Time and time again we read the same old topics "Walmart employee's know nothing" "the staff at pet co. know less than the wart on my little brothers nose" "the guy at the lfs says bala sharks can go in a 10g tank with 300 goldfish" etc etc.
But wait!!!!
Here we are in the middle of the information age where anyone can find out anything they want to know within a few hours if not minutes. Fish keeping isnt rocket science and everything you need to know can be learnt from a book or by running a search on the internet in very little time. Those of us who do know a bit about fish weren't born with that knowledge, we learnt it by reading about it and yet time after time we hear people going on about how their lfs have missold them fish or that the guy in Walmart didnt pre warn them that a oscar would outgrow the 10g tank he sold them with it. Anybody who is able to get to a lfs is also able to get to a book store or library and lets face it not many people just walk past a fish store and think "hey, i think i'll go in and buy a tank and some fish", deciding to keep fish is a pre meditated act so there is no excuse for not at least buying a beginers guide to keeping fish type book before buying a tank.
It is a sad fact that many fish stores employ staff that know nothing about the fish they are selling, but the fish keeping business like nearly all hobby style businesses isnt one that makes a huge deal of money, infact you could say that the people who work there do it either out of love of the hobby or because they can't get a job elsewhere so it stands to reason that to come across a intellegent lfs employee is a pleasurable but rare experience. So next time you hear someone handing out bad advise dont just blame the staff, the person with the money in their hand is just as bad and if not worse than the person doing the selling.
Right i've finished so you can all flame me now
But wait!!!!
Here we are in the middle of the information age where anyone can find out anything they want to know within a few hours if not minutes. Fish keeping isnt rocket science and everything you need to know can be learnt from a book or by running a search on the internet in very little time. Those of us who do know a bit about fish weren't born with that knowledge, we learnt it by reading about it and yet time after time we hear people going on about how their lfs have missold them fish or that the guy in Walmart didnt pre warn them that a oscar would outgrow the 10g tank he sold them with it. Anybody who is able to get to a lfs is also able to get to a book store or library and lets face it not many people just walk past a fish store and think "hey, i think i'll go in and buy a tank and some fish", deciding to keep fish is a pre meditated act so there is no excuse for not at least buying a beginers guide to keeping fish type book before buying a tank.
It is a sad fact that many fish stores employ staff that know nothing about the fish they are selling, but the fish keeping business like nearly all hobby style businesses isnt one that makes a huge deal of money, infact you could say that the people who work there do it either out of love of the hobby or because they can't get a job elsewhere so it stands to reason that to come across a intellegent lfs employee is a pleasurable but rare experience. So next time you hear someone handing out bad advise dont just blame the staff, the person with the money in their hand is just as bad and if not worse than the person doing the selling.
Right i've finished so you can all flame me now