Impatience

Had a customer come into the store this early afternoon wanting to buy some fish for his 5.5 gallon tank.
And after dithering for a bit and after me talking to him a couple of times to help him decide which fish he wanted.
He ended up going with three guppies.
One male and two females. 

And I had warned him that he would want to wait a week before adding any more fish in. 
Because adding too many fish to the tank at once could potentially stress the fish out and cause them to die.

However,
Towards the end of my shift.
The guy came back.

Why?
The tank looked so empty with just three fish in it and he wanted to get some more. 

To which I said that he could, but not today. That it was best to wait a week before adding anymore in because again, they could die.

Dude decided to go ahead and risk it anyways.
He didn't want just three fish and have it be so empty for so long.

So he got another male and two more female guppies. 
*exhales*

Part of me hopes that the fish will do well and survive having so many added together.
The rest of me is expecting him to sheepishly come into work in the morning with the bodies of the ones that didn't make the night.
Makes me wonder if he'll then take my advice to wait before adding more in or if he'll try to buy more....

Guess we'll see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Friends

Had a young boy come into the store today with his mother who decided that he wanted to have two goldfish for his new pets for his little fish tank.

Despite my best attempts to have the family pick out a fish better suited for the tank.
The boy ended up with two goldfish he picked out himself.

And like most little kids, he wanted to name them right away.
And asked if I wanted to hear what he wanted to name them.

It's one of my favorite things to hear what kids name their fish.
As they can be super simple like "Goldie" or they can be more complicated. 
The more simple names are my favorite to hear.

So I said yes.

And the kid told me that the first goldfish was gonna be called "Goldfish" while the second fish's name would be "Thomas the Goldfish" 

XD lol.
so we have Goldfish and Thomas the Goldfish.

It was cute.

And got cuter because a few minutes later the boy was like "I'm going to call Goldfish, "Goldfish the Friend" now."
And then "And Thomas needs a last name. So his name is Thomas Friend the Goldfish! Because they're both friends with each other and friends with me." 

It was the cutest thing. XD lol. 

Hopefully Goldfish the Friend and Thomas Friend the Goldfish do well in their new home. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

All of Them

Gotta love it when customers are...difficult.

Had a customer come into the store who wanted to get some feeder goldfish.
I'm guessing to feed to a Turtle.
But their turtle has been eating a lot of goldfish recently.
So they weren't quite sure how many they wanted to buy.

Or how much money they were willing to spend.
So I was trying to be helpful and telling them that the small fish would be like ten for $1.60 since they're 16 cents each.

And the customer was like: "Okay, just give me all the fish in that tank."
And pointed to one of our goldfish tanks.

I was rather skeptical that they actually wanted that many goldfish.
As customers don't always realize that the amount of fish that are in those tanks isn't the amount they're thinking it is.

So to check I was like "There could be 100 or so in there." 
Because thankfully we hadn't yet received in my goldfish shipment for the week.

cus if we did then there could have been upwards of 600 goldfish in the one tank depending on how the shipment came in.

The customer seemed to be fine with it.
Fine with the fact that I may be catching them 100 goldfish.

*exhales*

Which it's not that big of a deal to do so. 
I've caught far more than the fish that were in the tank before.
But with the numbers so low it just takes me a while to catch ALL of the fish because the fewer the fish in the tank the less I can catch all in one scoop.
So it takes forever.

No, what was irritating was that the customer seemed to be so amused by the fact that I had to catch so many fish. 
In the "Wow, I bet you hate your job now huh? Ha." sort of laughter.
Like I don't know if they were nervous I would be upset with them, or just laughing cus they were uncomfortable, or actually thought it was funny.

But like....
No? I don't hate my job.
I wouldn't have stuck with it for so long if I actually hated my job.
I love working with the animals.
And I often enjoy catching fish.

What I don't like are the customers who like to make my life difficult.
And catching an entire tank full of fish would fall underneath the difficult header.

Cus like. I like having specifics? Tell me you want 30 fish. Tell me you want 100.
I just like having a better idea of what I'm grabbing than "the entire tank." 

Because I really didn't want to fish out 100odd goldfish only for the customer to be like ()_() WHAT THAT'S TOO MANY?! I ONLY WANTED X AMOUNT! because they didn't comprehend that there could be that many in the tank even though I warned them that it was a possiblity.

