Help?

Had a bit of an odd moment in the store where a customer brought in a dog stroller that they had bought earlier today.
But they hadn't brought it back to return it.
No. They apparently couldn't figure out how to put it together.
And so drove all the way back out to us to ask us if we could help them out.

Which like...I don't get it. 
Do other stores have customers do this??
But like...unless we've purchased and used the product ourselves...we don't know how to put together the product in the box any more than the customer does.
It's not like we open up product in our spare time (ha what spare time?) and put thing together and then take it apart again. 

Yet customers assume we know how to put together cages, or what types of filters are with in a tank, or what a specific dog food looks like outside of the bag. 
Nope.
We have no idea unless we've used the product ourselves.

And I don't think any of my coworkers have bought a dog stroller like...ever.

In any case.
Our Cashier said that they could help the customers inbetween checking out other customers at the register. (as we're short staffed, the rest of us were busy with other tasks or other customers and couldn't come up)

But like...in the end the customers didn't even need the cashier's help.

Like I'm not certain if the cashier told them to just read the instructions (i'm not sure they had even looked at them in the first place) or what.
But basically the cashier just had to stand and watch them and they figured it out all on their own without needing further assistance.

Like....you drove all the way out here...and didn't need our help.
*shakes head*
I don't get it.
Customers are weird. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Bottom Feeders?

Had a customer come into the store today to look at the fish.
And at first I wasn't certain if they needed help because the customer was on the phone talking to someone.

-Which I don't like to interact with people on the phone because like...you can't tell if they actually need help or if they're wandering around for funsies and I don't want to interrupt a phone call if the customer doesn't actually need help.
But it's also frustrating when the customer actually needs help because like...if they'd hung up and talked to me I could have helped them much sooner. 
But with them on the phone I just assume they're not ready yet and move on with my day.

In any case the customer indicated that they wanted some glofish.
And after I finished bagging them the customer was like "Do you have any bottom feeder fish?"

Which the answer is yes....we have like catfish, loaches, ghost shrimp...
So I was like "Besides catfish?" 
To which the customer was like "No, it wasn't that. It was--well I'm not sure you carry it, or if it was only a different pet store that has them." 

But like the customer didn't clarify what type of bottom feeder they were actually looking for. 
And the only other one I could think of was our loaches...which we were out of those ones. Sooo...I couldn't really show the customer those either....

They never hung up the phone either, which made it difficult to talk to them because I never knew if they were talking to me or to the person on the phone and I didn't want to interrupt this mysterious person on the other side of the phone call....

So yah. Kind of a stressful interaction.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish Now!

Had a father come into the store looking to get a tank for his kids...or maybe mostly his daughter?
Because she wanted fish.
And they'd had a betta fish before, but it died and the guy was looking for an 'easy' fish to take care of.
Which like...the betta fish are the easiest fish to care for.
Everything else takes a bit more work to make sure the tank is properly taken care of.

But the guy seemed to zero in on the glofish and wanted to know what kind of tanks he could get to have the glofish glow. 
So I showed him a few different options and went over pros and cons with different tanks and the type of fish he wanted to get.

Which was semi-difficult to do because the daughter kept coming and interrupting us wanting to show him things around the store.
And at one point he was like "We need to get the tank first and then come get fish tomorrow."

And the little girl was like "No! I want the fish today! We can come get the tank tomorrow."

lol. Luckily the father didn't listen to the child and chose to get the tank first.

But it was rather amusing to have the child insist that they should get the fish first.
Like...dear child...you need to have the tank to put the fish in, if you don't have the tank where are you gonna put the fish?? Because they can't stay in the bag all night and it doesn't sound like your dad has the old tank around if he's coming to buy a new one...

Just kinda an amusing moment.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Catching Fish

There is a simple feeling of accomplishment whenever I am able to catch fish faster than people expect.
Or like, if I'm able to easily catch the specific fish that they want without it seeming like too much effort.
It's fun really.
To hear their exclamations of surprise.
Their compliments of "Wow you're so skilled! You must have been doing this for a while." 

Lol. It's just fun.
I love taking people off guard.
The individuals where they don't expect me to be done catching their fish already. Or don't realize I've caught their fish.

