# Classifieds > Testimonials >  world's crappiest petstores

## limnologist

Who else agrees that petsmart and petco are complete loads of **** with their only goal being TO RIP YOU OFF AND KILL YOUR PETS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE? They dont know anything about pet care and try to rip off ignorant newbies and mke their pet experience horrible! They are one of the biggest reasons people arent interested in pets!! Someone needs to mke a better chain pet store!

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## Carlos

Although not my preferred local pet stores, I have no problem buying items on sale in there (i.e. Petco's $1 a gal. tank sale and Petsmart closeouts).  A Pacman got at Petsmart was healthy, just need to get as soon as possible after arrival at store  :Smile:  .

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## Ted

I went to petco to buy some tanks..the animals looked horrible.the iguana tank is what upset me the most.it was filled with sick and emaciated iguanas,several dead sitting on a water dish.no effort to clean them up or even pull out the deceased..what's worse the salesmen is standing right in front of the tank talking to someone....

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## crazy

Petco has some nice deals on aquariums, especially the $1 per gallon sale.  I got a white tree frog a few months ago from the new store in holly springs, and they looked healthy.  However their set up was not that great; same with their firebelly toad set up.  I don't usually buy white's from them mostly because theirs are to small to be kept with my other white tree frog, but the one I got for some reason no one wanted to buy so it eventually got big enough for me to buy.

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## sschind

What I find amazing is that so many people will absolutely blast a store like petco because of the way they keep their animals and be adamantly opposed to buying any animals from there but they have no problems buying their cheap tanks and supplies. My feelings have always been if the store keeps their animals in such horrible conditions that you would never buy a live animal from them you shouldn't be buying ANYTHING from them.  Back before you could get everything on line I had one customer give me his pair of leopard geckos he had had for 10 years because when he moved the only store that was close to him he could get supplies at was a petco and he refused to do business with them because of the way they kept their animals.  I should add that so far, I don't feel that anyone who has posted to this thread has necessarily said this, its just something that usually comes up in threads like this.

As far as them being a big reason people are not interested in pets I say on the contrary.  The big box stores get more people into pets every day than the small stores do in a month.  I got far more customers once a petco opened up near me because they got people into the hobby (mostly aquatics but reptiles and amphibians as well) and when they couldn't satisfy those customers those customers sought out people who could help.  Two of my better customers were petco employees who didn't hesitate to send people my way.  I sold hundreds upon hundreds of Angelfish because these two people sent anyone looking for them my way rather than sell them their own.  A lot of these were people that didn't even know I existed before petco got them into the hobby.

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## crazy

> What I find amazing is that so many people will absolutely blast a store like petco because of the way they keep their animals and be adamantly opposed to buying any animals from there but they have no problems buying their cheap tanks and supplies. My feelings have always been if the store keeps their animals in such horrible conditions that you would never buy a live animal from them you shouldn't be buying ANYTHING from them.  Back before you could get everything on line I had one customer give me his pair of leopard geckos he had had for 10 years because when he moved the only store that was close to him he could get supplies at was a petco and he refused to do business with them because of the way they kept their animals.  I should add that so far, I don't feel that anyone who has posted to this thread has necessarily said this, its just something that usually comes up in threads like this.
> 
> As far as them being a big reason people are not interested in pets I say on the contrary.  The big box stores get more people into pets every day than the small stores do in a month.  I got far more customers once a petco opened up near me because they got people into the hobby (mostly aquatics but reptiles and amphibians as well) and when they couldn't satisfy those customers those customers sought out people who could help.  Two of my better customers were petco employees who didn't hesitate to send people my way.  I sold hundreds upon hundreds of Angelfish because these two people sent anyone looking for them my way rather than sell them their own.  A lot of these were people that didn't even know I existed before petco got them into the hobby.


