# petco vs lfs



## Jmoney (Aug 21, 2007)

after being on this forum for the past few weeks and reading old threads, i get the impression that most people's opinion of stores like petco and petsmart are not very high.

from what i've noticed so far in shopping around (which isn't must considering i just started my first aquarium) is that the lfs's in my area and the petco have a similar selection and similar prices. but the lfs only give a 48 hour guarantee on fish and petco gives a 15 day guarantee. 

i guess my main question is, what reasons are there for going to the lfs when petco has a much better guarantee on their fish?


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## fish_4_all (Nov 13, 2006)

Most LFS give a 2 week guarantee. It is never truelyu a matter of this one is bad or this one is good. All stores have their own policies and their own bad and good qualities.

I look for 3 things, no sick fish, healthy colors and no dead fish that have been eaten to the bone. If you trust them, buy from Petco. I would if I did and had one close to me. Make your own educated decision. Every store will be different even the ones from the same chain. Is like when I buy groceries. I have certain things i will buy from certain places for different reasons. 

We are here to help you decide if the Petco you have is a good place to buy so ask any quesitons you need to have answered. If that makes them sound good to you, then I would patronize them, otherwise I would go else where.


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## Mating Slinkys (Apr 17, 2007)

I guess it all depends on your local stores, as a rough generalisation people who work in LFS's tend to be more into their fish, know more about the fish and be more happy to chat to you about what goes with what, and what is suitable for your situation. 

Wheras folk in the bigger chain stores tend not to know as much, often are there only for a summer job and therefore not too interested in learning more. There also seems to be a general 'sell at all costs' attitude, rather than giving you advice about what is appropriate.

Also, and again because of the generally greater base knowledge, the fish at your LFS will often be healthier and happier fish, and less prone to disease. 

Having said that, it really does depend on local situations. There may well be staff at your local petco/pet's at home etc. who know a great deal, and who are happy to help and avise well and honestly without regard to whether they get a sale or not. I'm also sure there are some terrible LFS's out there who suffer from all the flaws I listed above and more.

Personally i find my LFS (North Lakes Aquatics in Penrith, UK) to be awesome, the fish are good, the folk friendly and knowledgeable and i often go in to get just some fish food and end up chatting about this and that for far too long! So i tend to use my LFS, although i have bought fish at my local Pets At Home, and they were healthy and happy, and still are 6 months later, although the advice i've been given there has sometimes been somewhat dubious...

The best advice is to do your own research, so you know what you want and if it is suitable, and to use your common sense. Have a look at all the tanks in the shop (whichever one LFS or petco) Are the fish looking good? are they diseased? Are they even alive? are the tanks clean and free from algae/dirt build up etc. Speak to the staff, but if they seem to be pushing for a sale you're not sure about, then it's probably worth checking the info out somewhere else. 

So in general, your LFS often has the edge, even if they are sometimes a bit more expensive. As for the guarantee, it may be that as petco are a bigger company, they can afford to take the losses that inevitably come with a longer time period better than the LFS. Or they may genuinely have better quality fish. 

Sorry if that was a bit rambling, and i hope i haven't offended anyone out there. Any hatemail - PM me and i'll apologise profusely!


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## jones57742 (Oct 31, 2006)

Jm:

I have purchased:
most of my fish over the internet;
some from my local PetCo and
very few from my LFS.

I have had "good luck" with all of the above except for several $100's of high end show guppies which I ordered over the internet.

*With respect to PetCo several items:*

occasionally the fish are mislabeled on their tags but

you can order fish at your local PetCo which they do no have in stock 
this is 1st class: as they will only charge their store prices and you will not 
have to pay the shipping charges as you would for internet orders.

the drawback to this is that person in charge of their aquatics may not "have a clue" and the store manager may not "have a clue".

In order to overcome this condition, although they will not have access to the internet, ask the store manager to "let you browse through" the fish which are currently available on his computer directly from PetCo distribution.

This works "like a charm".