It just gives me a thrill. Knowing that I exceeded expectations lol.

It happened multiple times today, catching fish for people.
And it was nice. Having people be grateful that I was able to help them quickly, and expressing their gratitude.
That's part of the job that I like doing.
Making people's days easier by getting them what they wanted faster than expected.

It's also handy when I'm in a hurry.
Being able to move quicker (most of the time unless the fish are being stubborn) and catch the fish and move onto the next person.

So yah.
It was nicer today.
Just being able to focus on catching fish and not stressing too much over everything else going on. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Being Indecisive

It was the end of my shift.
I was working on closing down PetCare.
And had like ten minutes to go.
When this pet parent came in stating that they wanted fish.
But they weren't sure which ones they wanted.
So I said that they could go look but to let me know what fish they wanted before 730 as that's when I had to close the department down for the night (as I was off and we were going down to two people for the evening and therefore stopped animal sales). 

*exhales*
Turns out this customer was one of the indecisive ones.
Where the knowledge that the clock is ticking only seemed to make them move slower in their decision making skills.
Plus...it didn't help that they were trying to get fish that didn't go well together.
Like wanting to put a cichlid in their tank with a molly and a gourami.
(Not good)

And like indecisive customers i can deal with.
But add into that that the customer had three kids, two of them under the age of like three.
Who were scream their heads off and throwing a tantrum (probably the 'i need a nap' sort of tantrum) 
While the customer is just staring at the wall unable to decide on their final fish because their oldest child kept distracting them with the fish and kept requesting I catch more fish and gah.

It was already 730.
And the customer was like "I just want one more" 
(they got 4 more fish)

Thankfully they did make a decision after like three more minutes of indecisiveness.
But it certainly got on my nerves tonight.
Probably because it feels like everyone suddenly needs help at 730.
And I just want to go home at that point. 
And screaming kids on top of it didn't help at all.

So yah.
Glad to be home away from it all. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Too Much Conditioner?

Had two college guys come into the store to buy some goldfish.
As apparently they'd bought a tank and a fish...but it had died right away.
So after getting new fish, 
They came to me, wanting to make sure they'd bought the right kind of water conditioner for their tank.
As they were wondering if they bought the wrong kind and that's why the fish died.

Nope. They'd bought the right kind.

However.
After talking to them I discovered that their tank was maybe around 3 gallons, judging by the approximate size they were indicating their tank was.
And I asked them how much water conditioner they'd placed in the tank.
Because putting too much in can often kill the fish. 

Yah.
The dude said that he'd poured in like...half the bottle.

Considering one full bottle can treat 230 gallons of water....
Half a bottle at 115 gallons into a 3 gallon tank.....
Yah....you killed your fish from overtreating the tank. *shakes head*

The dude didn't even think to read the directions.
So I corrected them, and told them to only put in a few drops.
Because like 5ml will treat 10 gallons. So you only really need like 1ml or so for the little 3 gallon tank. 

*fingers crossed* that they don't kill their new fish right away.
I did tell them to change out like half the water to get the water levels down.
So hopefully that helps.
Hopefully.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Our Gravel?

A customer requested something I've never had requested before.
They wanted to get some fish tank gravel.
But not just any gravel.

They wanted to know if we sold the gravel out of our fish tanks.
Like the fish tanks on our fish wall...filled with water and fish (and an infestation of snails that we're trying to keep under control) and like...who knows how old that gravel actually is.
Probably 2 or 3 years old by this point. I can't quite remember when we switched most of it out.

But the customer wanted this gravel.
Wanted to know if we sold it or if we gave it away for free.
....Because apparently our sister location down south has done it before??
Who knows for sure.

But apparently because the gravel has been in the tanks for forever it's filled with the beneficial bacteria that's good for helping to establish tanks.
The customer claimed it could establish the tank like a month faster?

Which makes sense. Though with the fact that we usually gravel vacuum and scrub the tanks on a weekly basis...I'm not sure how much 'good bacteria' is there on the rocks...but i could see how it was possible.

However it was something we'd never done before here to my knowledge.
And I told the customer that this wasn't a thing.

They of course wanted me to check with a manager to see if they would allow me to give some of our fish tank rock to the customer.

Unfortunately for the customer, the manager vetoed it. 