I know this isn't directly towards me and all, but I don't buy the frogs at petco only because they are to small for me to keep, and I only have 3 aquariums at the moment and all 3 have some sort of frog or toad in them that would and could eat the frogs petco has.  I get alot of things from petco and would prefer to shop their over petsmart, mostly because the closest petsmart to me that has what I usually buy from petco is to far and usually has a wet dog kind of smell to it and the other doesn't usually carry what I usually get.  I get all my substrate, plants, fake plants, gravel, fish food, and fish supplies from petco.  In my area there is literally no other pet stores near my house besides petco that have what I get for my fish and frogs besides Wal-Mart and even they do not carry everything I usually get.  There is truth in what you posted as well.

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## limnologist

chain stores like petco and petsmart are damaging and helpful to the hobby. sure they can be helpful with their easily accessible supplies at cheap prices and their variety of items. But you gotta remember, their main goal is to make money.....of course this is every business' goal, but they would say or do anything to sell their animals. I have a friend who got a bearded dragon from petco, he noticed it didnt look very well, but he wasnt very sure (he was new to the hobby) so he asked the worker and the worker said that the animal was 100% no-doubt, perfectly healthy. The thing had some sorta disease (I forget which one :P) and died 2 days later. He came back for a new one and then noticed that three others in the cage were also dead,

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## Murphy

I dunno, i'm pretty neutral about Petsmart (we don't have a Petco where I live). My GABF and Pacman I got from there are fine although the pacman was a little skinny when I bought him which is kind of why I got him. He's just over 2 inches SVL and they were feeding him like half inch crickets so I figured i'd pick him up and give him better conditions. After a couple weeks of night crawlers he's round as can be but it's quite obvious they don't really know what they're doing there. The employees at my petsmart mean well and a couple actually do seem to have knowledge but for the most part, they haven't done their research on how to care for each animal. I guess the one where I live isn't as bad as most others from what I hear so thats why im pretty neutral about it.

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## Silkmoth

Freddy my Whites tree frog came Petco. He was in excellant health. The animals look good the tanks and cages are clean BUT, I was buying fruit flies and looked at some other feeders, dead crickets and some containers of calci worms were empty!!! I pointed it out to a young man working nearby and he was surprised. He took all of the calci worms off the shelf and opened all of them.
They all had either nothing or few dead ones in them.
It was not the store's fault. The place they came from was at fault.

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## bill

While I am not a big fan of chain pet storeS, they do indeed provide a service, especially where all the independent shops have gone by the wayside. And if you think the way they keep their animals is horrid, you should have seen pet shops back when I started keeping fish back in the 70's. These stores are a step above what it used to be. Also, for every petsmart/petco that has poor housing for their animals, there are several mom and pop stores keeping animals in worse. Sure there are still a few good mom and pop's left around, but they are very few and far in between. I am fortunate to have a few in my area that are excellent. 

While their small animal departments aren't the best, you do need to keep in mind that these are NATIONAL chains. That is a lot of stores and a lot of employees. Each store has to follow corporate policies, whether we as keepers agree with them or not. They are also staffed by employees who are just really trying to make ends meet and get through the day. Not much more different that Walmart or target or any other national chain. 

But, like Steve said, they do get people more interested in pets every day. They provide excellent services, like grooming. They offer supplies for almost every pet at affordable prices. They offer cat adoptions and they do NOT support puppy mills by selling puppies. Overall, they do an excellent job for what they are, in my opinion.

And if you think these stores have terrible conditions, you should see the conditions in some zoos and aquariums across the country. And these are the people whom we look up to. So before you bash the heck out of these stores, take a step back, take a few deep breaths, and gain some perspective. And keep in mind, we live in a free society, nobody forces you to walk into the doors of these stores. If you don't like the way they keep their animals, adopt them from somewhere else. It's as simple as that. 