Lucky them there were only 75 in there.
Lucky me they decided that 75 was great and didn't want more or less.

But yah.
I still don't understand why they wanted to take the entire tank. *exhales* 
I just...it's not my personal style to 'take everything' as I like to leave things for others so that they can have the opportunity for the thing as well.
The people who take all and leave others with nothing....
Yah I'm not fond of working with them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

Unexpected Visit

My old Head Manager came into the store today.
Which was so weird.

Since it's been a good five months since he left the store.
And like...usually when Head Managers abruptly leave....
They don't usually come back into the store.

So it was so weird to see them.

But like good in a way.
Because I had been wondering what that head manager was up to.
Like what job they ended up getting.
How life is treating them.

Cus I tend to worry about people, even if it's on the back burner of my mind, when I don't know the end results of things that happen.

So it was kinda a relief to be able to just like 'check in' and see how they were doing. What they were up to. Catch up and such.

It was nice. 
I'm glad they're doing okay. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Take ALL the Fish

I've never understood the people who feel the need to take 'all' the things.
Like at work it usually involves the fish. But there are often customers who come into the store and want to take every single fish of a particular type of fish.

And today, that seemed to be the trend.

It started with a mother/daughter duo who wanted to get 8 rasboras.
Which happened to be the last 8 I had in the tank.

And then after that was a couple who wanted all the Giant Danios (6) and all the cherry barbs (5) that we had in the tanks.

And last but not least.

A customer came into the store who was wanting to get some goldfish to feed to their turtle.
But wasn't quite sure how many they wanted.
And so decided that they wanted all the goldfish in the tank.

Which I warned them, could have been around 100 goldfish.

-I suppose it's lucky that I was low on goldfish because I could only imagine what it would be like having to catch like 300 or 400 goldfish that the tanks can be filled with if not more.

But there ended up only being like 75 goldfish in the tank they pointed to.

And the customer was laughing basically saying "You must really hate your job, having to catch all those fish."

And like....No? I actually love my job. I enjoy catching fish.
What I don't enjoy is customers being greedy and wanting 'all the fish' we have and I don't like customers making light of the fact that they're giving me more work to do by saying they want "all the fish." when I could have caught thirty much easier. 

*exhales*

I just...don't get the people who want 'all'

I suppose it may be just how I was raised.
But usually I try and think of others.
And I try to leave some for other people.
Just in case they need them too.

But all too often at work I see people who just want to take everything and leave nothing for other people.
Which makes it difficult to keep things in stock when it becomes a trend because there's a shortage because people were greedy and so the next person has to double stock up and be greedy to ensure they have the item, which means the next person is greedy and double stocks as well when they're lucky enough to find the thing.....it's a never ending cycle until we can get a head of the curve.

So yah....
I don't get the people who take everything and leave nothing for other people.

-Sarnic Dirchi 

Fish or Mice?

I had a family come into the store today looking to get a fish tank for their daughter.
And like.
I went through the entire process with them.
Suggesting which tank to get.
Telling them about the variety of fish would be good.
Showing them a couple of extra things they would need.
Telling them the process of how to set up and add their fish in so that they wouldn't kill their fish.
To basically take it slow and steady.

And the family was totally on board with all of it.
Spent a good half hour to an hour in the store figuring it all out.

Only to put everything back.

Because their daughter saw our mice and decided that she really wanted one of those instead.

I don't know if they ended up buying anything for the mice at the store.
I don't think they did.
As I was discouraging them from getting our mice since we carry males and their urine tends to stink up apartments/homes from what customers have told me.
-And just experience in the store in general. They tend to have the smelliest cages.

So the parents were calling other pet stores to see if they had any female mice.
But the closest sister stores of mine were out.
So they were calling further up into the next valley over.

And yah....
I think they left to go get some mice elsewhere....

But I do wonder if they'll actually end up keeping the mouse.
Or returning to the store to get a fish tank instead anyways.

Still....

It's kinda impressive that the family--the parents especially--were willing to spend all that time gathering stuff to set up a fish tank....only to put it all back and head out in search of another pet store just because their daughter decided that she wanted a mouse instead.

