Petsmart or Petco for buying live plants?

[DonCroaker]

After trying to find an online site that had what I wanted in stock, that wasn't halfway across the country and had reasonable shipping I was finally able to place an order that had everything I wanted and for what I considered reasonable shipping so I placed an order on the correct day to have the plants delivered at a time when I would be home. Late that day, after I the deadline order from a different site, I receive a cancellation email because half of what I ordered wasn't in stock even though their website listed that it was in stock at the time I placed the order. My daughter was upset that we would have to wait another week to order plants from a different site to receive them on Friday when someone is home. She really wants water in this aquarium and I'm getting antsy myself.

Mom and pop shops around here have very little in the way of live plants so I've decided to go to Petsmart or Petco and overpay for plants that are likely to be subpar compared to what I could get online. My question is which store is generally better? Any other options I may not realize?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dougall]

You might want to post your location and what plants you want

But I wouldn't worry about plants as much as I would fish, they are likely to be OK if in a box for a few extra hours.

With Petco/PetSmart/Other big box store, their stock can depend on the team working at the store, and their turnover of stuff you might be interested in... I've see any of them be OK, and some I wouldn't buy from if there was a 99% discount on top of the price shown.

Get to know the plants you want, how they should look when you buy, what would look like it needs some TLC, and what it would look like if it were beyond hope

 

[Tifftastic]

^ That exactly. I worked at both box stores. PetSmart for many more years and also a few locations. It depends 100% on the people working on which is better.

You can often (or at least before the new company bought them out) find plants marked down at PetSmart due to "death." I've bought a lot of those for around $0.50 and brought them back to life. If you see a plant that looks subpar but has roots that look healthy, ask for a discount and you might get one.

 

[Neptunius]

I agree with the comments above. I've bought plants from both in the past and have had good results.