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now lol and no, I have no affiliation with any of these stores, I rarely shop there, but i do shop there when I need to or they are having a sale.  :Smile: 


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

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## Harry potter

im against petco and petsmart for different reasons petsmart they only have had one pacman frog in years but only a little for that but mostly because of there crappy lizards and stuff like that and stupid people petco is pretty good but they don't have good fish and when i special order something and i show up a day late oops sorry i didn't know that was special ordered  and i have almost started a fight because i told  everyone who worked there that its special ordered but luck for me i had to go my buddies had to threaten to kill my betta that's when i started running man, you should seen me run

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## hgual22

The petsmart by my house is decent, but the workers know nothing about pets. There is one girl there who is very nice, always helps me and actually seems to know a lot of inof about the animals they sell there. Sadly shes a cashier, not pet care specialist. One lady who seems to be in charge of the fish knows absolutely nothing about fish and was getting mad at me for keeping by bettas in a 5 gallon tank with heaters. She said they prefer small bowls and dont need a heater. They are tropical fish. Another person told me that rats fight and prefer to live alone, when really, they can actually die of depression if kept alone. They are very social. 

The petco near me seems a little better. Their enclosures seem better suited for the animals, especially the reptiles, but the employees still know nothing. I got my fire belly toads there and they seem healthy, alert and arent shy, but 2 are a bit skinny, though there were 12 other frogs in the tank. They seem to at least try to take care of the pets though.

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## PubFiction

You know if you hate petco and petsmart it actually makes sense to buy thing from them that are very cheap. For instance they likely barely make and possibly lose money when they do the $1 / gallon sale. Those are loss leaders and they are hoping that you will come in to buy a tank and pick other stuff up or start keeping a pet that will yield them more sales in the long run. If you scoop in and take the $1 / gallon items and walk out without buying anything else you certainly are not helping their bottom line. 

At any rate regardless of what you think those stores are not going anywhere, there is just way too much profit in dog and cat toys and junk

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## Vivariums In The Mist

Having a retail pet store background and having worked on the pet product manufacturing end for almost 10 years (besides my hobby business), I feel like they do provide some valuable services as others have mentioned. And to be honest, they can actually drive new customers in the aquarium and reptile category to local pet stores. Think about it, they are not going to get real advice from big chain stores. Once they get hooked on these great hobbies, they will want different species, better info and such, it can in a sense help local stores and drive in new customers. Either way though, they aren't going anywhere, actually they will keep expanding.
They also get their animals and fish from good sources, it's just how each individual store takes care of them after they are received that is usually the issue.

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## Paul

The nuts and bolts of it is they have to keep the animals in a manner that makes them easy to display and easy to collect when sold. This does not always translate into proper housing conditions. My local big box pet store tries to keep their animals in good conditions, but when faced with the choice to design a proper vivarium for the animals or place them and a tank that ensures they will be easy to find the later always wins They are in the business of making money and they are good at it. I may not like how they do some things, but instead of complaining about something I know I have zero chance in changing I just take my animal purchases somwhere else and stick to buying some supplies from them.

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## PubFiction

It is reasonable for Pet Smart or Petco to keep their animals easy to display and healthy and easy to get without sacrificing their health. The problem is many stores strait up neglect the animals or put them in wrong conditions. Neglect is obviously purely a management fault with no excuse at all for it. The bad conditions is an upper management fault. These guys will drop 10s of thousands on a display in a split second if it sells more so the money aspect is not an excuse either. You see every display in a Petco or Pet Smart is not haphazardly thrown together. It is carefully crafted to contain items that the store sells and more importantly they prefer items with high profit margins. Sometimes these items and conditions are just bad. For instance many pets such as frogs can be kept in live displays that require very little maintenance. But Petco wouldn’t want to sell you that because then you wouldn’t be back next month to replace your spoiled substrate. Neither store sells much in the way of live plants so they don’t want live plants in there.  They like things that sit in the store and are real easy to keep for long periods of time without going bad and cheap that way they can soak customers for high profit margins and not worry about freshness and sales volume and they definitely want you hooked on constantly coming back for food, substrate, and any consumable possible.  And this leads to another problem because they use setups that are designed to spoil, and their help is often cheap, many stores end up with displays that get out of control with rot or poor conditions, or they keep it to dry to fight that disregarding the animal’s health.

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