But yah.
It was a different request than I normally get...

-Sarnic Dirchi

Chomp Chomp

So have this regular customer who comes in on a near weekly basis to buy goldfish to feed their turtle named Bob.
-Though the customer recently decided that Bob may actually be a girl. However since they've had the turtle for years now...they're just keeping the name as Bob.

And Bob is an interesting turtle. I believe she's a red-eared slider? In any case. The pet parents brings Bob in during the winter and then puts her back outside into the pond during the warmer months.

And Bob is the sort of turtle that will eat dead fish from the hand (or skewer as the pet parent doesn't want nipped fingers) 
So while it's not warm out, the customer will buy the goldfish. Some to feed to the turtle as soon as they get home, the rest to freeze and feed later on.

And this customer is always excited when I'm the one in the department because I can catch fish the fastest out of everyone in the store. (I've been doing it longest so that makes sense) 
But has been making a point to tell me this the last few times I've seen them. That they're glad I'm the one working when they come in.

In any case.
They were telling me that Bob's taken up a new...pastime? hobby? attempted food source?

As the customer came in today to get 150 goldfish instead of like the usual 60.
Because they noticed that this year, it appears that some local snakes have realized that there's fish in the pond and want to try their hand...fangs? at catching some fish.

Only the snakes hadn't accounted for Bob lurking in the pond.
And Bob is...pretty territorial. 

And apparently has taken to catching and trying to drown any snakes that enter into the pond.
As the pet parent caught Bob in the act twice now.

The first time Bob had the snake by the mouth and the snake was desperately trying to wiggle free.
And the only reason why Bob let go was because the owner's spouse grabbed a pole and lightly tapped Bob on the shell--as the turtle doesn't like her shell being touched and that caused her to immediately let go and the snake swam for freedom (and straight to the spouse who was like 'HEY I JUST FREED YOU DON'T ATTACK ME!) 

The second time, Bob had grabbed onto the snake in the middle and was trying to drag the snake underwater to drown it.
With a repeat performance with the pole, Bob was made to let go of the snake...but this one was more...lifeless than the other.
So the pet parent took the snake by the tail and put it in a spot far away from the pond to see if it would recover.

They were still uncertain if the snake actually survived, but it wasn't there when they went to check on it later.

Still it's kinda crazy.
I haven't heard of turtles attacking snakes before. O_o 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fluffy

It's interesting the words people use to try and describe what they're looking for.
Or I suppose the adjectives.
As I can tell the customer has a clear objective in mind. A clear picture in their mind of what they want.

But the words they use...make it rather confusing.

I had a customer come into work today who wanted some of our feeder goldfish.

But not just any of the feeder goldfish.

The customer wanted six goldfish with the biggest 'fluffiest' tails. 

Which when one thinks of 'fluffy' 
Fish are not what comes to mind.
Usually that's creatures with fur. Or baby birds.

But fish??

Not really considered 'fluffy.' 

However. 
I knew what the customer was getting at. 
As I feel like I've had a customer describe goldfish in such a manner before. Though it's been a few years since that last encounter.

No. When the customer said "biggest fluffiest tail."
I knew they meant goldfish that had 'long flowing tails' 

As people often look for the long tails in goldfish.
As it makes them look more 'elegant' and 'flowing'

Luckily we'd gotten in a shipment of goldfish a few days ago and I'd noticed a few flowing tails among them.

Which is good as it's hard to find 'fluffy tails' if all the goldfish have short tails.

But I fished out the 'largest' goldfish with the 'fluffiest' tails for the customer and they left happy. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Nearly Out of Stock

Well....this next week is gonna be fun.

Mostly because we are running low on our birds and rodents.
And my shipment today....ended up shorting us most of the rodents and birds we were expecting in.

Which wasn't too surprising though slightly disappointing.
Because I was aware that the breeders for both our hamsters and our parakeets are having issues right now.
From what I can tell it's mostly issues in that they don't have the supply available yet to meet the demand of all the stores that the breeders provide animals to. 

Which...our store has been one of those stores where people are just obsessed with buying creatures right now.
So animals are flying off the shelves so to speak.

So to have no new hamsters or parakeets available next week to bring out to sell??
Not good for the customers.

