Chinchilla Fever

Had a customer come into the store today who was interested in getting a pet because they'd been looking after a couple of Guinea Pigs for the last little bit.
But the Guinea Pigs weren't going to be in the house much longer as they were being taken as...I think the customer's kids...were heading back down south to stay with....possibly their other parent there?

In any case.
The customer, who hadn't wanted guinea pigs in the first place--ended up falling in love with them and now wants a pet of their own to take care of since they won't be taking care of guinea pigs anymore.

But they weren't sure if they wanted to do a Chinchilla or A Guinea Pig or maybe a Hamster and wanted to know the pros and cons to them.

Which...it's hard to explain those when the customer is just so excited about getting a pet in the first place that they're hardly paying attention at all to what you're saying.
As this customer was constantly interrupting me and such to ask more questions but wasn't waiting for a answer before asking more questions about a different animal. *shakes head*

In any case.
One of the pets the customer was interested in was a Chinchilla.
But they got a bit skittish about handling them when I mentioned one of them liked to nip.

-As a different customer had been bit by one earlier today.
-Which this was one of the customer return chinchillas that had been returned for nipping children.

But after a bit of convincing.
The customer decided they still wanted to try holding one.

So I grabbed the chinchilla I figured wouldn't bite.
-Which I was right in that.-

But the customer really didn't want to get bit.

So when I tried to hand the chinchilla to them the first time...
They freaked out and didn't want to hold it.

So I offered to hold it while they petted it.
And they loved petting it.

So again I tried to get them to hold it.
No dice.

But then I was like "I could put it on your lap?"
To which the customer acquiesced. 

It was a moment of touch and go when I placed the chinchilla there.

But the customer quickly warmed up to the little guy.

And by the time I put him back the customer was back to potentially wanting to buy one though they wanted to do more research on them and other pets first before doing so. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

Delayed

It was one of those days that just...ended up getting away from me.

Because for whatever reason, it seemed to be the day where people wanted to come adopt cats.

Which it's great that we had three of our kitties find their forever home today.

But when I'm the only one scheduled in my department until I'm basically off...
It makes it difficult to get opening done in a timely manner.

And considering that each cat adoption can take up to thirty minutes or so to complete....

That's a lot of time away from doing the tasks I need to be doing.

Especially when they happened one right after the other. *shakes head*

I ended up being like two hours behind. *exhales*

I didn't start the bedding change until after noon.

But luckily it was the back rooms today and they were mostly empty.
So I was able to quickly get it done and get back on track.

But I can only image what it would have been like if the rooms had been filled.
I don't think I would have managed to get them done.
Nope nope.

Yay for an unexpectedly small task today.
Because it allowed me to catch up far quicker than I would have otherwise. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

No Brine Shrimp

Had a customer come into the store wanting to get some fish.

Which it was easy enough for me to grab them as I'd been right there feeding all the tanks some frozen brine shrimp as we'd had a package come in damaged and we didn't want it to go to waste. So all the fish got a treat today. :) Yay them lol

In any case.

I fished out like five different fish for the customer.
And at the end I was like "Anything else I can help you with?"

And the customer was like "I don't want the brine shrimp in there."

Because I had literally just fed the brineshrimp to all the fish and so while fishing out the fish the customer wanted I ended up getting some of the food into the container too.

It was an odd request, but not fully unexpected as the customer had noted while watching me feed the fish before making a decision, that some fish would go after the shrimp and some would not.

So I think they were worried that there might be something wrong with the shrimp because not all the fish would eat it.

-Honestly it's not that weird. I mean not every person likes all the same food. It's the same with fish some fish are pickier eaters than others. 

In any case.
I was like "Sure." I could totally fish out the brine shrimp so there was none in the customer's bag of fish.

So I grabbed a small net and scooped out a large amount of the brine shrimp.

And not wanting it go to waste.
Placed the net in the nearest tank to give the fish there more shrimp to eat.

And the customer was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

My guess, as there was a bit of a language barrier where English isn't their first language, the customer had thought I misunderstood what they wanted and that I was putting the fish back in the tank.

Nope.
"I'm fishing out the brine shrimp." Is what I told them because that's what they had wanted me to do in the first place. Like not even a minute had lapsed between the customer's request and me fishing out the shrimp.

*shakes head*
In the moment I was like "Did you already forget what you asked me to do?"

But yah I can see their concerns with me not understanding them and such. 
As they kept a rather close eye on the container to make sure all the fish stayed there and weren't put back in the tanks. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

He Like To Scream

It's always interesting to get in animals around Christmas time...as well...we get in a ton of them in in preparation of customers wanting to get pets for their kids as presents.