-Sarnic Dirchi

What's Your Intention?

There was a customer who called the store today asking if we sold something.
But the manager who answered couldn't understand what they were asking.
And so had me take over the call to figure it out.

And from what I heard the customer was looking for "Ratchets." 

Which...I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head that we sold that would be like that.
Like ratchets...like the tool? Like a racket for sports?

So I asked them to spell it out.

And they were like "R-A-T-S------"
And they garbled out the rest.

Okay. So rat something.
Something related to rats?

So I asked them what that last part was.

And they were like "It's Rat Sh--! You know. Like feces?! Because you guys sell rats I thought you'd have some."

Ah.

Well no wonder i wasn't understanding what they were saying at first.
Most people would say Rat Poop or something instead....

But unfortunately for them.
I didn't have any 'rat feces' on hand.
Because my store actually stopped selling rats like five years ago because our breeders stopped breeding them.
So with no rats in the store that meant I definitely didn't have any of their feces either.

And even if I did.

I probably wouldn't be able to give any to the customer anyways.
Like I'm pretty sure it's against policy somewhere to give away animal waste.
Probably it's a health hazard or something.

Which does make me curious why they wanted feces in the first place.
Because most of the time you want to avoid animal droppings.
And like there's easier ways to get fertilizer....

So *shrugs*
Who knows.
I don't.

I'm kinda hoping that they are unable to find some...as I don't know if their intentions are good....

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sold

We had two chinchillas come into the store today on our animal shipment.

And they were TINY.
Like half the size even a third of the size of the usual chinchillas we get in.
TINY.

And honestly.
I shouldn't be surprised that we sold them the same day they came in.

I mean, with this pandemic people are buying pets like crazy.

To the point where we put animals on the floor...and they're sold by the end of the day. 

We can't keep animals in stock.
Because our breeders can't keep up with demand.

And so as soon as we get animals in...they sell.

Today.
About an hour into my shift.
I got notified that there were customers wanting to buy a chinchilla.

Except when I got there.
The two girls were like "No, we want both of them."

So yah. The chinchillas had been on the floor maybe five hours?
And they were already gonna be gone.

*shakes head*
Like I might as well have forgone removing the 'reserved' sign in the cage that marks the cage as empty.
Because the cage was gonna be empty again.

So I thought.

However.
At the register, the customers had a change of heart. 

And decided that they only wanted one of the chinchillas.
So I had to open the traveling box I'd put both of them in.
Let them pick which one they wanted to keep.
And take the other one back to his cage so he could go back on the floor for sale.

....
Until the end of the day.
When one of the customers came back.
Like five minutes before I was set to close the department.
Wanting to buy the second chinchilla.
As they decided that they actually did want it.

So yah.
Both chinchillas gone.
just like that.

*shakes head*
Honestly, I do wonder when I'll be able to be 'fully restocked' again on animals.
Because it's totally crazy how many cages are consistently empty in our store now because the animals sell practically as we're putting them out to sell. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Complaints

So we had two customers go through the register earlier today. 
Who were wanting to take advantage of a sale on some of our dog toys where if you bought one dog toy you could get a second one half off.
However, not all dog toys we have are part of that sale.
And some of the toys (I'm not sure how many) were ones that weren't on sale.
And the customers felt jipped and miffed that the cashier wasn't more 'helpful.'

Like, overall the cashier has a pretty good attitude, so I was kinda skeptical that there was 'something wrong with' them. And that 'they're not a good cashier.' 

It just seemed like a conflict of two bad moods really.
As the customer admitted that they weren't having a good day today and they didn't want to have to interact with the cashier again.
And the cashier probably was tired of dealing with people who can't read sales and are snippety at them.

So overall both sides were seeing the other as being 'difficult.' 

It wouldn't surprise me if the customers were the ones more in the wrong. After all most customers are in the wrong. 

In any case.
I came into the picture briefly because the customers bought their dog toys went out to the car, realized that they were cheaper online and so therefore ordered them online to be picked up in the store. 
And so came back wanting to have the toys they just bought returned.

No issues there. They had the receipt and the toys so we could easily return them.
The slight snag would be that it can take time for online orders to show up in our system so they might be waiting for a bit to get their toys back.