As we're down to just two parakeets. Six hamsters. One mouse.

And that's it.

I expect the parakeets will be gone by the end of Saturday.
The hamsters, possibly by Monday.

On the one hand that means less work in the mornings because there will be less to clean and less animals to feed.
On the other it's gonna mean an uptick in unhappy customers because we don't have the animals they want. 

So.
It's gonna be interesting.
To see if we run out of hamsters and birds this weekend or not. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Tip

I got a tip today! Woot!!

Which is a very rare occurrence here because technically we're not supposed to accept tips. But at the same time, we need to keep the customer happy and refusing to accept a tip can make them unhappy. Soooo that's a fun conundrum. But I got a tip! woot!

Which I'm surprised when people do give out tips.
Because usually I get them after helping the customer move something into their car.

Today was such a case.

As a customer had bought a 40 gallon fish tank.
And needed help getting it out into their car. 

Said car being one of those like.....idk how to describe the car.
but it's a two door car. Kinda has a racer design. And has back seats...but like they're awkward and tiny compared to the front seats.
Yah. One of those cars. 

And the customer wanted me to help them fit their tank into that tiny backsesat.

Which I've seen tanks fit where you wouldn't think they would fit. It just takes a bit of wrangling and changing angles to get them into things. (honestly not sure how it will get back out.) 

But it took a minute to figure out how to get it in.
Mostly because the customer needed to move like all their shopping bags from other stores into the front seat or onto the floor in the back in order to lower the passenger side seat and then get the tank to sit on the backseats. 

I ended up needing to move around to the driver's side, which that seat didn't want to lean forward, so I ended up having to try and lift and move the tank while also adjusting for having to work around a seat that doesn't move.

But in the end we got it into the car! Woot! 

And afterwards the customer was like "Here, you deserve a tip for helping me." 
And I was like "We don't accept tips." 
And customer was basically like "Well I want to give it." sooo
Yah I got a tip! Woot! 

^^;; definitely a bright part of my day. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Outdoor Pets

I had a customer call the store like midway through my shift, asking what time our department closed for animal sales. 
Which I said we weren't closing the department today (though found out later that the plan was to close it half an hour before the main store closed) 

And like...fifteen minutes before closing time. 
We had a customer and her hoard of children come into the store.

Not quite sure if this was the customer who called earlier asking what time we stopped animal sales, but I wouldn't put it past the phone customer to be this customer.

Which is really irritating if it was.
Because like who comes in right before closing time wanting an animal? Why not come in earlier in the day? Like I get that people have work and such. But there's a good chunk of time where the sun is still up where this customer and her hoard of kids could have come in. 

And the reason why they came in was because the customer was looking to buy a couple of guinea pigs for her daughter who really wanted them. 

The problem was that the two remaining guinea pigs I had left weren't good to be placed together in a cage. 
I knew this for a fact because I'd tried it earlier in the day because I was doing the bedding change and wanted to see if the two would get along. They didn't I separated them again. 
And the customer was so incredulous that guinea pigs couldn't get along.

Like yes. Most will. Most do. But you do end up with that grumpy face bully of a guinea pig that just wants to dominate all the others and start fights and you have to separate them.

I had to tell the customer that the older guinea pigs can be more aggressive to newcomers. But babies would be fine together and that I may be getting more of them in on Sunday or Mondya. 

However.
The customer then dropped the bombshell that they were looking for OUTDOOR pets and wanted to know if the guinea pigs would be okay living in the main rabbit hutch thing outside while their rabbits were down below in their own cage thing.

Uhm. No. I told them that guinea pigs wouldn't do well outside. 
-Because they're sensitive to extreme temperature changes-

The customer didn't like hearing that.
Wanted to know which of the pets we sold could be outdoor pets.

Which like....if you're looking for an OUTDOOR pet just go buy a bird feeder or something and have the wild birds drop by your yard. 

I honestly don't understand the customers who "want a pet" but at the same time "don't want the pet."

Like get a pet that's only for outdoors. Like...pets are kinda meant to be indoor creatures??? 
Like I get there are farm cats, and outdoor dogs, and rabbits and chickens and such.....

but for the most part....you have to do your research on which animals can live outdoors.