TR


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## Jmoney (Aug 21, 2007)

thanks for all of your opinions so far.

jones:
when you have petco order a fish for you that they do not currently have in stock, do they require that you purchase it or can you decide whether you want it after they get it in the store and you look at it?


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## jones57742 (Oct 31, 2006)

Jmoney said:


> do they require that you purchase it or can you decide whether you want it after they get it in the store and you look at it?


Never asked: just pulled out my credit credit card as they have always been nice enough to do this for me and I have "never been burned".

TR


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Any chain pet store, lfs, or for that matter, any retail store, is only as good as the people who staff it. I am blessed with about 6 lfs's that are, without a doubt, as good as they come.


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## Andyandsue (Jan 23, 2007)

One thing that I think hasn't been mentioned is reputation. 

A LFS has a reputation to uphold, and PetCo/PetSmart have only the price of their stock the stock exchange to uphold. 

It's been my experience that once you find a LFS and you become a customer, you have then become "their customer", and they should provide you service as such. Your reward for being a loyal customer is recognition from staff and wonderful service. If you don't have this at a LFS I'd find somewhere else to go because what keeps small business alive is their ability to be service-oriented. And I enjoy supporting small business.

The employees at a LFS are generally hired for their true interest and knowledge in aquatics. The PetChain employees are hired because that department needed help instead of the cat department. Just for fun (god I am SO passive-aggressive) the other day at PetSmart I asked a girl who was taking care of the fish if Mollies were livebearers. Her reply was "I dunno, let me check", at which point she looked on the tag and I laughed to myself.

I do not want to be a hypocrite though. I admit I do go to the PetChain stores once in a while, when the LFS doesn't have what I need, but it's always hardgoods, never fish.


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## reverendred (Mar 1, 2007)

like others have said, its all personal preference. 

i go to my LFS because the nearest petsmart or petco is 45 minutes away. but when i do get out that way i go to petsmart. 

i prefer the selection of the bigger chain stores. and the one i go to has some very knowledgeable staff.

price-wise the difference isnt too noticeable but sometimes it is.... example... bala sharks at the LFS $8.50 where as at petsmart they were $5.


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## Jpet (Jul 30, 2007)

I actually prefer petsmart/petco to my lfs. It is clear that my lfs cares more about its marine fish and reptiles than they do the freshwater fish. For example the marine fish are all in decent sized well lit aquariums. While the freshwater fish are crammed into 10gl unlit aquariums. End Rant.


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## Unrulyevil (Jan 10, 2007)

I got petco by my house and..... they dont know anything about the plants... they dont know anything about the fish.... but they do have fish and plants and tanks and everything you need so..... I guess they are ok

Everything else.... pick up a good aquarium book and read up!


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## Daz (Sep 20, 2006)

Petsmart are good on dry goods, but all there fish are done through franchise in the UK, so they dont get the degree of care they require. Bonuses are always invovled, most staff see the £ signs and thats it, but I hastened to add not all staff are the same.


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## beetlebz (Aug 2, 2007)

the nice thing about a store like petco is.. chances are they got it. not fish, necessarily, but other things be it fish food, ferret food, a new whizzy whatsit for this or that, an elephant (just seeing if youre still paying attention) or medications. 

I can go into petco and pick out what I want.. because as was stated before you cant really trust the knowledge of the employees. I have to rely on myself to do the research love: Forum Guys n Gals! ) before I go whipping out the plastic 


on a side note there is one local LFS (really really stores, small chain) that we have here in the mall. I only go in there because they have a good assortment of tetras (if nothing else), puppies to play with, and ONE girl who knows what she is talking about. That makes all the difference in the world to me... knowledgeable staffing. She is also adorable and thus WAY out of my leauge, but im still madly in love *sigh*  :bluelaugh: lol!

but seriously though, look around for yourself. you will find that pet co/smart, your LFS, and online retailers will all fill a role for you if you spend the time to appriciate the strong points of each


