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