Horrible help at a hardware store

[Colin_T]

There are some people that should work retail and others that should not.

My previous real estate agent should have worked for the tax department, police department or some terrorist organisation. She was not a people person. She was insane and had a Hitler complex. Do as I say or your evicted. Don't park there or your evicted. Make sure this is perfect or your evicted. Meanwhile she would be breaking the residential tenancy act laws left right and center. Every tenant I spoke to about her were terrified of her. She was full on crazy and definitely wasn't suited to retail or customer service.

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I’m not retail… but suspect they were not entered in inventory… that is what I would suspect “not in n the book” means??? and if that’s the case, I also suspect it may be very few people who are capable of doing that???

She may also have wanted the fish for herself and was saying stuff to stop people buying them so she could get them. However, if we wanted fish at the shop, we just ordered in 10 or 20 for ourselves and put a not for sale sticker on them until we took them home.

 

[GaryE]

Even if you're easy going, well informed and sensibly confident, retail can be hard to take. A lot of people don't understand that a friendly approach generally gets a friendly response. If you start badly, it ends spectacularly badly.
There are people who would rather fight than eat, as my grandmother used to say. They usually aren't the brightest.

But hardware stores with large aquarium departments - that's the Netherlands. The European approach to leisure looks appealing. That cultural thing about clubs, meeting other people and discussing amusing things like fishkeeping is like a college of shared learning. I find it interesting that even here, a lot of the older aquarists who held local aquarium clubs together were German.

I try to look at the positive. I already have a tendency to vanish into large hardware stores as I wander around looking at objects I could use in various projects. Add an aquarium section that size, and they'd have all my money. If someone ever starts a store like that here, and adds a bookstore as well, I'll be doomed to a shadow life walking around in aisles.

 

[Colin_T]

But hardware stores with large aquarium departments - that's the Netherlands. The European approach to leisure looks appealing. That cultural thing about clubs, meeting other people and discussing amusing things like fishkeeping is like a college of shared learning. I find it interesting that even here, a lot of the older aquarists who held local aquarium clubs together were German.

We have the same thing in Western Australia. A lot of people in Fish Club and ANGFA had German ancestry (parent or grandparent that was German). It was almost dis-proportionally high compared to people that didn't have any German ancestry. The same applies to people working at the zoo and who keep or study Australian native birds, fish, reptiles, plants and animals. There seems to be a lot of Germans in those fields. I would like to see the statistics for people keeping fish and other pets around the world and see what percentage have German or other ancestry. I think it would be interesting to see, and if they do represent a higher percentage, why?

 

[GaryE]

I don't know what the internet and cultural change has done, but when I spoke with German immigrants older than me, they seemed to have a club culture. Walking, gardening, fishkeeping, birdkeeping - it seemed whenever there was an activity that could bring people together, they made a club out of it.
They also seemed to have a different attitude toward leisure. They really valued the kinds of activities a lot of "anglo" people seemed to look down on, or get extra competitive about. Now, we sit on our duffs and watch youtube videos about the things we would have spent good time talking and learning about via questions and discussion. Here, we have become the ultimate consumers, even consuming one sided conversation as a commodity (properly monetized by you tube...). Odd.

Locally, we started a club that fizzled after a year, even though people enjoyed it. No one wanted to do presentations on fish because they felt they'd be made fun of. I'm not sure who was supposed to be the mean person, but it's as if we assume the worst at all times. We figure someone's going to treat us badly. When I went to join the local fish clubs in Montreal, I felt I knew nothing and would stay quiet. I figured the older fishkeepers would take the lead, and I'd listen, ask questions and learn. It never crossed my mind that would be negative, and it never was. With time, I began to edit a newsletter, then I gave a presentation to help out. The older crowd were appreciative of the initiative, and supportive.

Eventually, I became part of the older crowd.

Now, I talk to people and they express fear of other people. Internet trolling has done its job, I guess, and people like the clerk who inspired this thread have poisoned the water hole. For the club meeting, a local store owner and I have decided to do the presentations while seeking people to help out. Maybe we can cultivate something. It's worth another try.

But we come up against a culture that expects the worst of everyone else. It's a killer of organized hobbies, and unorganized hobbies vanish.

 

[Back in the fold]

That’s some hardware store .

 

[emeraldking]

I’m not retail… but suspect they were not entered in inventory… that is what I would suspect “not in n the book” means??? and if that’s the case, I also suspect it may be very few people who are capable of doing that???

No, they only scan the label on the tank times the number of fish. Nothing more, nothing less. Those fish were already inventoried.

a lot of the older aquarists who held local aquarium clubs together were German.

It's true that the aquatic hobby has been much more active for decades in Germany than in other European countries. But there are a lot of clubs in several hobby sections in Germany. I wouldn't be surprised if the Germans are the most active nation within Europe.

If someone ever starts a store like that here, and adds a bookstore as well, I'll be doomed to a shadow life walking around in aisles.

It probably would be a paradise of a store...

 

[MaloK]

The only thing I really ask for any kind of store.

Is someone that can find what I'm looking for.

That's all.

I'm able enough to mess things by myself, so I don't need help for that.

 

[fishorama]

I used to work retail in a chain grocery etc. store (that also had a small fish dept.), so I get the subservient & rebellious thing. I had to work at my normally shy self, but I can talk to most folks now. I fell in love with pictus cats, but almost 50 years later, I still haven't kept them.

I've had mixed retail fish experiences. At a chain shop they had young zebra loaches I'd been looking for. They were labelled yoyos. I found a book on their shelf w/pics. & asked I would like to buy them all. What will the price be? "We have to sell them as small yoyos, so $2 each". Were they sure? Too bad they only had 6.

There was a "bulk soda shop" chain that also sold fish. Maybe pet food too. Talk about a strange combo!

There was another fish only shop I visited often. I remember literally running across the shop for what I thought were dwarf chain loaches from 50ft away. We'd kept them before they were red listed. A close species but not sids, negrolinea. Not close enough.

There was a very tall guy with tattoos & piercings. Many were intimidated by him, but I didn't care. More than once we knelt on the wet floor & discussed what loach species & what their IDs might be from common names. It was before smart phones, so I had to go home & do research. We even did the head nod in passing. We both knew we were more experienced fish people & no need of BS trying to sell me anything.

Another shop the owner just wanted to sell fish, maybe with some chit chat if it was slow. But his bro & the catfish guy were more informative. I believe I was known to them all as "the loach lady". Not a bad nickname I used to trade plants for food but only to the bro. He even gave me a tank 1 time. So, I gave/sold fish to them before we moved.

I give the "long stare" to sellers who try to BS me. Really? It's 1 of the advantages to getting old I guess, lol.