Pet stores?

Okay, so for a long time I have been wanting to ask this question but never really got around to it. So lying here not able to sleep seems like a good time to ask.

What is everyone's opinion on pet stores? Not like the stupid names they have, but rather the quality of care, knowledge of employees, things concerning the health and well being of the animals within the walls.
And no I'm not talking about petco and petsmart. Because for the most part, the people working there are just there to make sure they get their tuition paid. However there are a few people I have seen in a petco that actually knew the difference between a python and a boa constrictor.

Anyways, I'd love to hear what you guys think!

That varies greatly. Individually owned stores can be really terrific. Some are owned and run by the breeders of the animals they sell, and these folks really care about their animals and the homes they're going to. Others, not so much.

By the way, if you can pay tuition working at petco, I'll be signing my kids up right now,lol.

Noelle

I got my first snakes from a small local pet store and lucked out because the owner/manager really knew his stuff and gave me great advice. I'd wonder about bigger chains though.

Most pet stores are run fairly well. Sure, there's some that don't care properly for the animals, just like there's some private owners that don't properly care for their personal pets.

In general, a pet store wants fairly healthy happy animals to sell to the public to make money. The prices have to be higher than from a breeder/show in order to cover all the overhead. This means a typical pet store has to really 'sell' themselves in order to make sales and keep return customers.

the closed petsmart to me has a vet student that has her venomes species licence for indiana and breeds gilas working in the reptile department and the rest are life long reptile lovers and the mom and pop shop has localy bred reptiles and very well educated employees i guess i just lucked out with my choice of pet shops to go to

You did luck out for sure. I think pet stores are like anything some good some bad. The only problem is bad is amplified when your talking about the well being of live animals. That being said the prices alone, even just for supplies makes it nearly dumb to buy from pet stores.

Due to my hubby being in the military, we move around a LOT. And therefore, I have seen a LOT of different pet stores all over the country...chain stores as well as mom & pop stores. I've also seen some pet stores run by some of the "big name" breeders we're all familiar with.

NONE of them are perfect. The realities of running a retail business selling live animals makes it impossible to have perfect enclosures for every single creature. Not to mention the crap-shoot of hired employees that may or may not be capable/willing to do an adequate job of caring for the animals/customers, no matter how good they looked on paper when they were hired.

Although all of them that I've seen have had some sort of concerning issue or other...some are a million miles ahead of others with regard to the quality of care the animals receive and the level of customer service they offer.

Some pet store owners/managers really do care about the animals and do their best to see that they are comfortable and healthy and are sold to good homes. They also know how to run a business and aren't afraid to put in the hours of grunt work it takes to keep a shop full of live animals clean.

Some really love their animals, but have little to no skill at actually running a retail business. The get in over their heads and the animals suffer because of it.

Some couldn't care less about the animals or their customers, and frankly, it boggles my mind that they manage to stay in business at all.

I've seen it all. I take pains to spend my money at a genuinely GOOD pet store when I find one. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. If YOU know of one, please patronize it often and let them know all their hard work is worth it!!