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

I havnt read everyone's post on this but I have worked at both petco and petsmart in the past and the best advice I have for you is to become educated yourself. Not to boast but I consider myself pretty knowledgable about fish and I have worked with some brilliant fish people at both stores. I have also worked with some complete idiots at both stores who make up information and just try to sound confident even though they don't know what they are talking about. I've worked in stores that had illness problems and i've worked in stores that have nearly perfect fish selections at all times. On the flip side, i've been to LFS stores that were very helpful but i've also seen people who don't know what they are talking about there. I generally try to test them with certain questions just to see if they know what they are talking about or if they just want to sell me stuff. As far as the guaruntee issue, you can pretty much get away with anything at petco or petsmart if you talk to a manager. I've seen people not even have a receipt or a dead fish and get money back, lol. LIke I said before though, become self educated so you know what you are looking for. If you find a store that is helpful, stick with it.


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## reverendred (Mar 1, 2007)

haha testing the staff......

at my local LFS i tend to ask questions then give them the answers because i dont get the answers that i have read up on. the only one there that really knows what is going on is the owner. the rest i have little faith in.


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## Andyandsue (Jan 23, 2007)

Not to beat a dead horse here, but I just got back from PetSmart. It was close to closing time so I went to the fish department. I didn't want to waste time, so I asked the girl who works there if she could help me locate a sponge filter for my fry. She had no idea what I was talking about. She told me about a net or a plastic breeder for fry (duh). I then asked her if she could help me find an airstone for the fry tank. I wanted something that maybe wasn't very "bubbly". I saw a stone that said "diffuser" and common sense told me it would diffuse the air, so the odds are it would be more gentle than a regular air stone. It was also a little more expensive. She had no idea what the difference was in the stones either.

I have seen this girl before taking care of and selling fish so I know she is a regular in this department.

I ended up buying the net breeder (I have a plastic one) and 3 different air stones just for my own knowledge. I told her I'd come back and let her know what the difference is. 

My rant is finished. Thank you.


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

haha its funny because I went into my old work the other day (petsmart) and overheard a lady asking one of the employees about some filter parts. The employee was stumped so I had to take over even though I dont work there anymore. At petsmart the people in the fish department are "pet care specialists" meaning they handle fish, birds, reptiles and small animals. Usually each employee has one area of interest though that they know more about. For instance, I loved helping people with fish but when it came to birds, I knew nothing. I'm sure there is some bird forum somewhere that is complaining about me, lol. In my opinion its not fair to say that petco or petsmart or any store is bad based on certain experiences. My advice is to find an expert or group of experts that you trust and continue to go back to them. They may be at a large chain store or a small mom and pop store. I've even given out my email to customers to let them contact me when im not working. Overall you will probably find more experts at an independant fish store because obviously they are interested in fish if they work there.


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## jones57742 (Oct 31, 2006)

mHeinitz57 said:


> My advice is to find an expert or group of experts that you trust and continue to go back to them. They may be at a large chain store or a small mom and pop store


*or an on-line fish club which is 1st Class such as FF!*

TR


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## fish_4_all (Nov 13, 2006)

Well it all comes down to this. If we want everyone to be an expert then we better be willing to pay the price for it. Fill Petsmart, Petco, Walmart and all the other wholesale bulk low price stores with people who are making $35 an hour and you will pay as much if not more for per supplies and everything else. 

If the fish aren't healthy, don't buy them but don't knock a place Like Petco or Petsmart if you can get 5 healthy ciclids from them even though they couldn't even tell you they were mouth brooders.

I can't tell someone on the forum how to care for a knife fish, dragon fish, baby whale, anything living in salt water and many other aspects of aquariums including sumps and wet dry filters. Does this mean I don't deserve the respect for the things I do know? How many of us out there can actually be given a random list of 100 fish and tell someone exactly how big they get, what they eat, what size tank they need, are they brachish, are they aggressive, etc. 

