Petsmart, Petco, etc, complaints

luvinbluegills

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 26, 2011
529
16
18
Pgh PA
It occurred to me this morning that a great many of the complaints about how earth-shakingly horrible these chain stores are and how they are the bane of all decent humanity, how they're causing global warming, and so on, are coming from people who are relating incidents that happened while they were shopping there, and later they share more about what happened when they went back to buy more stuff.

If these places are so offensive, why do so many of the complaints come from people with bags of fish in their hands?
 

Rivers2k

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Dec 27, 2011
1,528
46
51
NY
Time makes people forget. Ever get really mad at someone even if you don't work it out after a few day or maybe weeks I bet your aren't as mad as you were day 1.

I told m self I would not buy anything there after infesting my tank with Ich a few times and getting an Oscar with an IP. After about 6 months went there last week to kill some time on my lunch break. I saw this cichlid I had never seen before bought it after a few days what do you know it has an internal parasite. Treated the tank and all is good. I do think there fish are of lower quality and they don't pretreat there fish like my LFS does. But who knows in 6 months I will probably forget and go back again.

I think also some people go for supplies and a fish catches there eyes. Or they over hear some horrible advice being given.
 

Adamrhh

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2010
1,560
3
53
Ohio
www.theratpub.com
Some people just like to go there and harass the fish department and act like they are scientist. It makes them feel better about themselves that they know more.
 

ecoli73

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 15, 2010
3,867
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Sunnyvale, CA
I bought my school of neons, a betta in a cup and a few black kuhlie loach to complement my other school of loaches for my office tank from Petsmart.

In my main tank, there are 3-4 medevils, bala sharks and tin foil barbs from Petsmart.

Sue me :p


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verbal

Gambusia
MFK Member
Oct 27, 2010
169
0
16
Reston, VA
For some people it can be a lack of Local Fish Store options.

I think others get sucked in by a sale of some sort either the $1/gallon tanks or $1/fish.
 

divemaster99

Dovii
MFK Member
Jan 10, 2014
4,795
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Pittsburgh, PA
I don't normally shop at them but last September when I only had one LFS I had to go to petsmart to get my striped raphael catfish because nowhere else had them. Since then I've found 3 more really good LFSs that always have good variety, they're just 40+ minute away.
 

Shenanigans

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 26, 2011
704
14
18
Wyoming
In VT petco is my only close (40 min) option. I went to a mom and pop store to find no selection, but still shopped there. Later I found they went out of business. Now petco IS my only option within an hour drive. Its tough for small pet stores to stay in business, especially ones that have fish
 

brich999

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 3, 2010
4,312
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38
New Hampshire
Convince is why I go into chain stores. I wont buy my fish there but they are 15 min down the road and the closest lfs is over an hr away so for food and small stuff ill stop in
 

Dieselhybrid

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Mar 31, 2010
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The one by my place in Olympia Washington is surprisingly good. The manager of the fish dept. used to work at a mom and pop store that was around for years. He takes pride. A lot of other chain stores have employees that were trained for the position without much experience beforehand, so they're not as passionate and knowledgeable.

I think a lot of us go to these places for convenience.

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