I'm not even sure I got the whole gist of what the customers were wanting.
As at some points it sounded like they also want the toys they just bought as well.
And other times they sounded like they just wanted their money back. 

In any case, they demanded to speak to a manager and so I had the manager come over and then take them over to register three so that they could return the toys and then sort out the online order thing as well.

But yah...
From the brief info I heard from the cashier, it sounded like the customers were rather beastly to them.
So I can see it being bad on both sides.

But it was rather frustrating to have to deal with them in such a manner. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Goldie

Had a little boy who was so into looking at all the fish today.
It was rather cute.

Especially because the kid had troubles saying the letter 'F'

So it was "Ishy" and "Ishtanks" lol. 

And he was adorable enough in wanting an Ishy of his own. 
That he managed to convince his grandma to get him his own little tank and betta fish.
Which he named "Goldie" lol. 

Hopefully the betta fish does well with them. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Activated Charcoal

I had a customer ask me today if we had any activated charcoal in the store.
Which yah. We do. It's known as Activated Carbon here in the store. But it's the same thing and is often used as filter media for various water related things. Mostly fish tanks but can be used for like filter the water in cat/dog water fountains and such. 

Plus there was one memorable experience where a customer wanted charcoal to burn to get rid of bad spirits in their house.

In any case.
Before I could tell the customer where our activated carbon was.

They continued on with their explanation saying that they wanted it for their dog.

O_o???
As they said that they heard from a vet that if you give the dog a big of activated charcoal mixed with water it can help them if they've been poisoned and such. 

Which later when I checked with coworkers...is actually a thing that people can do for their dogs....if they want them to voilently throw up...which if the dog has eaten chocolate or something else not good for them is a good thing.
But in general? No not something you want to do.

And the customer was wanting it because their dog has been throwing up food...and apparently eating bugs?? to which they were concerned that the dog might have accidentally eaten poison that was meant for the bugs.

However, the vet also said to not do anything if the puppy was acting normally.
And the puppy was acting normally.

He was just throwing up his food like ten to fifteen minutes after eating it.
And with the food still basically whole and undigested.

I kinda figured it might be more of a 'eating it to fast' sort of problem rather than a 'my dog may have been poisoned' sort of problem. 

As it is common for animals who've eaten food far too quickly to throw it back up again. That is an issue that I've encountered before.

And so I recommended to them that they try doing like a slow feeder instead.
Just something to prevent the puppy for inhaling his food and make him slow down and eat it more slowly to prevent him from throwing up.

So the customer ended up getting one of those. 
Hopefully it solves the issue. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Sharks?

I had a customer come into the store today who was admiring the various fish in the tank.

Because I was busy doing a betta water change, I waited for them to come closer before engaging them in conversation.

Which I happened to do as the customer was finishing pointing and staring at the tank where we had our red-tailed sharks and small bala sharks. 

So as they turned I engaged them in the typical "Anything I can help you with?" conversation to see if they were just looking or actually planning to buy fish or something.

And the customer was like "Yah, do you have any sharks?"

O_o.....
It definitely caught me off guard. Like I had no response to that beyond "You were just pointing at them?" 
Because they literally had been pointing at the sharks seconds earlier.

Lol luckily the customer took it good humoredly.
Going "Oh!" and looking closer at the tags below the tank and was like "AH! I should have known!" 

*shakes head*
Still.
Gotta love it when customers ask for things that are right in front of them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Plecostomus

I had a customer come into the store today who wanted to buy a plecostomus. 

Which usually when I hear that they want to buy an algae eater, I ask the customer what size of tank they have.

Because we have a variety of plecos that get different sizes full grown.
And I try to find the right size of pleco for the size of the tank.

Customer didn't want to tell me what size of tank they had though.
They just wanted me to tell them where the plecostomus were.

So I was like "They're along this wall here." gesturing to the middle wall of fish tanks. 
And customer wasn't willing to 'look' on their own. They're like "Where? Show me where they are." 

So I was like "So your plecos are in this tank and this tank and this tank" 

And the customer legitly said: "I don't want a 'pleco,' I want a plecostomus. Where are they?!"

It took me a couple more tries before I was able to convince the customer that "plecos" and "plecostomus" were the exact same creature.

