you know where i work.

[rabbitlady]

you all mostly know where i work i think by now. any ways i have a chance to go to a meeting in june and i hope to bring up some of if not all of your concerns about the place that i work and how you all have helped my dept. become one if not the top pets dept. in our stores.
i am going to say not all of our stores are like you all discride on here and i hope that things will get better in your stores near you..
as for some thinking we don't make a profit on the fish we sell we do most of our fish is at a 50% markup so that is not why most stores don't do the job with the fish that they should most of it is either someone in the dept.s don't care or they are not trianed on what to do for the fish.. hopefully this will change.. if you guys have any ideas and i am sure you do please tell me and i will take this up at the meeting.. just keep in mind i will try my best.. but be reasonable on the things you ask me.. as for the associate that was on earlier if you want to make a difference in your store you can transfer to the pets dept. and show them what you know and learn that is what i do and did.. i have been there 10yrs and the last 2 are my favorite time since this is how long i have been in the pets. dept.

 

[vantgE]

How about tests on fish info weekly if they don't get a 90 employees get fired?

 

[rabbitlady]

that is a good idea but not weekly i think we can get one monthly or at least every six month's that is better then what we have now..ty

 

[rabbitlady]

if anyone has a store # and would like me to add that to my list i would be glad to ..
ones that you know that there tanks are bad i could give them a heads up on what we all here are looking at when we visit out local wm store..

 

[rdd1952]

if anyone has a store # and would like me to add that to my list i would be glad to ..
ones that you know that there tanks are bad i could give them a heads up on what we all here are looking at when we visit out local wm store..

Hi rabbitlady. You and I had a discussion a while back about WM and their practices so you know my feeings on the subject. I applaud you for what you do at your store and hopefully, you will be able to make a difference but most companies don't like negative feedback from their employees.

Here are the two stores that I have been in. I haven't been in either of these in over a month as I just get mad when I see the tanks and all the dead fish..

#1464 on S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC
#1385 on Franklin Blvd., Gastonia, NC

I sent a couple emails via the "Contact Us" on the website but never heard anything back of course I didn't expect to either. Good luck.

 

[Torrean]

EDIT: (I'd like to start off by saying that i really appreciate what your doing, and in no way is what I'm about to say an attack on you. It is a bit graphic and maybe I went a bit overboard, I don't want to hurt your feelings but I do want to impress on you how serious the situation is. Although I suppose you already know.)

I don't know the store number but the wallmart in danville VA is just horrible. Can you guys treat the fish for disease because the guy who contacted me said that the reason the tanks were so bad was because the person from that dept. had gone on vacation 1 day before i went in. I swear I saw a tank of pictus catfish that were more whitespot than scale. This cannot happen in one day. Every tank had atleast one dead fish and most had 3-4. The fish had been dead for a while because quite a few of them no longer had heads. They also had common plecos marked as algae eaters and the label said they grow to six inches (not really funny). Please try to do something about this as I was sickened when I saw these desperate conditions. Like I said I contacted them and the guy said that he pulled out the dead fish and cleaned the tanks but for some reason I have a feeling that if I go in there tommorrow the tanks will be just as bad as they were. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH for your concern.

EDIT: also can you try to get a rule put in the books that the employees have to ask what size tank the costomer has because I was at my local wallmart in the fish dept.(not danville) and I saw a family picking out mollies. I started talking to them and They told me that they had an algae eater (common pleco) in a 1 gallon aquarium!!!!! They went on to tell me about there bad experience with the rainbow sharks that they put in that aquarium (with the pleco). They said that the rainbows had killed there old molly i think it was. So you know what they did. They bought another 1 gallon aquarium and put the 2!!! rainbow sharks in there alone. This is animal cruelty if i've ever heard of it. I'm sorry i'm ranting but i just cannot stand seeing these conditions.

Again I would like to say thank you and good luck.

another edit: if you really need the store number tell me how to find it and i gladly will.

 

[Synirr]

if anyone has a store # and would like me to add that to my list i would be glad to ..

#163 in Nacogdoches, Texas. The conditions are absolutely deplorable. I'm not sure I've ever seen a tank there that didn't have a dead fish in it, even on the day they receive their new shipments! I've seen fish carcasses in the tanks that looked like they were more than a day old. Their shipments of goldfish are always grotesquely large, so that as many as 50 fish or more are crammed into a tank which is probably only 15 gallons, by my estimate. Sometimes it's so bad that they literally cannot move without bumping into one-another.
There is no one actually assigned to work in the fish department... the fish are on the opposite side of the store from most other pet supplies, so I can't call it the pet department.

Please give them a mention, if you can... I'd love to see conditions improve.

 

[Synirr]

another edit: if you really need the store number tell me how to find it and i gladly will.