Like I said, I belong to the forum because I know where to get advice so I make the right decision. If I had a Petsmart or Petco close enough I would buy any HEALTHY fish from them that saved me a couple $$ over my LFS. I would buy a 40 gallon for $40 because my LFS wants $120. I would buy 500ml Excel from them for $8 because my LFS wants $22. Matter of fact, I would not have to settle for 10 gallon tanks right now if I had one close to me and if Wal-Marts fish were healthier and didn't have ich so often I would have dragon fish even though the employees couldn't tell me what they ate! 

After all, we don't shop Wal-Mart for housing and other items because they can tell us what the material is on the favorite lounge chair and what the thread count it. We shop for price, period. If we always shopped for selection, expertise or any other aspect normally found at a custom store for anything a chain store sold then the chain store wouldn't exist, would it!?


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

awesome point, thats why I said it really is up to us to become educated. I can't stand when I would have customers come in and had no interest in learning about how to care for fish, they just wanted to buy the stuff and everything would be fine. On the other end of the spectrum, some people would come in and expected us to be liscenced vets who could perform brain surgery or something, lol. 

In response to you Jones, i've often suggested this forum to customers who want to learn more and get great advice...its helped me a lot as well.


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## Mating Slinkys (Apr 17, 2007)

Good points the f4a, It's all down to common sense, and being responsible for your fish by getting the know how. And as a lot of folks have said, here's a good spot to be, i think you all have saved many of my fish several times over! They say thanks too!


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## Zapher (Jul 30, 2007)

Alot of you have made some good points where it really does come down to a bit of time talking to the people working. Something i would suggest for ya'll is to be generally nice and understanding. I work in a fish department of a pet store. I got the job because i ended up going in there about 4 times a week for a good 6 months untill on of the owners asked me to start working(at that point i was helping customers while getting my own stuff). One thing i can point out is if you are at a good store and someone doesnt know something they will tell you. I cant pretend to know everything about fish and i highly doubt there is anyone in the world that could tell you every little thing there is about every fish, especially considering the fact that new fish are constantly being discovered and entering the fish trade. Also alot of things can be opinion, such as what type of filter is the best. When i am working, if i dont know something i tell the person, many times i have actually looked up on the internet about fish with the person. I can also tell you that most of the things i have learned about fish are just from talking to customers that are experts on one specific type of fish and love talking about them. 

Someone mentioned it earlier where they will go in to get one or two things and end up talking to the workers for hours, thats because something that alot of people forget is that they ARE people. Now granted that can be a huge understatement because i have met many many people i hate, yet assuming that people working at LFS or petsmart/co really is unfair. Im sure many of you know the saying for what assume means, so lets refrain from it.

When it comes down to it, all pet stores are different because of the people that work in there. Some of you have said that you have great success with the fish franchises while in my area they are all horrible. Think of it this way, what goes around comes around. I myself have thrown people out of the store, written in big letters "NO RETURNS" on peoples receipts, refused to give fish to people and im sure many other things i cant remember when people have acted as jerks. Now on the other side, i have many repeat customers that i have become friends with and on many it is an automatic 10% or more discount with everything they buy. Do your research, ask questions, be nice and your fish buying experiences will be much more enjoyable.

Someone also mentioned something about warrenties, my store offers a 5 day return policy on most fish. Some we have no policy. We do make exceptions though, for example if a fish has been breathing heavily on the bottom ever since it was introduced into the tank we sometimes replace them. But from my experiences if a fish is going to die because of the lfs it will usually happen within a couple of days, so warrenties arent really the thing to be looking for. More so the appearence of the fish, ask the conditions of the water, how long it has been there, probably a couple i cant think of right now. Stuff like algae on the tank, even a dead fish every so often should be noted but also look at it this way. In my store we have around 150 tanks and thats small. We have 3 employees including myself. Imagine taking care of 50 tanks yourself, it isnt the easiest thing. Also it sounds bad but fish will die and if you are getting in a few hundred fish (not sure how many we actually get in a week) you are bound to lose one or two. So make note of it but dont lose all faith because of a death. I wish we didnt lose fish but it is inevitable.

Sorry if that was a long rant, im bored at my other job so have been kinda rambling.


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