Dog Tags

I had a customer call the store today wanting to know if we had a certain dog tag in stock.
Because, from what I remember, they were wanting to get the tag for a neighbor's new puppy?

Specifically they were looking for a pink dog bone with a silver edge to it. 
And just wanted to know the price of dog tags in general. 

Which those are anywhere from like $8-$20.

And I couldn't find the specific tag they were looking for.
As the only pink dog bone with silver edges to it also had little diamonds embedded in the pink part of the tag which put it up to the $20 level.

But the customer couldn't remember if that was the tag or not as they weren't currently looking at a picture of them. 
So I gave the customer a couple other similar options and their prices.

And they were like "Can I just send you a picture of it and you can tell me if you have it?"

....Well...if this was like a normal conversation where both of us had smart phones that could receive texts and pictures then yes...that would be an excellent solution.

However.
I was speaking on our work phone.
Which is basically a brick phone.
So it doesn't get texts or pictures or anything.
As it's only meant to be used to take phone calls.

So yah. No go for that idea.
I was like "I can't receive pictures on this phone."
and the customer was like "Oh...right." 

And the conversation basically ended there....

For like maybe five minutes.
And then they called back.

Asking that if they gave me the information they wanted on the tag over the phone if we could then engrave the tag and have the customer come pick it up when it's done.

Which I'm guessing the customer was thinking that the engraving was done by hand instead of by our dog machine? *shakes head* No idea. 

But I was like "No, the tag has to be purchased first before it can be engraved"
Surprisingly the customer didn't ask if they could pay for the tag over the phone. Which the answer would have been no anyways if they had asked. Because we don't take payments over the phone.

I do wonder if they ever came in to look at the tags though....
I get the sense that they were trying to make the process as fast and painless as possible...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Overfeeding

The Reptile guy came back into the store today.
Which is rather unfortunate because I was there when he came in.
But fortunately I had happened to be behind the fish wall when he walked in.
Which meant he hadn't yet seen me.
Which meant I didn't have to interact with him.
Yay me!

It did mean that I spent like 20 minutes finding busy work behind said fish wall so I wouldn't have to come out and have to deal with the dude. 

Why did he come in today?

Well apparently the guy had bought a betta fish and had decided to come into the store to get it an actual tank instead of a bowl.

But he was also complaining that there was like this thick orange layer of gunk that had appeared on the bottom of his bowl.

Which is...like odd? After probably two or three days of having a fish.
Because bowls or tanks don't usually get that dirty that quickly.

Well.
The reason was because the dude was seriously overfeeding his fish.
Like.

You only need to give a small pinch of around 4-5 pellets to feed a betta fish.

And the dude had been putting in like quarter sized pinches of food into that tank.
*shakes head*
No wonder the gravel was so dirty.
It was full of rotting food.

And he seemed so shocked to see my coworker feeding the bettas just a few pellets and not big pinches of them.

Like dude...read the bottle? It tells you how much to feed the fish right there.

But I also find it interesting that he was overfeeding his betta.
As I feel like he under feeds everything else he owns.
As this was the dude who killed a snake because he tried to feed it a vegan diet.
And like...he often cuts back on how many crickets he buys because he doesn't want to spend a lot of money.
But the reptiles need more food than he's willing to give them.

*exhales*
I'm just glad I didn't have to deal with him directly.
As apparently he also wanted to buy another Ball Python.
Which considering the fact that that was the type of snake he'd purchased from us before and killed with his vegan diet attempt...ha ha no. We're not selling a snake to you only for you to kill it.
It doesn't matter what your little boy wants in a pet.
Sometimes you just have to tell them no.

So yah.
The customer ended up not getting a snake,
But he said he'd be back later to get one.
Hopefully my coworkers don't sell him one.

-Sarnic Dirchi

20 Mins

So we took animals to the vet yesterday right?
Well...only two of the three we took ended up returning yesterday.

However, when they were returned to us....there was nothing whatsoever written on their charts and there were no medicines given.

Which seemed kinda odd.
At least the no notes part.
We have taken animals to the vet who have been deemed healthy before or else have meds that can only be given at the vet's. 

But still...because I was informed that it was rather crazy at the vet's when my manager went to go pick up the pets.
I decided to call the vet today to double check and make sure we didn't have medicine for the animals that had been left at their place.