And I always enjoy getting in the small pets just to see the different colors and such.

Today we got in our animal shipment, though unsurprisingly I was missing half the shipment.

As once again we didn't get in winter whites or russian hamsters.
Which it's so weird that the company has such a shortage of them going on as in like the last six months I feel like I've only gotten them in like...once or twice?
And we used to get them in almost weekly.

So it's weird that they're still struggling to stock us up on those.
And then like with the birds we didn't get the society finches we were expecting. Again not surprising as it takes them like three or four months if not longer to get them in when they sell.
Dunno why.

And like they were randomly planning to send us a Conure. Which was totally out of the blue and I wans't surprised at all to not get it because we don't usually get Conures in during the winter. Basically as soon as the snow hits, BAM no more conures until the late spring.

But the amusing part is that we got in like six short haired syrian hamsters.
Which since I was missing half my shipment, meant that I had the space to divide them up into two cages of three so they wouldn't be as over crowded.

Usually the syrians are a pretty mellow group.
You'll get the occasional vocal one that complains about being picked up.

But rarely do we get in the screamers.

We got in a screamer today.
And a little follower with him.

As when this particular syrian would start screaming....
He had a buddy that also would take up the cry too.

*shakes head*

And it wasn't like the AH! sort of scream that the syrian was giving off. 
No it was like.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

poor buddy. He can scream for like ten minutes straight.
And i'm like O.o dude? What's your problem. I haven't touched your cage for a good five minutes now stop the screaming.

But no he's just like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

*exhales*
Like you even twitch the cage open and he's at it again. *shakes head*

Hopefully he'll mellow out a bit more once he gets used to his new temporary home here in the store.
But we'll have to see. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

This Parakeet

So I had a customer come into the store, who had come in like...yesterday? Day before yesterday? To look at our parakeets as her son's been wanting one and so she came to check out what she would need to get for the bird. Cage, perches, food, toys, etc. 

And she became quite taken with one of our white and blue parakeets. 

I told her that we would be getting more birds in next week so she should have plenty of selection as we tend to sell through birds quite quickly in my location. I end up getting more parakeets in every single week.
Honestly it's a rare week that I don't get parakeets. 

In any case.
She basically would have to expect that the parakeet she liked wouldn't be there when she came back to get the bird because of how quickly we sell them.
And I couldn't guarantee that I would get in another white and blue parakeet with similar patterns in the meantime. 

But.
She ended up deciding that she wanted the parakeet she'd seen originally.
So she came back today to get it.

She plans to keep the bird elsewhere until Christmas.

But yah.
I spent a bit of time talking her through everything she would need to get for the parakeet as well as helping her decide if she wanted to clip the bird's wings.

Originally the customer was against it.
But with the knowledge that she wanted to try and tame the bird down, I convinced her that clipping the wings would be the best thing to do.

Like the feathers will grow back anyways.
But this keeps the bird from flying as well.

Her concern was that it would hurt the bird.
It doesn't.
It's like cutting your fingernails or your hair.
So long as you don't cut too high, the bird feels no pain. 

She couldn't watch me cut the wings.

But yah.
She was quite happy with her purchase.

Hopefully the bird does well and the little boy is excited when he gets the parakeet for christmas. lol

-Sarnic Dirchi

A Small Tank

I came across one of my newer coworkers attempting to help a customer at the fish wall.

Which...I could tell at a glance it wasn't going well.

-turns out coworker wasn't feeling well--

But as I approached I heard the customer say "I've done this before, it's okay, I just want one small goldfish." 

And my coworker being the good new coworker they are was like "but the goldfish need a 29 gallon tank" -which is true when they're full grown, but as babies they can temporarily go into smaller tanks. 

And I could tell from the customer's tone of voice that they were heading towards being irritated.
So I volunteered to step in and take over so that a) my coworker could go sit down because they weren't feeling well and b) I could hopefully make the customer happy and satisfied with their purchase.

As they were wanting to buy a couple of plecos and a goldfish to put in a little two gallon tank.

Which is a bit small for three fish.
But the customer had stated before that they had done this multiple times before and the fish had been fine.

Which basically when a customer tells you "I've done this before it's been fine." You basically just shut your mouth because they're not going to listen to you anyways. 

Turns out the customer keeps the goldfish for a while and then when they get bigger they move the fish over to their friend's larger tanks.

So yah. Seemed like an alright situation.

But I suggested buying one of the smaller goldfish as they'd probably work better than the bigger ones and the customer would be able to keep them in the tank longer.

