And now I remember why ...

[blainep]

I remember now why I don't go to chain petstores.
After a while away, I forget, then I go back in.

On my way home from work I had to stop and pick up something for my wife for Christmas, next door was one of the larger petstore chains.
I decided to stop in and see if they might have any of the commercial livebearers I've been looking for. They had them alright, nearly starved to death.
They were completely emaciated, it was disgusting to see.

I stayed around for a while to see if I could find out why the fish ( all of them, not just the livebearers ) were in such poor condition, but apparently, there was no one in the fish dept tonite.
I was strongly tempted to buy small can of food and feed them myself . Maybe I should have.

Needless to say, I didn't buy any, couldn't have if I wanted to, there was no staff.

If I can, next week, I'm going to stop by again and find out who runs the fish dept and demand an explanation, there's no excuse for treating any kind of animal that way.
As well as treating a customer that, selling fish that are very likely to die shortly after being purchased.

No, I won't name the store, last thing I need to do is create any kind of legal issues, but I feel a strong need to rant and rail against stores like this one.

Seeing that sort of thing drives me nuts.

[Melody]

The main fear when we got the big box stores was that they would put the small / privately owned stores out of business. That hasn't been the case. With the internet fish-keepers are being educated in record time and the message is clear, if the stores want to hear it - we know what crap is, we don't want crap and we won't buy crap just because its cheap.

That said, I've seen the standards starting to come up in a couple of stores. Much of that comes with hiring educated staff it seems. We have at least one chain here that prides itself in small store standards and that's nice to see. The Petsmart closest to me has an excellent staff and although they are stuck with what they have to work with, they do make an effort. I have seen fresh fruit and vegetables in the tanks many times, for example. I always make a point of mentioning it when I see that kind of effort.

Its tough to get fish in this time of year so that may also impact stock quality - maybe they arrived that way. Maybe they're just as outraged at having to put that stock in their tanks as you are to find it there, but they had no choice in the matter.:Dunno:

Definitly speak to management - maybe they know nothing about fish, it happens. If its a central water system they might want to medicate for internal parasites. Ask them who feeds the fish everyday - if nobody is specifically assigned to the task, maybe it isn't being done, that happens too. Maybe you can suggest they hire a consultant if they don't know much about fish.

As for legalities, Canadian consumers are protected from that as long as they are sharing their real experiences and not making blanket statements. It is actually illegal for a retailer to threaten a consumer with legal action if they are only sharing their real experience. However, we prefer to have people try to work it out with the store management before naming a store and giving them a bad review. Thanks for excercising restraint - its not easy sometimes.

[blainep]

It's probably best that there was no staff in the fish dept last night, I always make a point to never voice my anger when I'm angry. I always wait until I know I'm not going to explode.
I work in a partially retail business and know how difficult it can be to deal with angry people. Last night I was a very angry person.

Interestingly, these fish were not cheap either, their prices were considerably higher than the private stores in town.
I still am going to speak to the store manager, if it is a case of the fish arriving in poor condition or disease, some sort of signage being posted would go a long way towards ensuring someone like myself would come back.
If it's a lack of knowledge or a staff issue, I hope I can convince them that this is something that needs to be fixed.

Guess I'll find out.

[fishenthusiast]

I don't know if it is relevent or not, but I do know that the labour shortage in Calgary is astonishing. We (my company) have a number of restaurants in Alberta and we can't staff them for the life of us. One of our restaurants is running with only 10 staff. Don't ask me how they have managed to stay open, the Wendy's by them had to shut down because of staffing shortages.

It could be that this store is experiencing the same labour shortages we are and just plain don't have the staff to properly take care of their merchandise. Unfortunatley their merchandise is alive and suffers all the more because of it.

If it was me that saw what you did I would most likely speak to the management at let them know the situation. It is possible they aren't even aware of the state of their fish. If the problem occured because of staffing shortages, perhaps the manager can shuffle the duties around and have more staff in the fish department.

[Melody]

Sorry, left field again...lol...but what is the deal with these shortages? Yet nobody is willing to pay more. I read an article about that and they said businesses are still paying like they're in the recession of the mid 90's. Yet they go on and on about not being able to get staff? Cough up the bucks people! I can't believe the low wages I'm seeing here and they have a list of qualifications a mile long to add insult to injury. This is the most expensive Province in Canada and our wages royally bite.

Thank you, I feel better :laugh:

As for the store, let us know how it goes. I agree that there should have been a sign had they arrived in that condition and its a good point. Since its Christmas, all available staff are probably worked to death, so maybe they've taken people out of the department for something else?:Dunno:

[blainep]

I do agree that staffing here in Calgary is nearly impossible, I know for my shop, finding licensed tradespeople is simply impossible. The only way to get staff is to steal/entice them from other shops.

Businesses in Calgary that don't offer exceptional wages and benefits simply don't get any staff. It's got to be really hard on small business.

If staffing is an issue, that's something I can understand. I still think starving livestock is unacceptable. Feeding fish takes only minutes ( even in my setup ).

[mixixe]

That is upsetting. I think it's worse when they allow little children or families to catch the fish themselves like they are at the carnival. Poor fish. There are some big chain pet stores I go to, some have decent fish, but there are several very big chain petstores out there that are terrible.

[fishenthusiast]

Coming purely from a business perspective. I am the accountant where I work so I see the numbers every day. Wages are the single highest and most controllable cost of running a business. When you are running 40% labour (or more, as is the case with some of my franchisee's) there is no way you are going to be profitable. We are paying more today than last year because people in Alberta are refusing to work for less than $10 an hour. Keep in mind that we own a fast food chain and a full service sit down restaurant franchise.

