Goldish

So usually when people want goldfish, they want the ones that are orange, or white, or orange and white, or black and orange.
But the goldish/brown ones?

Yah. Usually people don't want them.

One reason is because some turtles have difficulty seeing them and therefore won't eat them.
Another is there slightly darker color makes it difficult to spot them in a pond.

Yet today.
I had a customer come into the store wanting those goldish/brown goldfish.

Why?
Because he wanted a little variety in his tank..
He was tired of having just orange/orange&white ones.
And wanted something different. 

So he wanted me to fish out those goldish/brown ones.
Which I did.

And he left rather happy. ^^;;

So yay! :D 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Apathetic

Sometimes I don't understand customers. 

We had a customer return a dead bird this afternoon.
Which happens on occasion.

But usually when the deceased creature is returned to us the customer usually has the dead animal in a box, or wrapped up and such so nobody else has to see the creature.

Not this customer.

No I hear my coworker ask me over the radio what I want her to do with this dead bird a customer returned. 
And I look up and see her carrying a cage towards me. 
Which I expected a box or a towel or a baggy or something.

But no.
The poor parakeet was lying dead on the bottom of the cage in plain sight. 

O.o

Like...why?
Why not make an effort to cover it?
Why not make an effort to clean the cage?
Like there was still food and water in the dishes of the returned cage.

Like the customer had noticed the bird was dead, picked up the cage and just took it directly to us to take care of everything.

O.o 
*shakes head*

So weird.

So very weird. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Purchased Again

A couple of weeks ago I had a customer come into the store to buy a Female Zebra Finch because he had a cage of finches where I think there was only one female and a couple of males.
So the guy wanted to even the odds a bit and get another female. 

Which I caught him one...

Only to have him return it a day or so later.
Because the female was being aggressive to the other female in the cage. 

-Which made sense. The particular batch of Zebras we got in....we ended up needing to isolate three other zebra finches -females- because they were being picked on in the main cage.

In any case.
Once the isolation period was up for the female (as we isolate animals returned to us to make sure they're healthy before putting them on the floor) we placed her back on the floor with a couple other males.

Tried to add in a couple more females, and I think one sold, while the other ended up having to be taken back off the floor because the female was being aggressive to her. 

So a couple of weeks pass.
With no one buying Zebra Finches -because we're apparently in a lull. 

And the dude comes in.
-He actually comes in a couple of times a week, not sure why. 

But today he came in as soon as the store opened.
Wanting a female zebra finch.

And I was like....Well....the one we have on the floor is the same one you returned to us.

-I knew because for whatever reason that finch didn't have a leg band on its leg. (they usually do) So I knew I'd already sold it to the guy once before.

So I was like Dude you might want another female, but it's pointless to buy the same one again that you returned.

He didn't mind though.
Why?
Because he'd gotten a different cage, with a female in it and he was wanting a companion female for her. As Zebra Finches do better in groups and he didn't want her to be alone, but everywhere else is out of zebra finches except us apparently. 

….Typing this out now....I'm realizing that I probably should have tried harder to convince him not to buy the bird....because she'd been known to pick on other females.
However...he'd known that when he purchased her the first time....as that was why he returned her.

So I guess he's hoping a different cage situation would improve the chances of the female getting along with the other?
*shakes head*

Not sure.

But I definitely won't be surprised if he ends up returning her again. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Price Match

Had a customer call the store today wanting to see if we had a specific prescription dog food in stock.
He wanted to double check the price and see how much it cost. 

He wasn't happy when I told him the price. 
Most people aren't. Prescription dog food is expensive. 

Especially when online prices are a bit lower.

"Why should I come to your store, when I can get it online?!" He demanded. 

"Well...we price match. So if you can prove that the price is lower online, we'll match it here in the store." 

"And you guarantee you'll do this? Because I'm coming from PG and I don't want to drive all the way out there only to find you won't match the price!" 

Mentally, I shook my head because PG is like a ten minute drive away? I have customers come from up to 4 hours away so it seemed kinda silly to be hung up over like a 10 minute drive. 

Still, I reassured him that we would price match, and made sure to inform the manager so he wouldn't be taken off guard.

The customer showed up a short time later, complaining about prices and having to drive all the way over here. 

*shakes head*
Thankfully I didn't have to deal with him myself. 
But the manager was patient and understanding with the customer.

Who basically just doesn't like to shop and doesn't like to spend a lot of money and was looking for a way to not leave the home.

So my manager informed him that a lot of places will ship to the house directly now and told him how to sign up for specific websites and such. 