The receptionist who answered the phone was like "Oh! Let me go check!" 

....And then didn't come back.

Like I literally waited for 20 minutes on the phone for them to get back to me.
And nothing.

....Which was a little bit irritating as if something is taking a while I would usually at least pick up the phone and get back to the person on hold so they wouldn't be left hanging. 

So at the 20 minute mark I hung up and called the vet back.
And the receptionist was like "Oh! I'm so sorry! I was waiting for the vet to get out of the room" -I'm assuming they were seeing a patient. "But they haven't come out yet, how about I take down your number and I'll give you a call when I find out." 

....Which couldn't they have like....just looked on the computer and found out? *shakes head*

I actually expected that I would need to call them back again later in the day to get an actual answer.
But surprisingly the receptionist did call me back to say that yes we did forget the meds that both animals needed.

Which *exhales* You'd think....that they'd be slightly more on top of that. 
But in any case. It wasn't that much of a hassle as we needed to return to the vet anyways to grab the chinchilla as he stayed overnight to get the lump on his throat drained this morning.

So hopefully...this trip around my manager got all the meds. 
*fingers crossed*

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Lump

So we've had a chinchilla in the back for a little bit now.
That had to be isolated for a while and put on medications because one of his eyes was getting all goopy and the skin around the eye was getting all red and irritated.

But today he was finally deemed healthy enough to return to the floor to be sold! Woot!

Which is great news because the chinchillas require bigger cages than everyone else who could potentially need isolation.
And bigger cages take up more space.

So I was excited to also finally be taking down this larger cage and open up space for other smaller cages if they were needed.

However.

After I placed the Chinchilla back on the floor with his buddies....
and a little bit later I happened to notice that one of the other chinchillas....wasn't looking quite right.

In that his neck area seemed lumpier than normal.

Which...haven't never seen a chinchilla stuff their cheeks...I wasn't sure if that was a thing they actually did. Since I've never seen them with chubby cheeks...I doubted the potential odd shape to the neck was food.
But since one of the chinchillas was being reintroduced, it could have just been fluffed up fur from interacting with each other.

Still.
To be on the safe side I opened up the cage and grabbed the chinchilla out to check him and see for sure what this odd looking area was.

And discovered a large lump on the chinchilla's neck. :S 

That's not good.

Thankfully, I we already had a vet visit scheduled for a couple other animals who needed to be seen, and I just barely caught my manager before they left for the vet so that I could add the Chinchilla into the group going to be seen.

From what I hear the lump just needs to be drained so yay! Simple thing. Then he'll probably be put on medications for a week or two to make sure that a) the lump doesn't reform b) no infections occur and c) healing happens. 

Which means....that I have to keep the big cage set up.
Though I did make sure to clean it out first so the new chinchilla has a nice cozy place to stay.

Still...would have liked to have that cage taken down... *exhales* 
It will happen eventually. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Measure This

I had a customer come up to me today asking if we had a Tape Measure of some sort.

Probably because he wanted to measure the size of a tank or a crate or an igloo or something.
Or maybe the inside of his car.

As that's usually why people ask to measure things.
Because they want to make sure the thing they're planning to buy will fit into their transportation to either stay in the vehicle or else at least make the journey home.

lol but when I pulled out a Tape Measure for this customer.

He was like O.o Why do you even have a tape measure?! 

....
Because occasionally we have to measure things here too in the store?
Like my department uses a tape measure when we need to measure out aquarium backgrounds that people want cut to a specific size/length. 

I think other uses we have for them is to measure the shelves. Like the heights of them when we have to move them around when we rearrange our endcaps to hold different products.

But yah...we use them here.
Not often but we do.

*shakes head*

But like....if you weren't expecting us to have a tape measure, dearest customer.....why did you ask for one in the first place??

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Buck and a Half

It's funny how customers get hung up over like...the little things? 

Especially little things where it makes me wonder why there's an issue in the first place. 
But then again I've known the answer long enough that when people don't know the answer it throws me off. 

One of the more common questions people have been asking is if we pricematch our online store as they found the same product online for cheaper than it is here in the store.
Which yes we do. We pricematch our online store.

Which often makes the customers happier to save money in that way.