Like no one wants to say "Plecostomus" multiple times in a row. A lot of people struggle to even pronounce it.
So we refer to them as plecos as short.
Like a nickname.

So after showing the customer the various plecos we had.
They were like "Which one should I pick?"

To which I responded how I had responded the first time. "How big is your tank?"
Though the customer let me continue on and explain that we recommend particular plecos depending on the size of the tank.

Like most customers.
This one had no idea how big their tank was.

Apparently it's their spouse who usually comes to get the fish.
And more than likely it's the spouse who knows how big the tank actually is -though that's not always the case.

The customer gestured in a vague sort of 'around ten gallons' size of tank. so I ended up recommending either the Rubberlip or the Clown Pleco.

Customer ended up choosing the Rubberlip.
Hopefully it does well in their tank.

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Hamsters

I had a customer come up to me today telling me that they wanted to buy a hamster.

Which wouldn't have been an issue....
Only I've completely sold out of my hamsters.
I have none whatsoever available to sell. 

And I told the customer this. That we have no hamsters.

To which they were like "I just want one."

To which I had to repeat myself. "We have no hamsters. We've sold them all. I only have mice."

"Only mice?"
"Yes. No hamsters."
"You have no hamsters?"
"No, I don't have any hamsters. The cages are all empty." 

It took a couple more repetitions and showing the customer the empty cages (as there was a slight language barrier between us) 
To convince them that we had no hamsters available for them to buy. 

They were rather disheartened by this.
Until they found out that we may be getting more hamsters in on Sunday or Monday.

Heavy emphasis on the 'may' because our breeders have been struggling to keep up with the demand for pets and so even though I 'am expecting around twenty hamsters to come into the store....I won't be surprised if I only get like six of them. 

Because that's been kinda the drill for the past month.
Where we really only receive in around a third or less of our expected animals because of the high demand.

So yah...
Hopefully we do have some hamsters for all the people who are wanting to come get them including this family. 

But we won't know until the shipment shows up.

So yah. It's gonna be fun.

-Sarnic Dirchi

On the Loose

Had a family come into the store today who were all gung ho about buying a leopard gecko for their kids.
They had the cage and everything that the leopard gecko needed to do well.
And as I was about to give them the paperwork....the mother was like "Do the crickets escape?"

To which I simply said "Yes."
To which she was like ()_() 
And I was like: "Yah, it's only a matter of time before they get loose"

To which the children were like "How?!"
And I proceeded to list just how they could get loose.

And the mom was like "Nope nope nope nope nope." 
Because she didn't want to have to deal with any loose crickets in the house that might chirp at night.

The family ended up buying a fish tank instead to put fish in. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Training

Had a customer today approach asking if we did service dog training.

Which I knew was something that a couple of our previous dog trainers have been able to train in.
But I was certain if our current one was able to because they were new to the store.
(Turns out they can do service dog training, but I wasn't aware at the time of the conversation with this customer)

And when I told the customer that we did not.

He was like "WeLl YoU ShOuLd!! YoU woUlD MakE A LoT of MoNEy!!"
Literally that was his tone. He got all wide eyed and loud at me. 

Like. Dude. I can't control what we teach. 

There's no reason to get all pissy at me because you're getting a service dog but have no one available to train you on how to use a service dog. *exhales* 

He was like "Can't you talk to someone?! Suggest it?!"

And like I know our dog trainers can do such classes.
But they have to have more experience.
And again, I wasn't sure how much experience my dog trainer had.

So I told the customer that while some stores may have dog trainers who could do such certification and training, that it really depended on the dog trainer themselves and what classes they were qualified to teach and such and that our dog trainer wasn't yet qualified (though apparently they are. oops) 

But yah.
Not the best interaction with a customer.
Like I don't get people who expect us to provide them all the things and get mad when we can't. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Running Wild

It's always 'fun' when customers come into the store and bring their horde of children....and just let them basically run wild.

Thankfully most of the time the children aren't in the store longer than like...maybe 15 minutes to 30 minutes....

But this set of kids?
They must have been in the store for like an hour or two.

Which...honestly, I don't know why they were in the store for so long.

But the kids and their single parent were quite the handful to deal with first thing in my shift.

