha

Most of my experience has been lacking... I have met plenty who are just down right unknowledgable. I've met others who only know what their company has clearly taught them in their training program, some that truly don't care and even have a dislike for said animal, and some that actually do know what they are talking about. Though the latter is far and few between.

If I over hear a store employee speaking to a customer and giving bad or just no advice what so ever, I will often step in and try to offer my suggestions. Most people are appreciative but once in a great while there are some that just give me weird looks. One petsmart trainer in particular gives me dirty looks when I don't agree with her... in front of customers ^_^

My general experience goes like this...

One local store, my old science teacher owns. He, himself will give plenty of information and advice on fish. If you're buying a lot he'll ask where they'll all be put and what size tanks you have. He also starts a lot of small talk with the customers, just not me. The employees there aren't quite as knowledgable. One keeps 2 oscars in a 30 gallon and suggested I do the same. I just simply responded "No, I'm just waiting for a 55 Gallon so I can get one." Another time some lady came in asking for fish for her 2 gallon tank with 2 goldfish in it already. She walked out with 2 more goldfish and a few mollies. If an experienced hobbyist comes in however, they all of a sudden know the right things to say. Seems like they know how to sell things.

Another one, they don't like to get you fish, let alone talk about anything about them, they'll simply reply "I'm not sure, you should look it up." You can also hear them fighting..."No you get the fish, I'm tired of going back there." So, I never bought anything from there.

The 3rd one around me, which I know live just about 5 blocks from (wooo!) always have great fish, a few harder to find ones, and some rare ones. It may take a while to get the fish, they just need to hire more people. Never had a problem with them, and they're always there will helpful advice.

I will say this, Big Fish is great for us employees. On his last visit to the store, he schooled me and another customer about plants. I appreciate that!