Today it was the same sort of situation.
Where I asked a customer if they needed any help with anything.

And the gentleman was like "Yah, I'm trying to figure out why you're a buck and a half cheaper online than here in the store." 

....Well....

If the item is on sale...it's because the online store is doing a sale and the physical store is not.
But we can still pricematch it.

It could also be that the product doesn't cost as much online if it's not on sale because they don't have to account for the cost of shipping the product to the store and the labor involved in getting the product on the shelf....which could potentially make it slightly more expensive in the store.

It could also be that there was a price change recently and our store either hasn't a) received the pricing changes yet or b) haven't had time to put up the new prices. 


In any case...there's multiple reasons why it's potentially cheaper online.
but we will still price match our online store.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A School Project

So somewhere in the valley...at one of our colleges. There's apparently a teacher who is assigning their students a project that will last 6-8 weeks where they need to care for an animal for that period of time.
Which means they need to acquire a pet, care for it, monitor it and who knows what other details they need to record.

I mean...it's a cool idea. And will probably help people learn how to care for animals and such.

But at the same time....it's such a stupid thing?
Like.
If you're going to have your students do such a project then you should provide the animal for them to take care of. That way when the assignment is done, the teacher will just get the animal back and be able to use them for the next semester.

But no.
The students have to go acquire their own pets for this project.
And the kicker?
It can't be a fish.

Like.
Fish are the least expensive pet (if you get like a betta fish and a small tank) for students to take on.
And they're probably the one most likely to be accepted in student housing.
As most apartments don't allow pets.

So like...how can your students do this project if they can't have the pet in their homes?

And like....what are all these students going to do with the pet once the project is over with?
Like. Some will probably keep their new pet.
but others? They'll try to get rid of them as quickly as possible now that their 'work' is done. 

I foresee a lot of phone calls in two months time asking if we'll take animals back.

Which we won't do because our return policy doesn't last that long.

It just seems....like an all around bad thing for the animals. 
*shakes head*

Not sure what the teacher is thinking. 
But i warned my coworkers of the potential issue and to make sure the people coming in (if they come in) know what they have to do to care for the animal. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Parakeet Time

I got called over to help grab a couple of birds for some customers because my coworker standing nearby was trying to get the bedding change for the small pets done before they were off.

Which I get the feeling. As I've done the same thing too.
Though usually I just break away from my task and help the customer.

In any case. The customers wanted a boy and girl parakeet.

-...Which I'm always curious why people insist they get a boy and a girl. Like doing so can increase the chances of having eggs hatch and such once these babies are mature.
But like the parakeets we get into the store are only 3-4 months old.
So I'm pretty sure that if you just pick your two favorite looking birds.
They'll be best buddies and won't care what gender their companion is so long as they have a friend with them.

In any case.
These customers wanted a boy and a girl.
So after a bit of looking -as the birds aren't always old enough to be able to easily tell- I managed to catch the two birds that the customer wanted. 

And after placing them in the box, took them to the register.

But as I was telling the customers where to get their birds.
Another family came up with a young girl also wanting to get a bird.

She too wanted to know what the gender was. Though it made sense in her situation as she just wanted to know so she could pick a good name that fit the bird.
Unfortunately the one she picked was still too young to tell for sure, though I was guessing it was a boy, possibly by the faintest hints of blue on the nose. 

The little girl though was less enthusiastic about me clipping her bird's wings.
But if she wanted to tame it down--which she did--the best way to do that is to keep the bird from being able to fly as well.

So after I clipped the bird's wings. I take it up to the register.
With good timing because the previous customers were just walking out of the store with their two birds so there was less chance of there being a mixup at the register.

And my manager who was standing nearby was like "Those people want another bird." 
And I turned around confused because there weren't any other people in the area. 

Only for the manager to be like "I'm kidding, they don't want another bird." 

BUT THEN

Like ten minutes later. 
Guess what happened?

Yep. That customer (the mother of the little girl) came up to me saying that they'd changed their mind and they wanted another bird.

*exhales*
So I ended up catching like 4 birds in a row. *shakes head*

The manager was like O_o huh...even when I'm teasing I'm right. I didn't realize I could predict the future.

*shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi  

A Painted Turtle

I had a customer...well two?? customers come into the store today wanting Painted Turtles.