Where the two younger kids ran around like wild children.
Touching everything.
Running up to dogs to pet them.
Hiding from their parent.
And trying to play with the registers and the phones by the registers....
And giving us like blank stares of noncomprehension when we tell them they have to go to their parent now. And they can't play with that.

Like. 
Seriously. Pandemic people? You shouldn't let your kids run around wild in public spaces especially now.

While the slightly older children were...persistent at the fishwall. Asking me and my coworkers tons of questions and being soooo indecisive about what they wanted to get for their fish tank.

Which was probably halfway because we were like "No you can't get that, no you can't get that either." because they kept picking fish that were incompatiable with each other.

But yah.
We were all breathing a sigh of relief when the parent finally gathered up all the kids and went and paid for the small basket of things they'd gathered together to purchase.

*shakes head* 

-Sarnic Dirchi

In the Breakroom

It's one of those weeks where I can't find peace in the breakroom.
Like most of the time when I take breaks I'm the only one there in the back.
Which is a nice reprieve from having to be social and around people out on the floor.

However...this past week there's been people in the breakroom. Every time I try and take a break.
Which for the most part is okay.
But when it's constant and always happening?
Less so.

Especially when I'm just looking for a moment of quiet. 
It's hard to relax when you have someone sitting nearby talking on the phone, or watching videos, or slamming doors or chewing really loudly....

Like...it's hard to relax.
Especially when I'm sensitive to noise.

And it's been happening more this past week maybe past two weeks.
Because we've had more people coming into the breakroom as a lot of the people who work for the vet clinic in our store have begun using the breakroom for their lunch breaks as well.

Before now it's been more rare.
Like I'm not sure where they would take their lunch breaks before...
But it wasn't in the breakroom.

Now though...it's pretty common to find at least one or two of them taking their lunch in the breakroom.

Which it's great that they can come back and relax there...

But not so great for me when I'm seeking quiet and to be away from people.

*exhales*

-Sarnic Dirchi

Register Shift

I got stuck on register for the last two hours of work today.
As there was a slight scheduling conflict with our scheduled cashier.
And they needed to leave two hours before we closed.
Which meant it would just be like me and my manager and our dog trainer...which since the dog trainer has training classes to teach...really just meant that it would be me and the manager for two hours covering the floor.

So onto the register I went.
Which is less than ideal.
Like. Register shifts are the....longest shifts to work because you're kinda just tethered to the register. You can't wander around, you can't roam the store. You have to stay with the register and help check out customers when they come up to pay for things.

And I was expecting the last two hours to pass by rather tediously.
But surprisingly, we kept up a steady stream of customers throughout those couple of hours. 

I don't think any time longer than like...five minutes passed before I needed to help something.
It was a constant steady stream.
Which was kinda nice as it kept me busy and kept me from looking at the clock every two seconds wondering when I could escape the register and have the store close. 

But yah.
Yaaaay register shifts and watching how much money people are willing to spend for their pets. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Before We Close

I had a customer call the store about twenty minutes before we were set to close down my department for the day.
They wanted to know what kind of hamsters we had in stock.
Because they were looking for a specific kind. 

And with the increase in demand for pets recently.
It's been a lot harder to keep animals in stock.
And to find particular animals. 

It was easy to tell the customer which hamsters we had because we currently only have four left.
A Short-haired syrian, a long-haired syrian and two russian hamsters. 

The customer was looking for a 'smaller' hamster.
Which narrowed down the options to our two russian hamsters.

And the customer was like "Great!" 

Only slight problem.
We were closing my department in twenty minutes.

And they were planning to be at the store...in twenty minutes.

I had to tell them that showing up then wouldn't work.
Since we were closing the department to animal sales at that time. 
To which they were like "But if we show up right on time?"

No. Due to short staff we have to close the department at that time.
And we can't have our associate stay late because we have to keep to our hours exactly.

So the customer was like "What if we're there five minutes before the department closes?" 

Which I can sell an animal in five minutes...if the customer is decisive and on time.

Surprisingly they were on time. And decisive.
So I was able to sell them their hamster before I was off so yay. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

More to Learn

I'm always learning something new at work. 
Which on the one hand is nice because knowledge is good.
On the other hand it's annoying because like...with how long I've been on the job I feel like I should know all the little things that one needs to know to properly run the department.