Guinea Pigs aren't one of those. 
And even the animals who can be outdoors like tortoises and turtles really can only be outside for the warmer months and need to be brought inside during the winter. 

Overall it was just a frustrating conversation with the customer. 
And I was glad to have them leave. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Let It Break

There was a young family that came into the store to look at all the animals and such. They had a toddler with them. Who was in that "must grab and hold and throw" everything stage.

And like a lot of parents in the area....these parents were letting their little one run wild around the store.
Which included letting the child play with the fish decorations.
Which are breakable.

Like I even spoke out when the child threw two of them down to the ground --not breaking them-- and was like "Hey little one, don't do that. It can break." As I picked up the ornaments and put them back while still trying to talk to the overeager father about what it would take to set up and establish a fish tank.
But the mother didn't do anything as the child wheeled around and went straight for another series of ornaments.
And like...it's not my job to babysit someone else's kid. Especially when I'm trying to keep the father on track and tell him what he wants to know when he's so taken with the idea of having a fish tank in the first place that he's not quite listening to a word that I'm saying even though he is trying to listen to what I say, while the mother is hovering nearby 'kinda' watching the kid.

But doing nothing to stop the kid from playing with the breakables.

Until one broke.

*exhales* 
I knew it was only a matter of time really.
But it does bug me when parents don't react to potential problems until the problem becomes an actual problem. 

It was only after the mother realized that her kid broke something --which I took the broken ornament away because we don't actively make people pay for things that break in the store (though I do think if parents just let their kids run wild that they should face the consequence of their kid's actions)--but it was only after something broke that the mother picked up the child and moved them to a different area of the store away from them.

*shakes head*
The parents didn't end up buying anything in the end.
Which isn't surprising. It's a lot of $$ right off the bat to set up a larger tank.
And I could see that the guy was more of the impulsive type who wants something 'now' but doesn't think through all the ramifications of how much work is involved with fish tanks. 

We'll see if they come back for the tank in the future.
But I am kinda glad they didn't get anything today.
Owning a pet, even a fish, is something that you want to make sure you have the time, resources, and energy for.
It's not something you want to impulse buy.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Goldfish?

I jumped in for one of my coworkers to catch fish for a customer.
As I tend to do it much faster than my other coworkers. 
And it seemed like a simple enough thing with this particular customer.

Where they wanted to get some fish for their pond. 

And I'd seen, walking over to the fish wall, that the customer had pointed to a couple of tanks. So I already knew that they wanted a couple differing varieties of fish. 

But I reached them just as the customer discovered our feeder goldfish.
And they wanted to know if they were goldfish too...

Which it's always interesting that customers are confused that there can be a variety of goldfish and that they can come in different colors and shapes....

But this customer was casting doubt on the fact that our feeder goldfish were feeder goldfish because the customer thought that they looked like koi fish.

....I mean they come from the same overall family. So of course they can look like each other.
But the customer was having some trouble processing that.

And elected to ignore the feeders for the time being in favor of picking out four of our smaller oranda goldfish.
and then picked out one of our small koi fish. 

The customer was then like "Will these get along?"

Like...yes and no?
It really just depends on your setup.
because some customers say "yes these fish work together" and others are like "No these don't work together." And it depends on the size of the fish and the size of the tank/pond and the conditions within the water and a bunch of other factors.

But like.
I did wonder if this particular customer was...well possibly 'high' on something.
Because they decided to get like three feeder goldfish as well, but wanted to pick out the feeders that they wanted.
Which is no big deal for me, I can fish out the exact fish a customer wants.

But they at one point were like "I didn't pick out this fish!" pointing to the Koi fish that I had fished out earlier for them.
As they apparently hadn't realized that I'd chosen to use the same container for the koi and the feeder goldfish as I knew that they would be okay together for a bit.

So I had to explain that the koi was a koi fish and that the customer had picked it out earlier...
*shakes head*

And then after the customer had picked out three feeder goldfish.
And I was working to write down all the skus and get the bag ready to bag up the goldfish and koi...

The customer decided that having four fish in the small container was 'too crowded' and decided to put one back.
O_o?
Like....they're only in a small space for a short amount of time.
I don't think it's gonna affect the fish much to be crowded for half an hour while you drive to your pond and then release them into this big space that will give them plenty of room.