I think it was like a mother daughter duo? Where each one wanted to get a Painted Turtle for their tank?

Which is fun...though...i'm not sure why they would want turtles specifically. *shakes head*

However.
I had two problems.

Problem one. I only had one Painted Turtle in stock.
And they wanted two.

Problem two.
The painted turtle I had in stock....has been acting off the past week or so.
Like it's eyes are always closed and the turtle never wants to open them. 

So I wasn't sure how healthy the little guy actually was.
Like has he been eating? He's been swimming around a bit that I could see...but with his eyes always closed...it's hard to tell for sure if he can sense the food enough to go after it. 

The customers seemed really set on buying him...until I mentioned this issue. Though I did tell them about our guarantee where if the turtle didn't look to be improving in a few days -as it's hard to tell exactly why the turtle's eyes were closed in the first place- that we could take it to the vet for them.....OR they could look at a couple other turtles that I had.

As honestly I don't know why they were so set on a Painted....I suppose they said they had researched them and thought they were the best?
But I showed them that we also carried a Red-Eared Slider and an African Sideneck Turtle as well.

And when I brought them out, the red-eared slider was far more alert and active and his eyes were open.

So thankfully the customers ended up chosing to buy him instead of the Painted.

And as soon as they were out of the store wtih their new pet.
I took the Painted Turtle off the floor and placed him in our Isolation room where we could monitor him closer and hopefully in the next day or two take him to the vet. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Return?

So my manager had me call a customer today.

Because we'd received notification from...I think it was corporate? That someone who had shopped at our store and bought a pet here...had taken to Twitter to ask the company's twitter account a question in regards to their pet.

As they'd bought it a little over a month ago. 
And had thought that they knew what they were doing --as they've had this same pet before--but they realized that the animal they purchased wasn't doing well and wanted to return it.

But they were aware that it was over the time frame for them to officially be able to return the pet as we have like a two week guarantee where we'll accept animal returns.

And it's been over a month.

Normally we don't do animal returns after so long.
But we do make exceptions.

Especially when the customer didn't call the store directly to ask their question and went to Twitter....like....that's the confusing part.
Why not just call our store? 
Did they call and we said no? So then they took to twitter?
Or did they just, for whatever reason....not think about just contacting my location directly? 

In any case.

The manager showed me the email in regards to this customer and their situation.
And wanted me to call them to tell the customer that we would accept the animal back even though it's over our return policy. 

I have no idea why my manager didn't want to talk to the customer themselves. 
But whatever.

I called the customer with the simple directive to tell them that they could bring the animal back to us at their convenience and we would accept their return. 

Of course.
It couldn't be that simple.

*exhales*

Because upon answering the phone the customer explained to me....that yesterday their spouse had come downstairs to discover....that the pet had passed away.

>_< *exhales* 

Which complicates the situation because it's easy to return a live pet to us because then we can resell it. 
But a dead one?
Not so much.

Still. I'd been directed to tell the customer that they could bring the pet back to us.
So that's what I told them.

Only.
Another problem.

They'd thrown the pet away.
After all it was dead.
They weren't going to keep it around. 

And like...I do have to have a body as proof of death because customers could come in all day long claiming they lost their pet and for all we know, without the body there, the animal could be alive and well.
So like...we need to have the animal physically returned to us. 

So the customer told me that they would go see if they could go find the body of the pet in the trash.

And that was the last I heard of it.

I updated the manager on what had occurred. 

And we'll see if the customers a) find the body and b) return it to us.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Switcharoo

I came into the store this morning to see a seventy-five gallon tank on the floor.

Like...where a tank should have to be.

And the manager was like "Oh that was returned yesterday by one of our regular customers"

-Apparently this regular customer has a history of being a problem customer in the fish section of the store.
Which probably means that I've helped him at some point.
Yet at the same time...without a visual reference....I don't know if I've actually helped this customer. 

In any case.
This customer bought a 75 gallon tank.

But ended up returning it because like...he'd made the tank a salt water tank...but needed to move and therefore couldn't keep it anymore.

He apparently had the receipt and everything 'appeared' to be all in order.

And first glance the tank appeared to be one of ours.

But later on after the tank was taken to the back...I noticed that the stand wasn't right.

The doors were more narrow.
The top of the stand a different design.