However, you don't really know what you don't know until you're told something that should be done that you didn't know needed to be done.

The downside of having the experienced people leave before imparting their knowledge to the next person I suppose.

As today I learned that apparently every morning we're supposed to be treating the fish system.

And like. I've only ever been aware of doing a 'quick cure' treatment on Fridays when our fish come in.
I wasn't aware that we needed to be doing other treatments throughout the week.

Today I learned that the Sodium Thiosulfate stuff we use to decholorinate the fish ornaments after we bleach them should also have been used in the fish system on a daily basis. 
Which since we've been out of those sodium crystals for a while now...means that in place of those we should have been putting Stress Coat (a type of water conditioner) into the system every morning.

....and like today was the first I'd heard of that.
*exhales*

Which I'm well aware that there's a lot about the fish system that I'm completely clueless on.
As I hadn't learned everything about the maintenance that needs to be done on it when my first two more experienced managers were in charge.
Everyone after that hasn't had the experience to know about the fish system or how it works and so have relied on me to teach them what I know.

Which I knew wasn't much.

Still isn't quite fun to realize just how much I don't know.

But hopefully...I'll be able to learn more as things progress.
And once we get back to a more normal schedule where we can finally hire more people and I can get back to working morning shifts again, we'll be able to implement these changes.

We'll see though.
Still.
Good to know that there's more on the 'morning to do list' than I realized....

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Holey Bucket

I had one of those customers today.
Where talking to them was like trying to fill a holey bucket.
Because it definitely felt like whatever I told the customer went in one ear and straight out the other.
Like it took five or six repetitions of the statement before the customer actually comprehended what I was saying.

Like. I'm pretty sure it was mostly the customer was just like "I must get fish for my kids!!!" 
And not much else was going through their head.

As they'd bought a ten gallon tank and had it all set up.
And now had come to buy fish for their kids.
But they knew nothing about fish and so wanted to know which fish would go well together.

So I did my best to explain how the fish worked on the wall.
How we had them organized and how the customer could tell which fish would play well with each other by the colored circles on the tag. Because if the fish have the same colored circles in the corner, then they can go together, but if they didn't they shouldn't go in the same tank.
Of course I had to do the explanation of the glofish and how some of those fish were more aggressive than others.

And like time and time again....I ended up repeating myself.
Sometimes multiple times in the space of like five minutes.

Like at one point I told the customer that the fish to the right were non-aggressive and the fish to the left were aggressive and that the customer shouldn't get those fish.
And the customer went straight to the tanks on the left with the more aggressive fish and was like "What about this fish? Or this fish? Or this fish?"
Like NO. I said those are AGGRESSIVE meaning they can KILL your fish and you shouldn't GET THEM. 
I don't know how many times I told the customer about the colored circles. 
I don't know how many times I told them to go look at the fish on the right wall and to avoid the fish on the left wall.

And like.
With a ten gallon tank you can usually get 5 or 6 fish in the tank and have it be happy.
But you only want to buy 2 or 3 fish. Wait a week and then come back and buy 2 or 3 more. 
So I told the customer to only focus on buying two or three fish today.

But when they were finally ready, after talking to their kids over the phone and taking a thousand pictures.
The customer was like "Okay I'll take these five fish."
To which I was like "You only want to get three of them because you can only have 5 or 6 fish in that tank but you only want to buy two or three today." 

And the customer apparently took it to mean two or three of that type of fish today. Not just 3 fish total today.
Because they then proceeded to be like "can I get two of these other fish along with those three fish."

No.
"What about two of these other fish with the three fish?"

No. 
Dear customer. No.
You can get five fish yes.
But not today.
You should only get three fish today and then three fish next week.
You don't want to buy all your fish at once because that can stress your fish out and kill your fish. 

Apparently the customer was really set against only getting three.
Because they kept at it until they were like "what if I get just four of these fish?"

Sure.
Fine.
Whatever.
You just wasted an hour of my life with your inability to listen to me.
So yah we can get you your four fish and if they die and you come back tomorrow with a dead fish then don't blame me.

But yah.
It was the most irritating customer today. Having to repeat myself a billion times and know that the customer probably retained none of the information I gave them.
Definitely not the best way to start out my shift today with this being my first customer for sure.

-Sarnic Dirchi