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