Like sure the tank itself probably could have been ours.
But the stand itself. Definitely not ours. Because it looks nothing like the stands we've carried with that tank.

When the head manager came in, he took a closer look and concurred.

And also found the manufacture's date for that tank.

2007.

The tank is like THIRTEEN YEARS OLD.

*rolls eyes*

So I can only guess that the customer actually bought a brand new tank....but then decided he wanted to get his money back but still keep the new tank.
And therefore brought back his old tank to trick us into thinking it was the same tank he'd bought--

Which idk when he actually bought the tank so it could have been a month or so ago.

But like...my coworkers last night noticed nothing. *exhales*

So that's frustrating.

Like we gave the dude his money back for a tank we can't even resale and he gets a brand new tank in the process.

Like you have to applaud him for being clever like that.

But at the same time.
I'm oh so irritated that the dude had the gall to do it.

I really hope that karma bites him hard for that.
Like the filters quit. The tank cracks and he can do nothing about it.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Balancing Act

Saw the cutest thing today.

A gentleman, who probably would have fit well in a biker gang.
Came into the store today.
With a chihuahua dog balancing on his shoulder.

Like no harness or anything to hold him in place. She just was standing there on his shoulder like a cat.

It was adorable!! lol. 

I wish I could have got a picture. 

Because that's not something I see every day lol. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Follow Directions?

So I had a customer walk up to me today while I was finishing the bedding change, asking where the dog cones were.

And like...I don't know the direction she came from exactly, but I'm pretty sure she was standing right near the cones before she walked over to me to ask where they were.

So I was like "You see those fridges on aisle ten? The cones are right by them on the endcap."
Because they were literally right by them on a power wing next to the fridge.
So like if you look at the fridge you would be able to see them.

But like the customer....*shakes head* She had her two kids with her, and all three of them were about to walk right on by the cones.

Like they were looking at the other side of the aisle, their backs turned to them.

So I quickly finished what I was doing with the cages and walked over to them and was like "You were looking for these right? The dog cones?" As I gestured to them hanging there in plain sight.

"Oh! YES!" was her rather flustered response, though I think she appreciated that I came over to redirect her to look in the proper spot.
Otherwise I'm not sure she would have found them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Holding

I got called over to the guinea pigs today because a customer wanted to hold one.

But it ended up being more than one customer.
As when I got there there was another customer standing nearby looking at the animals in the cages.
And when she saw that I had brought out a guinea pig for the first customer to hold, then asked if I would be able to bring out one of the Chinchillas so she could hold it too.

I can only have one animal out at a time though so this customer had to wait until the original customer was done. 

But then I put the guinea pig back and took out the chinchilla and her reaction of AWWWW THIS IS AWESOME!!

Had the customer who held the guinea pig wanting to hold the chinchilla too.

Her reaction was the same.
Which drew the attention of like another four girls in the area.

And soon enough there was a line of people just wanting to hold the chinchilla. *shakes head* lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Return

I was called up to the register today to grab some fish that a customer was returning.

Thankfully they were all alive this time. 
So yay!

But the weird thing was that they were all glofish.

There had to be around a dozen of them.

And like....I can understand not wanting one or two fish anymore.
But to return a dozen....is like weird.
Especially when I couldn't see anything wrong with them.

It turns out the reason why the customer was returning them.

Was because they had bought them for an event that happened last night.

And now that the event was over.
They were returning the fish because they didn't want/need them anymore. 

.
..
...
..
.

Seriously?

*exhales*

I don't like those sort of people.
Like you needlessly stressed out the fish for no reason basically.
Just because fish can be 'ornamental' doesn't mean that they can be treated like a knick knack or a trophy or whatever.
They're living creatures and they deserve to be treated as such and take care of.

*exhales*
Yah I don't like this person.

-Sarnic Dirchi

He's Back!

I had a welcome surprise at work today.

As a few months ago, I don't remember exactly when, but it's been a while.
Our usual dude who delivers our weekly shipments of small pets and birds informed me that he was quitting and moving to a different state.

Which...was rather sad as he'd been coming to the store for a good twoish years by that point? So like he was a pretty constant familiar face and a great person to chat with the few minutes he was in the store to drop off the animals.

It left a void in a way because the new delivery guy wasn't as...chatty? Like he'd speak a bit, but the conversation never lasted long. 