But I did what the customer wanted and fished out the third goldfish leaving only 2 feeders and the koi in the bag. 

So yah...
Customers are interesting some days.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Thawed Out

So we have this ancient freezer on the floor.
Probably not ancient. 
But I feel like the thing has probably been there since the store first started.
...Maybe.
Who knows. 
This freezer has been in the store longer than I have at least.

And it's located next to the fishwall. 
As it contains the frozen food needed to feed fish, turtles, and snakes...and maybe a few other creatures. Who knows. 
Mostly I know it holds brineshrimp. bloodworms, frozen mice/rats and a few other frozen fish food thingies. 

And like...two weeks ago?
Three weeks ago?

The thing...stopped working properly?

Like...
It was odd.
Because the food towards the front of the freezer all thawed.
The food towards the bottom of the freezer all thawed.
But the stuff towards the back stayed frozen.
And never thawed out.

But like...anything else we tried to put in there would thaw.
And what had thawed wouldn't refreeze....(not that we'd sell the thawed stuff, we tossed that) 

So to be on the safe side.
We ended up putting an 'out of order' sign on the freezer.
Threw out all the thawed stuff.
And kept the new product we got in in a freezer off the floor while we waited for freezer to get fixed.

It didn't get fixed.
Apparently our freezer is finally old enough that corporate was like "Here. Just get a new freezer." 
So we did! 

It's so weird seeing the new version next to the old version though.
Like. O.o In some ways it's exactly the same. 
And in other ways it's all shiny and new and very futuristic compared to the old version. XD lol

But the downside to the new one is that it's on wheels. 
So like...everytime you pull open the door it scoots forward a little.
So we need to figure out a way to make sure it doesn't well....do that. 

In any case.
I spent a good portion of my shift moving all the product into the new freezer.

So yay!!
We finally have everything up and running again. XD lol 

-Sarnic Dirchi

X marks the spot

So, as part of our social distancing thing in the store.
We've placed stickers/tape on the ground to mark where customers should stand while they're waiting in line. 

This includes having like three markers for people standing in our register lines.
As well as markers for standing in a line for the grooming salon.

And until yesterday, we also had some X's marked out by our animal cages.
As I'm guessing the original intention was for customers to stand on the x's there while they were being helped or waiting to be helped with the animals. 

However.
These X's over by the animal cages had an unintended side effect....of accidentally convincing customers that they should be standing there when waiting in line for the register.

Because people would stand on the two-three markers for the register....but then end up gravitating across the aisle towards the cages where they would then stand on the yellow x's there and continue the line up that side of the aisle. 

So every now and then we'd have to send an associate to adjust the line so it wasn't blocking people trying to walk up the main drive aisle. 

Then when customers aren't trying to cross over to the x's by the cages...they're creating a 'u-turn' and going down the markers meant for the grooming salon line. *shakes head* 

So this morning, to try and 'help' people line up properly. I took some more tape and measured out four more "X's" to give more people a guide on where to stand when waiting to checkout.

Overall it's worked pretty well so woot!! XD 
We'll see if it stays that way...customers only like to follow the 'rules' for so long before they get their own ideas.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Fish for Me

So my coworker brought in some fish that she was giving to me because she was taking down her tank and needed somewhere to take the fish.
Only I wasn't in town yesterday so I couldn't drop by work to grab them.
So she said that she would leave them in a tank for me to grab in the morning when I came into work today.

I kinda figured that she'd put them in like the ISO tank we have in the back. That way they'd be off the floor and out of sight of customers.

But when I came in this morning.
I discovered that she'd placed the fish in a breeder net in one of our glofish tanks on the floor.

Like...it was a great way to keep them separate...but not really a great location to put them because I wouldn't be able to take the fish home until after I got off work.
And the glofish tanks are popular enough that it would be a pain to try and catch the fish around the breeder net. 
Plus I didn't want to answer a thousand questions from customers on 'why are the fish separated out' 

So I moved the fish over into an empty koi tank that we had on the floor because I knew there wouldn't be any fish in there to catch and it was lower down so maybe people wouldn't notice them.

