"SELL THOSE FISH!" *true short story*
- Thread starter Corvina
- Start date
When I first got my 55 I did the same as that guy I went to LFS and if it wasnt for another customer "Butting in" I would have spent alot of $$$ on stuff I didnt need!! Thanks whoever you are and you inspired me to learn and teach others
True in many respects. I go to college and am majoring in zoology. I work part time at PetSmart partly to make extra money and partly to gain experience. Before I started there I owned a number of books on animal care and have bought countless since. I'm constantly reading and have websites like this bookmarked for reference.
The thing is.....Well let me give you an example. A couple came in yesterday. They have a 10 gallon tank, had put a few goldfish in it, and they died within a few weeks. They only had the tank for a month. The tank had previously belonged to someone else, but the couple in question had bought a brand new filter, gravel, and ornaments. First I told them, their tank was too small for that many goldfish and then launched into a long winded explanation of the Nitrogen Cycle with various suggestions on how to go about it. I also recommended they set up a tropical community tank instead. Well needless to say, the wife declared she had had a tank years ago and there was a certain miracle liquid she put in her tank every once in a while and the fish always lived. She held it up and it was some sort of Kordon product called Clear tank or something like that, that claimed to improve water quality and provide helpful bacteria. I tried to convince her that a better way to go would be Bio-Spira and a good dechlorinater, but she wouldn't hear of it. Then the couple had a question about dog food for their dog that had skin problems. I walked them over to the highest quality food we have and explained to them why I recommended it. I tried to teach them how to read food labels to avoid ingredients such as corn, wheat, by-products, and chemical preservatives like BHA and BHT. The man said "Yeah, I ALWAYS read the food label." But in his cart he had a low quality brand of food which contains many of the above ingredients.
Well after all of this, (the couple had taken none of my suggestions by the way) the woman declared "Wow, you know a lot! We'll be sure to let you know how our tank works out!" And walked away. All of that for nothing.
Those are the type of people I encounter everyday. They listen to me prattle off a bunch of facts until I'm blue in the face, commend me for my knowledge and don't take any of my advice. I've grown very disillusioned because of it, yet I still try to give people the best advice I can hoping that someone, someday will heed it.
So while I understand where many of you are coming from when you talk of this "LFS idiots" I also feel like telling some of you to shove it.
The thing is.....Well let me give you an example. A couple came in yesterday. They have a 10 gallon tank, had put a few goldfish in it, and they died within a few weeks. They only had the tank for a month. The tank had previously belonged to someone else, but the couple in question had bought a brand new filter, gravel, and ornaments. First I told them, their tank was too small for that many goldfish and then launched into a long winded explanation of the Nitrogen Cycle with various suggestions on how to go about it. I also recommended they set up a tropical community tank instead. Well needless to say, the wife declared she had had a tank years ago and there was a certain miracle liquid she put in her tank every once in a while and the fish always lived. She held it up and it was some sort of Kordon product called Clear tank or something like that, that claimed to improve water quality and provide helpful bacteria. I tried to convince her that a better way to go would be Bio-Spira and a good dechlorinater, but she wouldn't hear of it. Then the couple had a question about dog food for their dog that had skin problems. I walked them over to the highest quality food we have and explained to them why I recommended it. I tried to teach them how to read food labels to avoid ingredients such as corn, wheat, by-products, and chemical preservatives like BHA and BHT. The man said "Yeah, I ALWAYS read the food label." But in his cart he had a low quality brand of food which contains many of the above ingredients.
Well after all of this, (the couple had taken none of my suggestions by the way) the woman declared "Wow, you know a lot! We'll be sure to let you know how our tank works out!" And walked away. All of that for nothing.
Those are the type of people I encounter everyday. They listen to me prattle off a bunch of facts until I'm blue in the face, commend me for my knowledge and don't take any of my advice. I've grown very disillusioned because of it, yet I still try to give people the best advice I can hoping that someone, someday will heed it.
So while I understand where many of you are coming from when you talk of this "LFS idiots" I also feel like telling some of you to shove it.
Exactly, and for the few of you that are out there... CHEERS!! Thank goodness there's someone out there TRYING to make a difference. But the truth of the matter is, you don't get paid more for knowing any of that information and you were never recquired to know it. In fact, your co-workers probably never invest as much time and interest in it as you do because they aren't studying zoology or have any care for the aquarium hobby as a whole.
Personally, if my dreams of my business pan out, I will offer incentives to employees who can offer educated answers to my customers. And if they receive a customer compliment, I'll give them some sort of bonus or something. I just know I want to reward MY employees for going above and beyond like you do.
I never blame or get ugly with the employees.... because there are too many reasons why it's probably NOT THEIR FAULT.
Not all of us live in big cities or towns that have multiple stores and endless variety. Barring that, not all of us have credit/debit cards or paypal to make purchases online. Barring that, not all of us have that kind of money to be tossing around (the cost for shipping live fish is UNGODLY).
I, for one, have one super small pet store in my town. The lady that runs it actually asks ME for advice when handling her customer's questions when I show up. I can only go there on my days off from work because of the hours she operates and she is prone to closing early without notice. She orders fish from ONE supplier who never has anything that I ask about. She has no clue what she's doing unless it involves angelfish or cockatiels, to be frank. But she's all I've got.
The next closest store is 35 minutes away at the local mall that's open during hours that I'm usually working. They aren't much better, except that their prices are cheaper and they have a better variety of stuff. But again, most of the time, they either don't have... or don't have ENOUGH... of what I'm needing.
The next closests stores after that are about an hour away in Tulsa. And to be honest, I consider it pain enough to expend the gas to go to the other location... Tulsa trips are for special occasions ONLY.
I'd probably wet myself with joy if I saw that a PetCo or PetSmart was moving in locally...
They should have a NPO fish place that deals with exellent fish care and wont let people have them without cycled tank or people who dont want to invest the time or the energy to properly care for a pet. Kinda like a animal humane society but for fish... You could have someone go to your house and to a water test see if you are telling the truth and can house them properly LOL
I used to never be into fish but after winning some goldfish from a fair and going through numerous fish deaths (when I was a newbie) I now dare I say it... LOVE FISH:bday: and hate seeing them with ick and dying and being harrashed at local wallmarts pets smarts/co but as long as people who are dont give a rats @.S then what can you really do? I actually just found another fish store in my area and which im going to check out later on today, from the looks of it online they should be a nice dependable place to buy fish...but then again look at the petsmart commercials with "people who love pets this much come and work at petsmart"....
I used to never be into fish but after winning some goldfish from a fair and going through numerous fish deaths (when I was a newbie) I now dare I say it... LOVE FISH:bday: and hate seeing them with ick and dying and being harrashed at local wallmarts pets smarts/co but as long as people who are dont give a rats @.S then what can you really do? I actually just found another fish store in my area and which im going to check out later on today, from the looks of it online they should be a nice dependable place to buy fish...but then again look at the petsmart commercials with "people who love pets this much come and work at petsmart"....
