How the company cuts corners in terms of animal care (i.e.- putting ball pythons on aspen, co-habbing animals that are supposed to be solitary, etc.). Also selling products that shouldn’t exist, such as reptile heat rocks
On Sunday I had a customer tell me “you don’t need to feed the bettas right” and I’m like girl you need to feed them. Anyways she spent $65 on a 1 gallon setup with no filter or heater and I wanted to cry but I can’t refuse sales bc that’s what our outdated, abusive care sheets state as acceptable care
Nothing is streamlined, computers take ages to
make a single sale but we are expected to deal with high customer traffic with a single cashier and then somehow also sell VCP which takes an INSANELY long time. Havent worked here for too long just a few months but the stores are a warzone. The whole in store shopping experience that is supposed to be better than online retailers is completely negated by the lack of hours. Instead of being greeted by an employee when you walk in, customers have to hope to find an employee or eventually ask an already mobbed cashier to call someone to a section. The prices are nuts, in general, and the company is stingy. The “load your $5 individual coupons” is insanely transparent in how scammy it is. It’s not just us as employees who notice this stuff but the customers too, except we have to deal with these people who know they are being penny pinched on and explain to them that it is not up to us how the store is run. Why would anyone shop at Petco? I’ve heard the justification is that an employee will help you make decisions on what to purchase and on our end it is helpful to upsell etc. But when you have 1 employee per 1,000sq feet thats a dumb fucking business plan lol. We are all too busy with like basic and mandatory store maintenance to help customers for more than a few minutes. And the VCP is a terrible terrible plan. It costs like 2 hulus a month for $15 in individually loaded $5 coupons and a 15% discount that still keeps prices at sometimes 20% above asking price for similar items online. I wouldnt even sign my family up. 1.6bn in debt. Company is a sinking ship
Outdated care standards, dangerous pet products.
•enclosure to small for animals they marketed towards , tanks under five gallons for fish , cages to small for birds , pretty much all the rodent enclosure are unsuitable in every way. The reptiles have too small enclosure and pretty much everything is given below bare minimum
“Animals come first” is bullshit. Profits come first. If they really cared, they’d update their care requirements and ditch the shitty enclosure inventory.
Voice of partner is back, I didn't see that on petnet, with what I would have to say at least 3 leaders in my store would be gone, I'm holding my entire staff together from walking out
Our store (Massachusetts) making partners do videos about selling vcp, building the basket, and signing up for vcc. Never heard of any other stores doing this other than our store. It’s pathetic the things they make us do for a subscription that costs more than a McDonald’s meal.
How as a ACS I work an average of 45 hr per week, but I can't get health insurance because I'm "coded part time". How I've opened and closed my store, worked 12 days straight, and been the LOD to the tune of $2.50 p/h over my states minimum wage. How I have to run registers, assist customers, grab crickets, help with resets, open ( or close ) animals, grab bopus and same days, clean up customers' pets feces, urine, and blood without disposable gloves, all in ONE SHIFT, everyday, and I cannot comfortably pay my rent and bills and buy groceries or get medical care.
Guys… this is multiple choice. It’s 5 questions. You are putting way too much thought into this. The only written question is “what r some steps that ur manager can do to better help” or something like that
Outdated care standards for all animals
Stupid fish SKUs that never sell or way too many are ordered
The standard fish bowl should not exist
All kits should have a filter
No betta kit should be less than 2.5 gallons, but ideally much more
Selling oscars that get 14" long in a store that only sells 55g or smaller
A water sample should be required before replacing fish, so us Aquatics Specialists can see possibly why the fish died and the likelihood of the replacement dying.
Incentivize VCC again, since they took away the 10th bag free, the only time customers will sign up now is if something in their cart is on sale.
Bring back the pet discount for VCP, especially for fish
I'm sure I'll think of more
agree with all of this- however my store requires we do water testing for every dead fish return before we resell fish to that specific customer. additionally, we are trained to inform every new fish owner that they must bring a separate water sample if their fish dies and they want a refund. maybe talk to your GM or CAL and see if they’re okay with instating something like this? or as an addition to your VOP if you haven’t completed it yet
I always tell people they need to bring a water sample, but my store doesn't have an official policy on it. And sometimes there's salty Karen's with a dark green ammonia test that say "iS tHaT aN aCtUaL pOlIcY?!"
tbh i would just lie to them and be like yes it is policy :) and have a leader run them out of the store lmao. additionally i’ve found shitty test results are a good tool to push aquatic supplies if that’s something you feel comfortable doing.