Only....people tend to notice things when you don't want them to notice things.
And so right before we opened, I scooped the fish out into one of our fish catcher containers and placed the container in the back in the iso tank. So that the fish stayed separated from the fish in the tank, and since it wasn't the breeder net, the water in the container wouldn't be the water from the iso tank.
I made sure to check in on the fish when I could to make sure they were doing okay. Which they were.

And took them home to my big tank when I got off my shift. ^^;;

So far they seem to be acclimating alright. So *fingers crossed* that they do well.

-Sarnic Dirchi

dejavu

It felt like I was repeating Thursday's work shift today.

Because I saw like...probably half a dozen customers that I helped then come into the store today needing more help.

Like. It was just disorienting to see someone come in and be like "i just saw you!" 

I mean, it's common in pet stores, especially when it involves fish sales, to see customers more than once.
Because it's not uncommon to have customers needing to come back to exchange out their dead fish or to just get new fish in general.

But like there's this one girl who's been in the store practically every day this week.
To return fish. 
To get different tanks.
To get different fish.

Like I don't even know how many fish tanks she has currently. At least two judging by the conversation I had today with her.
But like...I do worry she's being...a helicopter pet owner with her fishs because of how often she's been in the store.
Like it's literally an every day thing.

Saw another customer that I'd also helped with fish at least twice this week. Though a coworker took over today's exchange.

And had a guy come in wanting to get his Chinese Water Dragon.
As he'd originally come in on Thursday wanting to buy one, but was struggling to convince his wife to let him get it.
In the end, they ended up not getting a water dragon but a Ball Python instead because the wife wanted one.
I was actually surprised that he managed to convince her to get that.....and like not end up with the water dragon too.
Turns out he came back yesterday to get his water dragon, but we'd closed my department for the day to animal sales because of short staff.
So they ended up just buying the tanks and such for the water dragon.
And then the dude showed up bright and early today to finally get his lizard.

That's dedication there. *shakes head* 
Hopefully the snake and lizard do well with them. 

But yah.
It's just like...an entire day of dejavu as it felt like every fifth or sixth customer I helped was one I'd already seen either on Thursday or at least sometime this week.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Surprise!

There's a certain joy one gets when helping a parent to surprise their child with a pet for a special occasion like their birthday or christmas or something.

Today I had a customer come into the store looking to get a present for their son.
As his birthday was tomorrow and the customer wanted to get them something special.

The main thing that made this memorable compared to all the other 'birthday presents' I've helped picked out is that the parent specifically mentioned that their son was turning...I think it was like 32?? And made a point to say that "but he's still my son and I want to spoil him" something like that.
And I thought it was just heartwarming that the parent wanted to do something special for their adult child. Like it's nice to hear that parents still want to spoil their kids no matter what age they are.

And the gift their parent wanted to get their kid?
A Tarantula.

So...yah. *shakes head* That was a unique experience helping them to get a cage to help set up everything and telling them about the spider and such. 

Lol hopefully the son enjoys his gift.

but the interaction with the parent was definitely a highlight to my day. Just how earnest they were in wanting to do something special for their kid. It was amazing to see. Especially with how everything seems to be in turmoil and dark and gloomy right now.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Outside Pets

I'm always a bit conflicted when people want to buy pets....to put them outside.
Like koi fish/ comet goldfish for a pond I can totally understand.
outdoor cats to keep the mice down in like barns and such I can totally understand.

But like...if you're just going to keep the animal outdoors because you don't want it indoors....then why get a pet in the first place?
Especially the cats and dogs that are 'family' pets but are kept outside or in the garage because the adults don't want them messing up the furniture....like there are so many more risks for the outdoor animals. Getting hit/run over, getting fleas/ticks, getting injured, stuck, sick, or you know just soaking wet or frozen in bad weather....

But I never know what to say when people come into the store wanting animals for outdoors....

Like today for example.

I had a customer come in who wanted two of our red eared sliders, the pacman frog we had, and two koi.

The combination itself made me think that the customer wanted to put all the creatures outside in a pond.
Like koi fish it's a given that it's usually for a pond.
Turtles too...unfortunately. Though I do try and discourage people from getting turtles to put outside...like they're captive bred creatures. They're not used to 'outdoor' living. Or if the customer is confident the turtle will be fine, warn them that they'll want to bring them inside once winter hits since it gets far too cold outside for them.

