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