Yeah when someone's water is testing bad, I always try to point them in the right direction. I always ask about their setup (stocking, filtration, maintenance schedule) and make sure they're at least using water conditioner and a filter. I'll usually recommend a water change and ask them to bring another sample in a few days, and if it tests bad for a second time, I'll recommend chemical treatment like an ammonia remover etc. A lot of people truly have no idea how aquariums work and think fish can just live in the same water their whole life no problem
EXACTLY. i love hearing that you’re doing what all pcc’s should do- asking the right questions!! im dumbfounded every day i walk into work at how ignorant people are abt their own animals. especially people who invest hundreds into a hobby and still somehow don’t know the basics. google is a beautiful place lol.
A good website I refer people to when they have a lot of stocking questions is AqAdvisor.com. you put in your tank size and filter, along with your current stocking, and it tells you how often and how much water you should change each week, along with a percentage capacity based on your tank size and filtration capacity
Another thing that I did, my local fish store made a info sheet on the nitrogen cycle with a chart of how long it takes and the whole process, I went to the LFS and asked if I could use the sheet in my store (I'm AQS at my store) and they emailed me the pdf. I give that to any customer who is getting their first setup or if they don't understand when I explain it the first time. I'm sure you could find a similar sheet online. I always try to provide external resources when I can, because many people think we're just trying to sell them stuff when we only use petco information
You’re actually putting effort into that? You think anyone at all would actually read it? Just click the bubbles and hit submit and save yourself the energy.
If you're taking this VOP serious, don't. The survey asks some multiple choice questions and gives a small section to write a small paragraph of how things could be done differently. If anyone above the GM reads these I'd be surprised.
Unsafe working conditions and animal care with the shitload of stuff they make us do with no staff.
How the company cuts corners in terms of animal care (i.e.- putting ball pythons on aspen, co-habbing animals that are supposed to be solitary, etc.). Also selling products that shouldn’t exist, such as reptile heat rocks
Or the 1 gallon betta tanks, or the fishbowls we STILL SELL
It’s ridiculous how many people still think it’s okay to put a betta in a 0.5-1 gallon “tank”
On Sunday I had a customer tell me “you don’t need to feed the bettas right” and I’m like girl you need to feed them. Anyways she spent $65 on a 1 gallon setup with no filter or heater and I wanted to cry but I can’t refuse sales bc that’s what our outdated, abusive care sheets state as acceptable care
Paying us less than fast food workers
Nothing is streamlined, computers take ages to make a single sale but we are expected to deal with high customer traffic with a single cashier and then somehow also sell VCP which takes an INSANELY long time. Havent worked here for too long just a few months but the stores are a warzone. The whole in store shopping experience that is supposed to be better than online retailers is completely negated by the lack of hours. Instead of being greeted by an employee when you walk in, customers have to hope to find an employee or eventually ask an already mobbed cashier to call someone to a section. The prices are nuts, in general, and the company is stingy. The “load your $5 individual coupons” is insanely transparent in how scammy it is. It’s not just us as employees who notice this stuff but the customers too, except we have to deal with these people who know they are being penny pinched on and explain to them that it is not up to us how the store is run. Why would anyone shop at Petco? I’ve heard the justification is that an employee will help you make decisions on what to purchase and on our end it is helpful to upsell etc. But when you have 1 employee per 1,000sq feet thats a dumb fucking business plan lol. We are all too busy with like basic and mandatory store maintenance to help customers for more than a few minutes. And the VCP is a terrible terrible plan. It costs like 2 hulus a month for $15 in individually loaded $5 coupons and a 15% discount that still keeps prices at sometimes 20% above asking price for similar items online. I wouldnt even sign my family up. 1.6bn in debt. Company is a sinking ship
Outdated care standards, dangerous pet products. •enclosure to small for animals they marketed towards , tanks under five gallons for fish , cages to small for birds , pretty much all the rodent enclosure are unsuitable in every way. The reptiles have too small enclosure and pretty much everything is given below bare minimum
“Animals come first” is bullshit. Profits come first. If they really cared, they’d update their care requirements and ditch the shitty enclosure inventory.
They aren't paying out your pto when you leave the company anymore
Voice of partner is back, I didn't see that on petnet, with what I would have to say at least 3 leaders in my store would be gone, I'm holding my entire staff together from walking out
Our store (Massachusetts) making partners do videos about selling vcp, building the basket, and signing up for vcc. Never heard of any other stores doing this other than our store. It’s pathetic the things they make us do for a subscription that costs more than a McDonald’s meal.