But the pacman frog...was new.
To my knowledge, I've never had anyone buy a pacman frog for ponds...
Though after getting home today I did look it up and pacman frogs could be around ponds as they like muddy areas and shallow water.

But I did try to discourage the customer from getting the frog since at that time I didn't know how they would do outside.
Which I could sense the customer mentally rolling their eyes at me for trying to ensure that the frog had proper care. *exhales*
They did change their mind on getting him and stated that they only wanted the turtles and the koi.
But then as i was gathering the paperwork to get the turtles situation after grabbing the koi fish for them...the customer changed their mind again and stated that they wanted to get the pacman frog as they 'had a cage at home'

*exhales* It's really too bad I can't call people out on their lies.
Their "I have a tank at home" statements after I tell them why they can't get certain animals.
It's too convenient really. Like...you suddenly remember having a bigger tank when you told me first you only had the smaller size? It's unrealistic.

But mostly I have to take people at their word.
You can't really call them a liar to their face.

But I'm pretty sure this customer just wanted to go through with their original plan to put the pacman frog outside by their pond.  
Like I said...I can't really say to the customer "I think you're lying so I'm still not gonna sell you the frog." 

*exhales* hopefully all the creatures are doing well in their new 'home' though....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Hold On

We had an older gentleman come into the store today looking to get some mealworms.

So after checking to see if he wanted them in a 50 count or a 100 count.

I went and grabbed him a 50 count and handed it to him.

And after the customer opened the container to double check that the mealworms were actually alive. 
Opened up his messenger/laptop bag he had with him and placed the mealworms inside.

I was like O_o???
Because he started zipping up the bag with the mealworms inside...and like he hadn't paid for them yet.

So I was like..,are you actually trying to steal those mealworms right in front of me?
Or was he wanting to just keep his hands free??
But like...he was ancient enough that I could see him 'forgetting' to pay for them and just walking right out of the store.

So to prevent the customer from stealing. Whether intentionally or not intentionally....
I was like "You may want to keep those mealworms in your hand until you pay for it."

The customer was like: "OH. Right." And took the mealworms back out of his bag and went up to the front to pay for them.

Such an odd thing...but I'm glad he did buy them in the end. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

'Can't Look'

Customers a weird.
I mean they're always weird.
But right now they're taking offense over the littlest things.
The stupidest most inconsequential things.

And I suppose it's the stress. The pandemic, the stay at home orders, the alterations to what had been a 'normal' life. 

But like...
People take offense so quickly.

I had a customer standing too close to the fish tanks today.
Which isn't an uncommon occurrence as no one notices the blue lines we laid down to keep people from touching the tanks so we wouldn't have to clean them all the time.

As people love to touch things.
And apparently 'can't see' the fish unless they have their noses pressed right up against the glass.

*shakes head*

As I asked the customer, politely mind you, to stay behind the blue line.
And then I asked them if they needed help with the fish.

To which the customer responded "Well not if I can't look at them!"

To which I responded with one of those polite laughs because it took me a moment to realize that what the customer retorted with...wasn't a flippant or witty remark. 
but the customer stormed off before I could correct the situation....hopefully they don't think badly fo me...or didn't hear the 'polite laugh you give to customers'.

But like....I was just left confused.
Because I never said that the customer couldn't 'look' at the fish.
I just said that they needed to stay behind the blue line on the ground.

It's not like the blue line for the fish wall is six feet away from the tanks.
It's like barely two feet maybe.

And if you can't see the fish in the tank from two feet away...maybe you need to get your eyes checked?
Because like...it's not that hard to see the fish.
Most of them are at least two-three inches long so you can see them quite well.

...at least I thought.

but apparently a ton of people don't have that great of vision.
Because I have had more than one remark from other customers over the last few weeks about how it's hard to 'see the fish' if they're behind the blue line.

Again.
It's two feet away from the tanks. 24 inches.
Like...it's not six feet. 

But no. Customers feel they can't 'see' the fish unless they have their grubby little fingers and their noses pressed up against the glass.

*shakes head*

I don't understand customers.
I really don't.

-Sarnic Dirchi