It's fairly well known that you can trust at most a tenth of what a LFS employee tells you. What I'm curious about is why the LFS employees are so bad. Why don't people who are passionate about fish keeping work at aquarium shops? It makes sense for the chain stores like petco and petsmart, but I am confused about why fish specific shops don't have better training. Anyone know..? If you could, would you work for an LFS?
Thoughts On Why Lfs Employees Are So Bad?
- Thread starter SamB
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TwoTankAmin
Fish Maniac
Nope, they do not pay enough.
Nope, their policies are intended to sell fish, not to care for them.
Nope, I do not even shop in them.
Nope, their policies are intended to sell fish, not to care for them.
Nope, I do not even shop in them.
Sadly TTA is faily accurate there.
There are some good ones out there, but sadly good advice is contrary to successful business for a lot of places, so those individuals don't do well and get disheartened, resulting in them leaving. You're left with those that can't understand the problems or don't care about them.
There are some good ones out there, but sadly good advice is contrary to successful business for a lot of places, so those individuals don't do well and get disheartened, resulting in them leaving. You're left with those that can't understand the problems or don't care about them.
smiles669
Fish Fanatic
One LFS in my city... The owner is an older man, and will only hire attractive young girls...
The one I go to is very good and on a few occasions told me not to buy something because I didn't need it or the fish would not do well in my setup. That being said I have had a couple of the associates tell me stuff that was wrong so now I just steer clear of them and only deal with the ones that I know are knowledgeable. But I have been thinking of applying there since I need a part time job right now. (mostly to support my fish habit LOL)
relevantsam said:
Your questions are very idealistic, but we live in a realistic world. Proper fish keeping isn't really a very lucrative business. The truth is that keeping the fish alive and healthy enough to sale costs a lot of money. And its the newbies that buy the fish and they die - and they buy more fish - and they die and so on that keeps most of these places in business.
Think about it - once you've fully stocked your fish tank with fish that can live between 4 and 20 years (some a whole lot longer) what are you actually going to be buying from the LFS? Food, dechlorinator, and the odd item now and again. Maybe you catch the planted tank bug, and so you buy plants, fertilizers, new bulbs, etc. Again though, once you've stocked up on these items, you are only purchasing replacements every 6 months or so. You aren't a "repeat" customer. And, you can generally buy these other items online for cheaper than in the stores, because online sellers don't have the same overhead costs.
Ultimately, it is the folks that buy fish against the "proper" advice that keeps most shops in business. If they actually educated all their customers the proper way, I don't think many of them would stay in business very long at all.
Overstocking (lots of sales) leads to lots of problems (sales of meds and lots of food) and when the fish die after 3-6 months people are happy, especially when that ONE fish survives for a few years (but never as long as it should). That's the lifeblood of the LFS!
haleem8777
Fish Crazy
i would disagree 3 out of 4 pet shops i visit have very good employees. they know there fish facts. recommend not to buy certain fish. If your wondering the pet shop i hate is which is run by a old lady. i asked if i could buy some fish bag (small) she insisted they are really expensive like 100 for 50 pounds and tried to sell them to me for 50p each. while the other gave me some free.
The people at my lfs that I go to seem honest, yet uneducated when it comes to fish...like one of the guys I know there I'm buddies with and he showed me on his phone his 10g and 20g. He had 30 neon tetras in the 10g and the 20g was his "amazon" tank with 2 dwarf gouramis, butterfly fish, and serpae tetras. LOL
haleem8777
Fish Crazy
relevantsam , yes fish transporting bags
Aside from the fact that we have to deal with the chronically daft people every day to a point it makes you want to just give up on the hobby?
Its not all fun and games working in aquatics, you have to sell, like it or not, customers *always* think they know better, its all about cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and serving customers, nothing glamorous like people seem to believe. And everyone knows that working in retail is never going to earn you much money... so essentially... your doing the job because you love it, right up until the point that customers destroy that love of fish and you leave
That said, if businesses aren't obligated to provide training, why would they then do so? Very few places provide training, I know p@H do which is better than nothing... but barely... other than that... you might get a few small independants that pay to take the OATA course but few do, its expensive, not required and more benefit to the customer than it is the member of staff.
EDIT: And if a shop gives you transport bags for free, assume they are just being very generous. If a shop has to buy something, why should they be expected to give it to you for free? Its one thing if you have bought fish, they are hardly going to include a bag charge as well! But if you are just wanting bags without spending money in the shop...
I was waiting for you to comment here. First hand knowledge and all.
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