Hopefully the customer left happy. He got his price match, and information to help him order his food online to his home. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Right Sized Cage

So for the longest time, like until this year, we would put together the bird cages that came into the store.
That way customers could take them home already assembled.
But in the past yearish, the company decided to change that.
We now have 'display cages' that are put together, with their 'need to be assembled' sellable counterparts sitting down below in their boxes. 
Which in reality, it should have been a one time thing to put together the display cages, but customers have this habit of wanting to purchase them. *shakes head*
In any case.

We aren't required to have them put together any more at work (besides the displays) 

Today though, I had a customer come into the store wanting to buy a parakeet for her grandson.

And she'd picked out the cage, which was still in the box.
Which I didn't think much of.

Until she asked me "It's already put together right?" 

To which I had to be like: O.o Ummm No?

The box was like 4 inches wide by 24 inches tall and like 18 inches wide? (I'm guessing at the numbers) But the main thing is the width.

Four inches definitely isn't wide enough for a bird to move around comfortably. 
Like the box was too narrow to be considered put together.
Yet for whatever reason this customer had thought the box contained a cage already assembled.

*shakes heads*

I ended up assembling the cage for her in the end, that way she wouldn't have to struggle to do so at home. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Feed Them?

I had a customer come into the store today looking to buy crickets.
Only he wasn't so certain on how many he wanted to buy.
Because they apparently end up dying in 2-3 days.
So he bought 50 the first time and 30 the second time....so he was thinking he maybe wanted like 20? 

So as I was bagging up the crickets I was mulling over his problem.

Because yes. Crickets die.
But the only reason why they would die within 2 or 3 days is a) if the temperature in the home was too hot or cold for them.  Or....

I asked him: Have you been feeding them?

He was like: O.o The crickets? 

Ah. That was the answer. I could tell from his tone of voice that he hadn't considered the fact that the crickets would need food. 

"Yah." was my response. "They are living creatures after all, they need food and water too to do well." 

And I proceeded to give him some options of what foods the guy could offer to his crickets.
And hopefully...it would mean that they live a lot longer this time for him. ^^;; 

*shakes head*
It's amazing how consistently I encounter people who don't realize that crickets need to eat too....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Buying a Pet

A young boy came into the store today, wanting to buy a pet.
He was probably around 12 years old and there wasn't an adult near him. So I told him that he needed a parent in order to buy a pet.

To which he responded. "I have a debit card!" 

….O.o How does a 12 year old get a debit card?!?! I don't think I got mine until like...I graduated high school. 

*shakes head* It was a moot point though. 
I told him that he needed to be 18 years old or have an adult with him in order to fill out the paperwork to buy a pet.

As we can only sell animals to people who are 18 or older. 
- You know. To prevent angry parents storming into our store demanding to know why we let their child buy a pet. 

He wandered away, and I thought that was the end of it.
Until he came back with the cashier leading him saying "Hey this kid has a question."

And he was like "So I was in here two days ago and I bought a betta fish without a problem so why do I need an adult now?" 

*exhales* 
*shakes head*
Technically I believe people have to be 16 or older to buy fish. 
But often we have children come into the store while their parents wait out in the car to buy fish...which why?? 

How did this boy get away with buying a fish two days ago?
Why was he back in the store wanting to buy a frog now? Did he even have the set up for a frog? Probably not. 

Like...where was the kid's parents now? How had he gotten to our store? Were his parents outside or had he walked here from his house? Who knew.

But I explained to him that while it's okay to buy fish, all the other animals need to have paperwork with them which meant he needed an adult.

That made more sense to him.
I'm not sure what he ended up buying in the end...I saw him looking at betta food and such. All I know is I didn't end up selling him any fish....

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Boundary

I had a family come into the store today looking for a way to keep their dog from escaping the yard.

So I directed them to our wireless and wired fencing systems.

Where the dog wears a collar around it's neck, and if it crosses the boundary set by the wired/wireless set ups....it gives a shock to the dog to tell it go back within the boundary lines. 

The customers seemed to be more interested in the wired versions -probably because it was less expensive than the wireless ones-

But the thing about the wired fencing systems is that you have to dig a trench in your yard and lay the wire in the ground to create the boundary your dog can't cross.

While the wireless doesn't do that.

It seemed like the digging wasn't an issue for them though. 

No.

What the parents were mostly concerned about...

Was if the fence system would shock their children too if they crossed it.

As apparently they were under the impression that it was the wire itself that gave off the electric shock.

*shakes head*

Nope.

