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.

 

[GaryE]

There was a hole in the wall shop near me at one time. The front was all fishing lures and fishing gear, and the back was all tanks - only maybe 20 of them. I know of a cat groomer, whose place smells like a litter box, but who boyfriend has added a small fish section with really good choices. You'd never detect ammonia with your nose though - it's a nasty space.

There was a place near another flat that was a "live laugh love" style decor place - really cheesy, but it had 6 tanks and was the first place I ever saw that sold splashing tetras.

We have a member here trying a comic book store with tanks. They're all small scale projects (no pun there) attached to small stores though. Big places - department stores, garden centres, grocery stores - have all stopped selling aquarium stuff around here. Even pet stores are going the dog and cat food route and dialing down fish sales.

 

[Back in the fold]

We have a member here trying a comic book store with tanks.

I would run , not walk , to that place ! Now this is just me but I can’t think of a better combination .

 

[Bamf Comics]

In the early 90's, there was a chain of "farm hardware/supply" stores called Southern States and all the ones in my area small had pet departments. My first retail outside the house experience was actually taking over the fish supply at one of them. I stocked the tanks, stopped by once a week to restock and get paid for whatever sold. About that time I put a dozen 10's with fish and basic supply into a game room. In less than a year I pulled the game room's setup and went full retail. Shortly after that, the 2 closest Southern States sold and shut down their pet fish sections.

The size of the one pictured by the poster, I suspect a store that size has numerous staff and headaches to deal with you may or may not be aware of. If you have a bad experience with one person, hold out for the next/avoid that person in the future. They usually have some type of suggestion box somewhere as well you can drop a note into about employee x needs to stay in lumber and away from the fish. Of course that person could also just have been having a bad day for any of a dozen different reasons you may not have been aware of from personnel to work related. Your next experience may be different. Either way though, from what I can see from the pictures, the chain itself has made a substantial investment and effort to make product available to you. You shouldn't immediately avoid them forever due to one experience with a single employee. The two managers at the two Southern States were nice guys but I wouldn't label either one of them experts and one of them I even heard got high and was found several blocks away passed out a forklift sometime later.

 

[Magnum Man]

my local hardware stores do not have aquariums... but this condition is everywhere, no matter what is being sold... at any stores I frequent, I use the line "I'm beyond help" if the sales person is not "the one" I'm looking for... there are bad sales people in every kind of business... unfortunately often owners or managers know someone is bad, but feel it's better to have a body in that position, than no one

 

[emeraldking]

The size of the one pictured by the poster, I suspect a store that size has numerous staff and headaches to deal with you may or may not be aware of. If you have a bad experience with one person, hold out for the next/avoid that person in the future. They usually have some type of suggestion box somewhere as well you can drop a note into about employee x needs to stay in lumber and away from the fish. Of course that person could also just have been having a bad day for any of a dozen different reasons you may not have been aware of from personnel to work related. Your next experience may be different. Either way though, from what I can see from the pictures, the chain itself has made a substantial investment and effort to make product available to you. You shouldn't immediately avoid them forever due to one experience with a single employee.

It has turned out that she had the same behavior towards other customers. From what I've heard of others by now, that seems the way she is. One of my friends has already made a case because of her. Some more people have contacted me also about this particular employee by now.
And I do have to say that the store itself is great to look at with what they've got in store. That's something I've also said before. Just this particular employee behaved in a rude way. She started already off by letting me know that she didn't feel like helping at all. By the time she did help me, she tried to overwhelm me with her so-called knowledge. Just what came out of her mouth indicated that she lacked serious knowledge. She contradicted me in everything. The way she hanlded those fish was really careless.

 

[emeraldking]

there are bad sales people in every kind of business...

Unfortunately, that's absolutely a fact...

 

[anewbie]

there are bad sales people in every kind of business...

Heck there are bad people everywhere.