So there was a period of adjustment there. Getting used to the new guy and such.

But today.

My manager was like "Isn't that the old delivery guy?" When I pointed out that the truck that the company uses had shown up at the store.
And I was like "No he's gone remember?"
But like...looking at his profile I was like "He does look familiar." 
And the manager was like "I swear it's that guy because he wears the hat the same way."

And wouldn't you know it!
It was our old delivery guy!!!!

WHAT??!!?

Apparently he'd missed his family --as he'd moved further away from them--and decided to move back to be closer to them and get his old job back!!

lol it was crazy because I had a moment of questioning if I had somehow accidentally gone back in time because like....i never expected to see this driver again.

and here he was!

But it doesn't sound like this will be his permanent route though. He may be only showing up every 'once in a while' but it's hard to say for sure as it's only his second week back on the job.

But apparently the new guy who took over his route when he originally quit....nearly quit himself when he found out he hadn't been assigned this route this week.
Like. O_o Huh???

I wonder why....because the driver dude is pretty like....mellow? No extreme reactions or emotions just like a flat line. 

So to hear he threw a tantrum was rather....odd from what I knew of that driver.

Who knows. Maybe everyone likes this route because my store (aka because I'm there) is on it. ;) lol.

No idea.

I hope we get to see the old deliver guy more often though.
I like chatting with him.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Standard?

So my manager has been doing the animal counts for the past little while...like three our four months now? So they've done them at least like idk 12 times? 

And yet there's still times where they don't remember things or misunderstand something or want to double check things because they're not confident of their skills.

Most of the time that struggle is that they don't always remember to count the animals that we have off the floor. Kinda an 'out of sight out of mind' sort of problem.
While other times it's just counting the goldfish and crickets because there's a ton of them.

Today though was a unique issue.

Because like....my manager has done this count at least a dozen times right?

And today she was like "I think we're missing all of these." And points to the listing for our 100 count mealworms.

Like it's normal for us to be missing a couple of them because we use those containers in the store to feed our reptiles. So to have 1-3 of them missing is understandable. 

And from how my manager had marked it it showed only one was missing.

But no. Apparently the manager was like "No no we don't have any of these!" 

No I'm pretty sure we do as I remembered seeing a bunch of them earlier. 

So I go to our fridge and sure enough there they all are.
"You mean these?"

"No. Because those don't say "standard" on them they say "large" instead!" 

Which yes....on the container of 100 it does say large mealworms.
But that's the standard size of the mealworms. We only carry 'large' or 'giant' versions. 

Again. My manager has been counting similar looking containers for the past three or four months.

And hadn't had an issue with it before.
My guess is that they actually read the words this time on the paper and then realized they didn't match the words on the container??

No idea.
They did admit to 'overthinking it' which yep. They did over think it.

Because we haven't ever carried any other type of 100 count mealworms. *shakes head*

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Color. It's the Color

So I had a customer who was interested in adding more fish to their tank.
And they had focused in on the Glofish we have.

Because they have a more mellow community based tank I directed the customer to look more at the GloTetras and the GloDanios we have.

Though I encouraged them to look more to the Tetras as they're rather hardy. While the Danios are....iffy. Some weeks they do great. Other weeks....not so much.

In any case.

We have three tanks of Tetras. Two tanks on the top row and one tank in the middle row.
The top left has the long-finned versions of the pink, purple, orange, and green.
While the middle row tank has the same fish just short finned in the pink, orange, and green.
While the top right tank has the short finned tetras in the purple, red, and blue varieties.

Basically, we divided them by fin and color. 
As putting like 50 fish in one tank isn't the best of ideas.
So we divided them out so a) you could see the fish and b) we can catch them easier.

And the customer looking at the tanks of tetras was like: "What's the difference with these fish?" 

....Really?
Like if you take a moment to stare at them the answer should be obvious.
It's the colors.

They're divided by colors.

Of course....that may not be as obvious as I think it should be if the person is color blind. 
But at the same time....
Like...it should be clear why they're similar yet different??

*shakes head* 

idk. Sometimes I think customers think that the easy solution is far to easy to be the actual solution so they ask what the solution is expecting a difficult answer...when really we just give them the actual easy solution. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Do You Want More?