It's the collar the dog is wearing. The wire line just acts as the trigger. If the line is crossed, the collar sets off a shock to the dog. 

So....unless the child is wearing the collar (which why???) .....the wire is perfectly safe and shouldn't cause any issues to humans at all. (you know...besides being a tripping hazard if they don't bury the wire) 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Specific

Had a customer who came into the store today wanting goldfish.
But not just any regular goldfish.
she wanted the orange and white ones.
Specifically the ones that looked 'more like koi" 
Because she was putting the fish in the pond with actual koi fish and wanted them to look similar to that.
Because she likes the patterns and such.

So I did that.
I fished her out orange and white goldfish with patterns that she liked. 
^^;;

Always fun to fish out specific fish. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Washy Washy

*shakes head* 
My coworkers flooded the department yesterday.
Not once.
But twice.

Why?

Because I told one coworker after I left that they still needed to gravel vacuum the fish tanks.
Only when they turned on the gravel vacuum....they didn't realize that another gizmo that puts a cleaning chemical into our sink to clean things with...was engaged which meant the water went in one tube and out another tube and....got things very wet.
-Which was surprising usually if the back area floods from using the gravel vacuum it's because the sink got clogged with something either a dish or random junk.

The second time it flooded was because my coworkers were filling up a large garbage can with water so we could clean some fish ornaments by letting them soak overnight....and they walked away....forgot about the water filling the can ….and therefore flooded the place again. *shakes head*

….Sometimes I wonder about my coworkers. *exhales* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fitted

I tried to help a woman with her dog today. 
As she was looking for a harness with a handle on the back to be able to better control her dog.
And on her own she'd found two potential types to try.

So that saved me from trying to find what she was looking for.
And really just left me with helping her to try on both varieties, showing her how to put them on and such. 

And once she decided on the harness, I also helped her find a better leash as well, one with a handle lower down the leash for her to also help control her dog. 

And she was rather grateful for my help. ^^;; 
Which is kinda nice...cus I feel like I didn't do anything much.
But at least I helped her come to a decision and find what she was looking for.
So it counts for something. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

There's the Rush

I was scheduled to open by myself today. Which is rather typical of a Monday recently. *shakes head* Not sure why they think opening can be done by just one person. But so it goes.
And having opened by myself multiple times before. 
It's no big deal....

Until the rush happens.
And with no backup in sight.
You get further behind in tasks that could have been done ages ago if people hadn't come in. *shakes head*

This particular rush....started later than usual though.
It was just after 2pm. 
And I was about to do the Fish Count so that we could get an accurate shipment of fish in for Friday's fish shipment.

But I had customers come in.
Not just one set.
But like a whole rush of them.
First it was a woman and her family wanting three hermit crabs.
Then another trio wanting a hermit crab as well ---which luckily I discovered I had one left because the family before this group had wanted 'all the hermit crabs' and I could only find three at that moment. 
Then it was crickets and fish and helping customers with bearded dragons and small pets and before I knew it....an hour had passed....and I was off.

...and no fish count had been completed. *shakes head*

Ah well....
At least I got the other things done. ^^;; 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Drowned?

This morning I had a customer and her family come into the store.
To buy a hamster.
I'm guessing for the young boy that they had with them. 

Which it was a normal interaction really.
The boy picked out which hamster he wanted. 
I gave them a few tips and suggestions on a couple other things to buy.
And sent them on their merry way.

Only...
For them to come back into the store like 3-4 hours later....
With the hamster dead. 

Which.
WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO TO KILL A PERFECTLY HEALTHY HAMSTER THE SAME DAY YOU BOUGHT IT?!

Most often the result would be that the people left the creature in the car and it go too hot.

But like...
When I got a closer look at the hamster.
That wasn't the case at all.

First off.
The hamster was soaking wet. 
Second. It's eyes were bugged out.
Third. It had wounds along it's body. 

Like. O.o 
What happened?!?

The story the customer told us is that they went home, put the hamster in the cage, and then left again.

And apparently while they were gone....the hamster somehow escaped its cage. Possibly through one of the tunnel holes? 
And climbed onto their fish tank....which the cage was apparently next too....

And when the family came home, they found the hamster floating dead in the fishtank. 

O.o Like...it had fallen in and drowned. 

Which if this is true...is such an unlucky set of circumstances because like. How? Did the fish tank not have a lid? Did it squeeze into a gap between the filter and the hood and fall in? Like...I'd think the hamster would be smart enough to not fall into something.
But like all animals have their dumb moments.

And the wet body of the hamster would coincide with the story of it falling in the fishtank.