Of course the customer had to point to like the sickly looking one. *shakes head*
-The goldfish have been having a problem with getting hook/anchorworms for whatever reason recently and the customer pointed to a goldfish that had one of those worms on it.
-After the customer left I caught that goldfish, removed the worm, and isolated it away off the floor so it could recover.

I managed to catch a similar color shade of goldfish that looked much healthier for the customer. So yay!

And convinced them to get our little otocinclus because they eat algae and stay small.
-The customer wanted one of the regular plecos that gets like 2feet. Ha. Not good for an itty bitty tank.

But yah.
Our interaction ended with me suggesting some algae crumbles for the customer to feed to the otos because they didn't have a ton of algae in their tank.

And...yah...I think I ended the interaction on a positive note so woot!
At least the customer seemed really happy when they left. ^^;;
Yay for saving the day I suppose. ^^;;

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Cashier

There's a thing about working in the mornings.
I don't often interact with the night crew.
Like occasionally we'll overlap for a couple of hours.
But the people who work the evening shifts...I often don't get to know that well.
So my impressions of them are fleeting and I'll often hear complaints about things that have happened in the store with other coworkers and I'll just be like O_o??? Because I can't see it.

Though I do wonder if people change their behavior while I'm around.
Which is interesting...very interesting.

In any case.

We had this cashier.
Who from the words of one of my managers 'begged' to get a job.
And so like...we hired them right?

And it seemed alright at first. 

It was easy to give them a little slack because they were new and still learning and didn't know everything yet.

But their personality to me was rather....loud?

Like the few times I interacted with this cashier they kinda came off as angry or just of low patience?

And there was more than once I would encounter them before their shift practically yelling into the phone.
And I couldn't tell if this cashier was just...like loud in general because I have had coworkers who just naturally speak loud, or if they were genuinely angry and yelling over the phone to someone.

In any case.

I've been hearing about....incidents. In the closing shifts.

Complaints.
Like the cashier getting upset when a piece of their personal property they left at work went missing. 
-Like?? If you don't lock it up, expect it to go missing dear coworker, because people aren't all honest. 

Or the cashier refusing to do tasks.
Getting into arguments with the closing managers. 

And jumping down the throats of my coworkers for not doing something, or doing something like being on their phones....

When from what others tell me....this cashier would often be on their phone, would often have headphones in listening to music so it was difficult to get them to answer over the radio or understand them on the radios, and like...they never did anything.

"I'm the best and quickest out there!"
....when they are the slowest at getting tasks done. 

*shakes head*

Apparently things came to a head over the weekend.
-I had it off, so I only became aware of the situation during today's shift. 

Where the cashier asked that they be given the number of our head manager.

And like....the managers don't give out their personal phone numbers to coworkers.

For good reason. I don't think they want to be bugged with work related things when they're not at work.
Especially if it's a coworker on a warpath.

As they apparently were trying to get more hours to work and didn't like that the managers were all refusing them their request for more hours.

They had apparently been under the impression that the managers on duty were taking 'all the hours' and it was upsetting them.

Which is...silly.
Each week our work is given a certain amount of hours for the entire store. 
So the managers have to sit down and like ensure that we have the coverage throughout the day in management, stocking, cashiering, and petcare. 
And they have to do their best to not go over hours.
Because...idk why...but that's their goal.
Which means if they're already at max hours...even if a person is available to work longer, we still will send them home after their shift because we can't 'afford' to keep them on longer that day because we don't have the hours alotted to cover it. 
Really the only leeway is if a coworker ends up sick and can't make their shift, or the DM decides to give us more hours to help things out. 
But if you work more hours one day...often the managers will have you cut those hours a different day to make sure you don't get overtime and don't go over your scheduled hours.

In any case.
Apparently this coworker threw a legit tantrum right there at the register that the managers on duty wouldn't let them have access to a different manager's phone number. 
And wouldn't listen when the managers on duty were like "these managers told you that there were no more hours you can't get any more hours." 

But they were yelling and making a scene at the register. Basically saying "I'm not going anywhere, I'm staying here! I'm doing my job! And I'm doing it good!" 

-In the time it takes this cashier to ring up one person we can ring up like three other customers at a different register. 

But the cashier was causing enough trouble that they had to open a second register and move all the customers over there. 

And despite the managers on duty's best efforts....
The cashier refused to go home.

Until they called one of the higher up managers on the phone and managed to convince the cashier to go into an office where they, the manager, and the manager on the phone had a very long...'animated' conversation which resulted in the manager on the phone telling the cashier that they needed to leave the building.

*shakes head*

Like.
Yikes.

I've had crazy coworkers before.
But this one may just take the cake.

-Sarnic Dirchi