Walmart.com... scroll down and plug in your zip code in the "Store Finder" box on the left

 

[Mr Miagi]

So im guesing you guys are talkin walmart?

If so, i may not be over there, but i think a course in how to care for ALL animals they keep should be compulsory BEFORE the employer gets the job. One which treats basic husnbandry i spose, and how to care and look after these animals while they are in their care.

Just my two cents.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

two words: nitrogen cycle. just make up flyers that have to go with every fish. i swear, every time i've gone by a WM fish department, i've had to explain cycling to someone. i've yet to encounter a single employee who thinks that cycling consists of more than just letting a tank run empty for a week.

walmart needs to develop an information pamphlet just like everyone else who sells fish. just having something that explains basic concepts like aeration, nitrogen cycles, water changes, and stocking guidelines would be a huge improvement.

 

[littlefishie]

#3649, Fort Erie, Ont. Canada. <--- Crappy betta conditions, and many incompatible fish sold together for the same tank.. not to mention the employee who sold a 10 year old girl a bag of goldfish without parental permission, which, IMO, is wrong.
#3172, St. Catharines, Ont., Canada <--- The usual crappy fish conditions.
#3088, St. Catharines, Ont., Canada <--- EXCEPTINALLY terrible fish conditions. Their fish section is so terrible, and so unprofessional in appearance, not to mention the absolute bull the employees spew.. I overheard the manager tell a customer they'd be carrying SALTWATER fish soon.

 

[Torrean]

#1465

edit:
saltwater fish wallmart hahahahah that's the funniest thing i've ever heard. Oh wait no it isnt

 

[Blue Lobster]

rabittlady, you pose an interesting question. How to help "Big box store X" do a better job selling fish.

Of course staffing the pet section is your biggest problem, since not many people have such a broad range of fish knowledge. I consider myself fairly knowlegable about fish but don't ask about guppies or mollies as I am clueless, it's not my thing.

Since staffing is an issue, outsource it to computers.

Send in the TECHNOLOGY. Maybe a vendor will pick up the tab for the costs.....

How about an in dept. touchscreen Kiosks that will dispense information about fish? Often there is no one "From the department" that knows everything, especially in some 24 hour stores.


A simple flash based picture menu driven system that has stuff like:

"Build a tank, and add fish" They pick a tank and a filter to start, then by clicking fish to add they build a tank. If they overstock, mix non community fish or try to mix salt and fresh they get a Not compatible or too many. A submenu for this "Add a fish to my tank"-Confirms a fish will fit, cohabitate etc with a person's tank that they built.

A "Remember my tank" feature could be used to harvest consumer info for that store since "All fields must be completed to save" will make them put in an address and a suprising bit of info

"Diseases and Treatments" Self explanitory, selling more meds, high margins.

"Water Quality and treatments" With a menu tree based yes no diagnosis of problem

"Filtration needs" Different types, pros and cons.



The fish offered in the store could be shown on a pallete on the main screen next to the menu. Touch the fish and a breed decription, tank conditions, feeding and temp requirements screen will come up with a back button at the bottom. Somewhere on this page recommended tankmates in smaller icons would help.

This would take the guesswork out of the fish buying experience for many and ease the load on the employees answering techinical questions and being demonized "The guy at Store X said it would be fine, but it's not"

In this day and age, people trust computers more than people.

To add to it I'd say an onboard printer in this kiosk to give them the option of taking the info with them would be nice. But why bother, it will probably be out of paper in most stores by the end of the quarter.

Hope this helps, cause I'd like to see good info given to people and stop sending fish down the "Poclean Tunnel to heaven"

Regards,
Blue Lobster, AKA Matthew B.

 

[littlefishie]

edit:
saltwater fish wallmart hahahahah that's the funniest thing i've ever heard. Oh wait no it isnt

What's sad was he wasn't kidding.. I went up to him afterwards to ask where he intended on housing all these SW fish he was going to stock [many of them needing large tanks, even as temporary homes before going to our tanks], and he said he would just put them in the tanks with the existing fish. Eugh.. I wanted to hurt him.
I asked if he knew about SG and what level it should be at.. he was like 'S...g...?'

 

[Torrean]

wow blue lobster you do that to every wallmart in the country and small lfs will simply go out of business, as long as the fish are good quality and well cared for.



EDIT: I don't keep saltwater fish. I know a little bit about the hobby, like it's REALLY expensive, and that they are a lot pickier than fw fish. So enlighten me please what is sg? You can't be serious. He was planning on putting salties in with freshwater fish??? Is he crazy or cruel?

another edit: hopefully he was planning on emptying those tanks and turning them into saltwater tanks. I thought about it for a min and this makes more sense than what i origianlly thought