But like....why were there wounds on the body?
Were the fish in the tank trying to eat it? 

And the eyes being bugged out....
The last time I saw a hamster with eyes like that it was because it had been squeezed to death. (which both cases were not fun to see) 

My coworker was the one who dealt with the situation and told me that she could see the brains coming out of the hamster's eye, as well as when she felt the skull...it felt like it had been crushed. 

Which....falling in a fish tank and drowning...wouldn't result in a crushed skull....

>.>
So it is a bit suspicious the circumstances under how this hamster died.
Because like....the customers could be lying.

Like the boy hardly appeared fazed by the death of his new pet. 
Which granted, could be just shock, but he wasn't teary-eyed at all. 

*exhales* 
But it's not like we could accuse customers of lying and such.
So with reluctance my coworker replaced the dead hamster with a new one -per our guarantee. 

>.> Though if they return the new hamster again....we're definitely not going to sell them another one.
Because like if they manage to have two healthy hamsters die within 24 hours....there's something wrong at the house....

*fingers crossed* that that doesn't happen though. :S 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Mouse Issue

Had a customer get frustrated with us today.

Why?
Because we don't sell live mice as a food source.
And he was looking to buy live mice to feed to his snake.  

Our policy is to only feed frozen/thawed mice to our snakes.
Therefore we only sell frozen mice as a food source. 

He didn't agree with it. 
He thinks that snakes should eat live food. 
And that our policy is stupid.
It's all stupid that he can't come into the store and buy a live mouse or three to feed to his snake. 

*exhales*

He stormed out of the store unhappy and empty handed. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A New Pet

Had a gentleman and his two year old daughter come into the store today.
They'd bought a tank a couple of weeks ago with the intention to eventually buy a snake.
And when he came in he noticed that both our Ball Pythons and our Bearded Dragons were on a rather particular sale. 

Where if you purchased a 40 gallon tank....you could get the animal at a steep discount. Like only for $10 when the animals are usually $40-$60. 

The problem? The gentleman had bought his 40 gallon tank before the sale came into existence and he wanted to know if he could still get the animal at the discounted price.

Ish?
We would need to have his receipt proving he purchased the tank. 
Which we were able to find that receipt.
And then it was just a matter of 'returning' the tank and then 'reselling' it to him so that he could then apply the animal discount to the purchase as well.

After much discussion, and my revelation that the current ball pythons we have are....a bit more strikey in nature. 

-I got bit by one earlier today. 

He ended up purchasing a bearded dragon instead. ^^;;

Hopefully he enjoys his new pet. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Golden Goldfish

Had a woman come in today wanting some goldfish to feed to her turtle that was now out in the pond for the summer.
So she had me catch some 20 large ones and 40 small ones with the specification that none of them be brown.
Which makes sense. I've heard that request from customers before because some turtles apparently struggle to see the brown goldfish in the water as compared to the bright orange ones. 

Thankfully, my recent shipment of small goldfish had had more orange goldfish in it this time around -as the last batch had been almost all brown- so it wasn't as difficult to fish out the required color. 

The interesting thing about this interaction though....was the fact that the woman apparently freezes the small goldfish, and then puts them on skewers/tongs and has to turtle eat from that. O.o 

That's definitely a new one.....Fish kabobs for turtles. *shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Egg Crate

Sometimes it's amazing what customer preferences stick in your head. 
I mean, I encountered the customer once before. A shift or two ago.
Recently because I recognized her and I had to wonder why she was back in the store already. 

And she was memorable just in how she interacted with her children....not in a good way. One of those "Be quiet we're doing this my way" sort of people. 
I felt bad for the kids honestly.

In any case.
They were grabbing crickets that other shift.
And the woman had stated that she didn't want egg crate in her bag because it makes it hard to get the crickets out.
Which easy enough to do.

And when she came in today...for more crickets (as well as fish filters) I was like "No eggcrate right?" 

To which she nodded.

Really, I was just kinda surprised that I remembered that detail. Because like...I talk to lots of customers during the course of the day and I don't always remember them if they visit again. :S

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bison Brand

I had a couple come into the store today, looking for a particular dog food, though they couldn't quite remember the name of the brand.
All they knew was that the flavor was Bison and that their picky eater of a dog really liked it.

I knew that Blue Buffalo had a bison flavor.
And thought there were other brands that had the flavor as well. 
But after a quick look around I couldn't see them.

So I told the customers of the one flavor, showed it to them. 
And left them to decide on it. 

However, before I got too far away, I encountered my manager and asked him if he knew of other brands that had the bison flavor.