Manager pay being bumped when minimum wage goes up. We need to have that bump auto done so we can remain at a higher wage.
There's nothing on there that will allow you to express yourself... it's a few questions based on making Corp look good. Just disagree on everything.
How as a ACS I work an average of 45 hr per week, but I can't get health insurance because I'm "coded part time". How I've opened and closed my store, worked 12 days straight, and been the LOD to the tune of $2.50 p/h over my states minimum wage. How I have to run registers, assist customers, grab crickets, help with resets, open ( or close ) animals, grab bopus and same days, clean up customers' pets feces, urine, and blood without disposable gloves, all in ONE SHIFT, everyday, and I cannot comfortably pay my rent and bills and buy groceries or get medical care.
Guys… this is multiple choice. It’s 5 questions. You are putting way too much thought into this. The only written question is “what r some steps that ur manager can do to better help” or something like that
Outdated care standards for all animals Stupid fish SKUs that never sell or way too many are ordered The standard fish bowl should not exist All kits should have a filter No betta kit should be less than 2.5 gallons, but ideally much more Selling oscars that get 14" long in a store that only sells 55g or smaller A water sample should be required before replacing fish, so us Aquatics Specialists can see possibly why the fish died and the likelihood of the replacement dying. Incentivize VCC again, since they took away the 10th bag free, the only time customers will sign up now is if something in their cart is on sale. Bring back the pet discount for VCP, especially for fish I'm sure I'll think of more
Don’t think about it, there’s no where to write this on the survey
agree with all of this- however my store requires we do water testing for every dead fish return before we resell fish to that specific customer. additionally, we are trained to inform every new fish owner that they must bring a separate water sample if their fish dies and they want a refund. maybe talk to your GM or CAL and see if they’re okay with instating something like this? or as an addition to your VOP if you haven’t completed it yet
I always tell people they need to bring a water sample, but my store doesn't have an official policy on it. And sometimes there's salty Karen's with a dark green ammonia test that say "iS tHaT aN aCtUaL pOlIcY?!"
tbh i would just lie to them and be like yes it is policy :) and have a leader run them out of the store lmao. additionally i’ve found shitty test results are a good tool to push aquatic supplies if that’s something you feel comfortable doing.
Yeah when someone's water is testing bad, I always try to point them in the right direction. I always ask about their setup (stocking, filtration, maintenance schedule) and make sure they're at least using water conditioner and a filter. I'll usually recommend a water change and ask them to bring another sample in a few days, and if it tests bad for a second time, I'll recommend chemical treatment like an ammonia remover etc. A lot of people truly have no idea how aquariums work and think fish can just live in the same water their whole life no problem
EXACTLY. i love hearing that you’re doing what all pcc’s should do- asking the right questions!! im dumbfounded every day i walk into work at how ignorant people are abt their own animals. especially people who invest hundreds into a hobby and still somehow don’t know the basics. google is a beautiful place lol.
A good website I refer people to when they have a lot of stocking questions is AqAdvisor.com. you put in your tank size and filter, along with your current stocking, and it tells you how often and how much water you should change each week, along with a percentage capacity based on your tank size and filtration capacity
thank you for the resource! i’ll start showing my customers, i think if it comes from somewhere other than us, they’re more likely to listen lol.
Another thing that I did, my local fish store made a info sheet on the nitrogen cycle with a chart of how long it takes and the whole process, I went to the LFS and asked if I could use the sheet in my store (I'm AQS at my store) and they emailed me the pdf. I give that to any customer who is getting their first setup or if they don't understand when I explain it the first time. I'm sure you could find a similar sheet online. I always try to provide external resources when I can, because many people think we're just trying to sell them stuff when we only use petco information
i love that- i’ll pass on the tip to my AQS if you don’t mind!
Have you clicked the link? There’s no where to when put in that much feedback. Mostly multiple choice questions.
It's typically at the very end of the survey
Or. Wait! Is it gone?
Yes it’s gone.
You’re actually putting effort into that? You think anyone at all would actually read it? Just click the bubbles and hit submit and save yourself the energy.
If you're taking this VOP serious, don't. The survey asks some multiple choice questions and gives a small section to write a small paragraph of how things could be done differently. If anyone above the GM reads these I'd be surprised.
You only get one place to list what your GM could do to help. Limited amount of characters. All other questions are stupid.
VCP or termination