It's pretty simple really, from a corporate standpoint a happy customer is one that leaves the store with what they want. It is the same in every industry. A customer walking out with nothing, may make you feel morally superior, but does the business no good. They survive off of profits. Drive all the customers out and the business fails. In a perfect world animals would be above profit, but realistically we have to realize that profits are the life of a business.
Keep some things in mind;
1) Driving a person away, especially aggressively, doesn't prevent a sale. It prevents a sale at that store. This is why managers/employees get upset when people start correcting them and talking customers out of sales. They arn't upset that they lost the sale. They are upset because they lost the sale and know that person will go across the street to a store where the now-it-all isn't hanging out.
2) The higher up you get in a company the more things become numbers. Even in small businesses this happens. That manager's boss may not even work in that store. He/she may simply get a sheet of numbers. That manager doesn't necessarily get to explain why his numbers are low. He just gets told "increase them".
3) All the OP had to do was politely listen to the reprimand, explain his point, and try to adapt. He didn't even need to obediently obey the manager. There was a middle-ground here and it was immediately lost when the OP started talking back. Some manager excourage nicely and tell you what to do. Some get angry and aggressive and hope you'll find a way to fix the problem. The key here probably would have been encouraging sales in a different direction. Don't say "you can't have this" or "that won't work", approach it more of "you could buy that fish, but this would be a better choice". People take that approach much better. As others pointed out, people don't like to be told what to do but they are perfectly happy being patted on the back and then steered in the right direction.
And as for the big chain bashing, I've personally run into the same behavior in LFS as chain stores. The employees in LFS are just trained a lot better at selling and talking. Chain store employees are trained to agree with the customer. LFS employees are trained to steer people towards other sales. The main difference is that the chain store will sell you a Oscar/Pacu/Pleco for a 10g tank while the LFS will sell you a eel or other oddball fish that gets even bigger.
Keep some things in mind;
1) Driving a person away, especially aggressively, doesn't prevent a sale. It prevents a sale at that store. This is why managers/employees get upset when people start correcting them and talking customers out of sales. They arn't upset that they lost the sale. They are upset because they lost the sale and know that person will go across the street to a store where the now-it-all isn't hanging out.
2) The higher up you get in a company the more things become numbers. Even in small businesses this happens. That manager's boss may not even work in that store. He/she may simply get a sheet of numbers. That manager doesn't necessarily get to explain why his numbers are low. He just gets told "increase them".
3) All the OP had to do was politely listen to the reprimand, explain his point, and try to adapt. He didn't even need to obediently obey the manager. There was a middle-ground here and it was immediately lost when the OP started talking back. Some manager excourage nicely and tell you what to do. Some get angry and aggressive and hope you'll find a way to fix the problem. The key here probably would have been encouraging sales in a different direction. Don't say "you can't have this" or "that won't work", approach it more of "you could buy that fish, but this would be a better choice". People take that approach much better. As others pointed out, people don't like to be told what to do but they are perfectly happy being patted on the back and then steered in the right direction.
And as for the big chain bashing, I've personally run into the same behavior in LFS as chain stores. The employees in LFS are just trained a lot better at selling and talking. Chain store employees are trained to agree with the customer. LFS employees are trained to steer people towards other sales. The main difference is that the chain store will sell you a Oscar/Pacu/Pleco for a 10g tank while the LFS will sell you a eel or other oddball fish that gets even bigger.