So I came across a customer standing by the guinea pigs, looking at them.
So as per my job, I asked them if they needed any help.
The customer was like "No, not with guinea pigs, but I do need crickets."

Which those were easy enough to grab since I'd just barely finished bagging a bunch of them like thirty minutes before. 

Though usually customers come over to the cricket podium when they're asking for crickets. This particular customer got sidetracked apparently.

Or...they haven't been in the store recently.

In any case I was like "Okay what size?"

To which they responded "Large."

"And how many?" I asked because I can't really grab them crickets unless I know how many of them I need to grab. 

And the customer gave me this blank look. 
Like they'd never even considered that crickets could come in different amounts.
And they obviously weren't sure how many they would actually need.
Because it was a good ten seconds of wide eyed silence before the customer was like "12?" 

Which thankfully I'd bagged up 12 large crickets.
So it was easy enough to grab them off the podium and then give them to the customer. And I was like "Okay anything else I can help you with."

And the customer was like "How much are they?"

To which I answered "15 cents each." 

The answer had them hesitating...wondering if they should get more crickets than the 12. 

But they were taking forever to decide on yes or no.
So I said that I was going to take a phone call real quick and check in on them.

A few minutes later I did just that.

And the customer after a bit more dithering decided that no they didn't want more crickets.

Which I was fine with.
It's not like I was waiting anxiously to bag some more. 

And so I left them to do some other tasks.....

Only to have the cashier call me over the radio and ask me to bag 12 more crickets.

XP 
Because apparently the customer didn't realize that 12 crickets was like...$2 and they didn't want to spend so little at the register and so requested 12 more.

*exhales*

It was kinda irritating really. As I checked with them at least three times on if they wanted more crickets and they told me time and time again that no they didn't.....and then to have them decide yes they actually did at register. 
Bleh. 
Frustrating and annoying. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A New Companion

I helped a customer today, who wanted to get some goldfish for her elderly mother. 

Why?

Because they had recently put down her dog, and the daughter felt like her mother could use another companion in the house.

And she felt that having a tank in the kitchen that her mother could interact with and watch would be the perfect thing for her.

Me....I'm not so sure.

Like fish are fun to have.

But at the same time....idk if I would want to go from cuddly dog to tank of fish.

Honestly another furry creature would probably be a better fit.

In any case.

The customer was deadset on getting the tank and the fish all today.

Confident that she would be able to do it all without the fish dying...because she herself had goldfish and they'd lived like a whole 7 years with no issue. 

So, I backed off, and let the customer pick out a couple of fish for the tank.

Hopefully they live.

And hopefully the mother enjoys her new gift.

Who knows. It may be the perfect fit despite my thoughts about it.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish?

I don't know if it was just like the after effects of celebrating the New Year. 
Or else if it was just...one of those trending days where customers have the same problem/need the same thing.

But I dealt with a lot of customers today at the fish wall who just...seemed to have forgotten to turn their ears on.

As I ended up repeating myself multiple times and ended up in circular conversations because the customers weren't listening to the answers I was giving the first time.

Like a customer came in wanting to get a fish for a bowl.
I told them that they would have to do a betta fish. 
As all the fish on a wall would need a filter and a heater.

"Even a goldfish?" They asked. 
Yes. Well the goldfish wouldn't need the heater, but they would need a filter unless the customer wanted to do a water change like every day to keep the fish alive.

The little boy was like "I can do that!"
Ha.
Ha.
Suuuree kid. Sure.

The customer was like "Okay..." 
But then their spouse was like "What about these fish here?!" pointing to fish on the wall.
Which like....I had just told them two minutes ago.
All the fish on the wall need a filter and a heater.
So that obviously includes the tank they just pointed at.

*shakes head*
And they were like "Well what can go in a bowl?"

If you'd been lis-ten-ing you would have realized. I already told you. The betta fish.

The problem?
I'm out of bettas. Have been since basically christmas because I haven't had a fish shipment since the Friday before Christmas.
Hopefully we get more in tomorrow because we need those bettas.

In any case. 
The customer ended up getting a red claw crab since they technically don't need a filter either and can deal with a water change.
*exhales* 

Still.
I had multiple conversations like that all involving fish today and just like....listen people. Please. 

-Sarnic Dirchi