And he was able to point to two other brands.
Which I then returned to the customers to say that we'd found two more. 
And they decided to go with one of the other brands I showed them because it was less expensive than the blue buffalo they were going to buy.

^^;;
So yay for going the extra step and helping them out. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

For You

I helped a guy and girl out today, who were looking to adopt a kitty.
Not for themselves as I originally thought.
But the guy was looking to get a cat for his mom.
Why?
Because he was heading out on a mission in like...four days.
And she'd be the only one left in the house.
So he wanted to get her a cat so she'd have someone there with her while he was gone.

Which I thought was rather sweet!
Like. Awww a kitty to keep her company!!

The main thing was...they were surprising the mom with this cat.
So hopefully....:S He stays well behaved for her, and she loves him to pieces because the orange tabby they picked out was such a sweet kitty and loved to cuddle and I'm going to miss him tomorrow when I come into work. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Squish

We had a customer come into the store yesterday to buy 150 crickets.

Which it's not common to get such a large number requested. Happens maybe once or twice a week. 

In any case.
She got the bag of crickets.
Took it up to the register to pay for it.
And once the cashier had scanned in the number of crickets, the customer gave the bag of bugs to her son to hold. 

And apparently.
While she was paying and the cashier was distracted.
The boy was going through and squishing the crickets one by one in the bag. 

O.o
He managed to kill about 50 of the bugs before anyone noticed and stopped him.
The mother was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
And the boy was like "I'm squishing the crickets!" 

O.o 
Like....was this your first time with bugs kid? Like...do you not know you need those to feed your pet?? Like....why? Why? What made you look at the bag and go "Oh yah I'm gonna squish these!!" 

*shakes head*
I don't know what happened after that point since I wasn't there.
But hopefully the boy didn't kill any more of the bugs before they got home.....

-Sarnic Dirchi

More Discounts

Had a customer today who thought one of the harnesses she was wanting to get was 12.97 with an additional 40% discount.

Unfortunately for her, when she went up to the register...she found that it was ringing up for 26.99 instead.

To which she complained.
It wasn't the right price. She was supposed to get 40% off of it too!!

So I was called up. 
To double check.

So I went back there.

And found the 40% off price.
A big sign over some harnesses...though the description on the sign didn't quite match what was below the sign....but since it was under that spot I was like 'yah we can give her the 40% of the price.'

But double checking that section for said price....
I found that only one peg of harnesses had a price tag on them.
All the others were unmarked.
So therefore...they weren't priced. Which meant we would need to go with the price it rang up as.

But the manager had stepped in by that point to say that we could give it to her for either 40% off or the 12.97 price.
Whichever was cheaper.

Turned out the 12.97 price was cheaper.

Only.
The woman no longer wanted the harness.
Why?
Because it was too expensive for her.
She was wanting the 40% off the 12.97 price and didn't have enough money to get the harness and everything else she was purchasing.

Unfortunately we couldn't discount it that much. Because that would be like a 90% discount. :S waaayyy too high especially considering we were already giving her like a 75% discount on the actual price. 

*shakes head*
So she didn't get the harness in the end. :( 

-Sarnic Dirchi

You're OUT?!

A woman called on the phone today.
Wanting to know about our leopard geckos.

And I responded that we were out of stock currently but I could answer questions she had.

Well....she wasn't too happy to hear that our leopard geckos were out of stock.

Why?
Because they're half off currently. 

-Which explains why we don't have any. They got bought. 

And didn't like the fact that I couldn't tell her when I would be getting more in.
Because they can appear anytime between Tuesday and Friday.
And with the 4th of July happening this week....
It's unknown how the holiday will affect our reptile shipments. 
So I couldn't guarantee to her that we'd get them in before the sale ended on the 4th. 

Nor did she like that we couldn't do a raincheck for her either on the price. 
(We stopped doing that like my second year there?) 

In the end she was like "Well can you call your sister store and ask them if they have any?" 

Which....if she'd been there in the store, I wouldn't have had an issue with.
But like...
I was on the phone with her.

And I wasn't about to put her on hold to call our Sister store and play telephone for her. Because I couldn't see that going over well.
So I instead gave her the number of the store for her to call.
Because like....she can call the store herself and ask. 

*shakes head* 

It was a bit later, after I'd hung up with her....
That I could have easily checked to see if our sister store had any in stock.
Because I'd had our scanner in my hand at the time I took the call. 
And I could have used it to check our sister store's inventory as we have that ability. 

*exhales*
Whelp. I know better for next time....

-Sarnic Dirchi