[MtAnimals]

I happened to look at a large silver superveil angelfish in the local petco yesterday.Nice long fins and everything.When I looked closer,I noticed a rather large dent in it's back right in front of the dorsal.I was still thinking fo getting it,just to save it from being picked on there by the rams in the tank with it nipping at it's ventral fins.

I asked a young lady how much for the angel with the deformity,and she told me it's not a deformity,it's supposed to look like that.I said it isn't like the other angelfish you have,and she told me that's because it's an "assorted" angelfish and it's supposed to have that indentation.

at first I was miffed that someone would try and BS me like that,then I realized she actually thought it's a variety of angel fish called assorted.I wonder if the "assorted" gene is dominant? :grin2:

Seriously,I feel for anyone new to the hobby that gets information from these stores.In our town,all we have is petco and petsmart.

 

[thedood]

I find it amusing that she is so arrogant that she think she is so much smarter than everyone else and they will buy her bs.

 

[longgonedaddy]

You should have asked her if that strain was developed from Paraiba or Koi.

 

[MtAnimals]

You should have asked her if that strain was developed from Paraiba or Koi.

that's a good one! I was on my way to work,and just said "ok" and left,I didn't bother to tell her I've been keeping fish for 50 years,and I was breeding angels before she was born.

 

[TINNGG]

Sounds like it was from that wonderful old strain known as "cull"

 

[RWaters]

Sounds like it was from that wonderful old strain known as "cull"

You do mean the fish, not the employee - right? :laugh2:

 

[Bushkill]

I find it amusing that she is so arrogant that she think she is so much smarter than everyone else and they will buy her bs.

Arrogant and downright dumb. It's not unique to the box stores. The quality of info at the retail level has always been a black eye on the hobby....for decades now. All that's happening now is that with so few LFS operating now, the box stores have the market cornered on aquatic numbskulls. A strain that's been around for some time.

 

[Zoidburg]

I have plans on being in Montana this weekend, but no plans on going to one of those stores.... lol



From my understanding, stores like Petco and Petsmart train their employees to care for *all* animals, so the employees get to know how to care for all under a general sense. Once the employees have learned how to take care of all, they can then become a "specialist" in one of the areas.

Unless you get a *good* store that strives for knowledgeable employees, or a knowledgeable employee at a less than "smart" store, they're employees don't know a lot. I've spoken with various employees, or over-heard some and I just kind of walked away shaking my head... or off to find a brick wall to bang my head against! Even as a teenager speaking with the adult employees, it still hurt my head!!! LOL


I had one employee tell me that I know more than she does, and I feel as if I hardly even know what the heck I'm doing! And I'm ok admitting that, too! I'm in an area that is not my "expertise", so any additional info I can find is helpful! So this is one employee that, even if I may know more than her in one area and I'm no expert myself, I can respect that she admits she doesn't know.


One store was selling freshwater gobies as loaches. Sadly, they don't have much control over what they actually get in, as I bet their suppliers probably substitute some fish for others but don't bother sending the correct information about the fish, so the employees, not knowing any better, label the fish as what it's supposed to be, but what it's not...




I would blame the stores first (for not striving to educate their employees better), employees second (for not striving to learn more)...

 

[malANDmatt]

Haha! Wow.

 

[Docock]

I wish something could be created to band local fish stores together. They need to be helping each other survive at this point. The less local fish stores we have feeding good information into our general fish keeping public the worse off our hobby is. These stores might have a few good apples amongst a sea of bad ones, but even then the "higher ups" could give a rip about the proper treatment of fish.

 

[bigbadjon]

How many local fish stores honestly give good info to customers? They're under more pressure to sell than anybody. Its better to educate yourself and not be bamboozled by retail operators.

 

[Bushkill]

How many local fish stores honestly give good info to customers? They're under more pressure to sell than anybody. Its better to educate yourself and not be bamboozled by retail operators.

Couldn't possibly phrase this any better.

The concept applies to pretty much anything one "ventures into". Be it a hobby, business, job.....read, ask questions, read some more and ask more questions until you get to a common denominator running through them all.

Remember, the issue sin't really that the people who work at these stores aren't the most well-versed. The issue is that they bring a corporate mentality to what at its' core is a simple hobby. If you spend your money there, you feed the machine that's taken away a significant amount of traffic from the LFS that used to dominate the hobby. The end result will be that they'll be the only choice you'll see in the hobby instead of choosing between a bunch of LFS that would all have their strong and weak points but bring so much more variety to what you have to choose from.

 

[mooncon1]

Most of these stores have a big turnover of employees and they make a little bit more than nothing so I try to give them a break they are doing the best they can.If you don't have something good to say about someone don't say anything at all.

 

[PlantedRich]

It's not simply a LFS problem. Ethics are way down from former times and we might as well admit it. I took a car to a quickie car wash for a wash and detail today. When I went back to question why there was mud in the trunk and under the floor mats, they told me they only clean the trunk if they are asked. No mention of why there was mud under the floor mats nor bugs on the hood.
Do we all have "stupid" stamped on our forehead or something?

 

[doc_brown]

I worked at petsmart for around three months and really the only training you get is how to fill out the form when you sell a hamster and how to bag a fish.