We don't want to pay more than minimum wage because a) it is low skilled labour, if someone want to get paid big bucks, go get trained in something and

b) If we keep paying higher and higher labour we will have to raise our prices to stay in business.

As the end consumer we end up paying more. Like anything else, it boils down to supply and demand. Right now potential employees are in great demand so they can demand a higher price (wages). Employers will be forced to pay it which in turn causes prices to increase. The demand for the product will go down because consumers don't want to pay more. Businesses will close and unemployment rises. In turn wages go down as the labour market gets more competitive.

Minimum wage in BC is higher than any other province in BC and is only lower than Nunavut ($8.50), Yukon ($8.25) and the NWT ($8.25). While I understand the cost of living is much higher in BC, I believe it is caused, in part, by the demand for higher wages.

I believe in paying for the skill set the job requires. If all you have to do is flip burgers, or write an order on a peice of paper I don't think you should be paid the big bucks. (I worked in fast food for 3 years and still believe this). If a worker is skilled they should be compensated based on their individual skill set.

OK, I will get off my soap box now.

[blainep]

I know my shop pays some of the highest wages in town and I still can't get what boils down to unskilled labour. Even with the promise of an apprenticeship ( for the right people ) and the higher wages that go with it.

[Melody]

That's exactly what I mean though - they're not asking for people they want to train or those that have no skills. If you look at the ads they have mile long lists and want this certification and that certification along with several years experience and on and on and on. An example is the ads for retail managers. Retail managers are paid diddly, but they think that someone who is that educated and that experienced will be knocking down their door to work for $12/hour tops, then wonder why they don't.

Compared to the cost of living here, BC wages are horrible. Practically nobody can afford to live alone unless they can get a subsidy. People up north get healthy northern allowances on top of their wages.

The average worker will never get ahead in this Province because the Province has too many wealthy people in it who are willing to pay for our climate, such as it is. Young families can't afford a basic condo, let alone a house. BC is a rich person's Province - British California. Then they wonder why the young people are heading to Alberta & Saskatchewan? They're going because Blaine is willing to pay them big bucks and offers them training that could set them up for life. They're going to Saskatchewan because they can actually afford a house there.... its not rocket science to figure out why there's a problem. There's not a shortage of workers, there's a shortage of workers who will spend their lives barely scraping by.

I've been offered <counting> 7 management jobs now, all of which refused to disclose their wage scale until they offered me the job. They wasted both of our time. I'm not looking for an outrageous amount here and in fact would take considerably less in my general area so I wouldn't have to commute. All I need is enough to get by on my own - they don't even come close. The funny part is, half the time I'm more qualified than the people who are interviewing me....lol.

The recruiters are all telling me the same thing - there's lots of positions that they have qualified people for but businesses either refuse to pay it or they want it all, education, experience, willing to work ungodly hours and if you wouldn't mind picking up a gift for their wife a couple of times a year that'd rock :laugh: .

Its a frustrating time for both sides I think. I'm not disputing the problems at the entry level, but when it comes to skilled workers you have to pay them a decent wage - anyone price university lately?

Apparently I've been bottling this up for too long....lol. Seriously, I'm not arguing with anything in particular that has been said, its just very much a two-way street.

And none of it is an excuse to starve fish!:mad:

[blainep]

And here I thought I was going to have put on my Mod hat and put the :offtopic: smiley on here, but she added the 'no excuse to starve fish' line :rofl:

Melody, if you do decide to come live in my fishroom, Tim Hortons is paying $15.00/hour to serve coffee, so imagine what you can do with all that education you've got !

I know some days when I can feel the veins in my forehead throbbing from stress, working at Tim Hortons doesn't sound all that bad .

[Melody]

LOL If you start getting sticky on topics, you're fired... no wait, that's probably tempting for you :laugh: .

$15/hour? Seriously? Hmmm... renting a fishroom shouldn't be expensive either....

I'll hitch a ride with Santa and you'll find me under your tree... hopefully before your wife does :wideeyed:

[blainep]

I stopped back in at the LFS in question tonight, gotta say the tanks looked alot better than they did at my last visit.
The fish however, didn't look so good. The livebearers all were covered in Ich spots.... imagine that :mad: .

I didn't voice any displeasure to the kid in the fish dept, ( someone actually does work there ) just calmly asked if there was a manager available.

I got the 'He's not here right now' line so I left. I'll try again in a couple days.

I wonder how many sick fish they've sold in the last couple weeks. :confused:

[CACAdmin]

Glad to hear you asked for the manager. It's the best route to follow. Some of these kids are just doing 'what they've been told' and if employees are that difficult to find there, it may be someone with little knowlege. I'm not sure which day you went but typically, managers will take some time off after 'Boxing week'. What you might want to do is call the store and find out when the manager will be in... they should be able to tell you & that way you won't be making an unnecessary trip.

[Melody]

I was just wondering about this the other day, thanks for keeping us posted.

[blainep]

No prob on the update.

I was thinking that the manager(s) might be away this week, I know mine is ( guess what hat I get to wear at work this week ).

If no one is working next week, I'll try another approach to contact them. I suppose if all else failed, I'm sure I could find the website and contact info for their head office.
I would prefer not to make a big stink untill I give the store a chance to explain. It is possible there were things that were beyond their control.