I don't get why customers/petlovers spend so much time complaining about the quality and cleanliness of a pet store on these forum boards. If you disagree with how the store you've visited keeps their animals, the conditions of their habitats, etc etc, then COMPLAIN TO CORPORATE.
Customers don't seem to understand that complaining to associates does nothing but aggravate them, and complaining to store managers does nothing except make them b!tch at the associates (especially the ones that are smart and work hard). CORPORATE is DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for what you see in those stores. They hire nimwits because nimwits are eager to accept bare minimum wage. If they're lucky, they'll get a good employee who has a fully functioning brain and uses it, though that good employee most likely will 1. be fired for something stupid (but really, for workplace politics, gossip, or competition jealousy, etc) or 2. leave that hellhole (and feel bad for quitting, but cannot take the stress of dealing with the poor conditions kept). So, stores are left with the stupid brainless employees that will give you a 2 gallon tank and say that it will house a chinese water dragon for the rest of its life. And also, just so you guys know, corporate doesn't have any kind of GOOD training lesson plan for the pet care associates. The training I received was all sales-related, or feeding a certain animal a certain store-use (of course a company brand) product. We are left on our own to either take initiative and learn on our own because we truly do care, or learn from experience. Corporate doesn't train us to deal with customers who actually know a thing or two about whatever animal they're buying. They train us to entice the customers who are impulse buyers. Horrible, it's true. But these are standard practices for every major corporation. It's a shame that living things have to be involved. But if more of these complaints were sent to corporate, not just your local store, then there would be some kind legitimate action going on to stop the pet trade industry.
And lastly, anyone know about the "revolving door" in big retail sales corps? Store managers always try to avoid having to give employees annual pay raises by finding stupid reasons to fire them. And by always having "Position Available" signs posted all over the stores, there is always a steady crop of stupid high school kids who are hired in place of the just-fired. Think about it: a hardworking, smart, and well-educated potential candidate will always have a decent wage expectation- a high schooler, who just wants to buy video games with his wage, will take the store managers suggestion/offer. Consequently-->stupid employees. But again, this is CORPORATES problem. They should be in control of the store managers and see that there is no corruption.
Just to note, I'm not defending or promoting Petsmart in any way, just trying to put some perspective into all the complaints I hear all the time. I LOVE that there are people out there who take pride in learning about REAL pet care, and the idea of these pet care forums are genius. Props to ALL OF YOU!
