Pros
Working with animals is great, and a lot of the dogs that come in regularly will make your day. Your experience will depend mostly on the store you are in, as some have fantastic gms while others not so much, but I adore all my coworkers. Also depending on the store, there may or may not be opportunities for growth and cross training. The discount is fantastic!
Cons
The company itself is incredibly slow to get anything done; general maintenance like heating and air and leaks etc, extremely behind the curve in technology, slow to pick up policies that are standard for other retailers, and their current response to the corona outbreak has been to do nothing at all until forced to otherwise, including being one of the last retailers in my city to limit open hours (even behind grocery stores!). Seem very reactive instead of proactive. In general their policies and protocall bogs down the workers with unnecessary time and effort spent on pointless busywork that they put a lot of emphasis on being compliant with, which gives them little time to work on the things that matter(like taking care of the animals sold there). The planograms they send down seem to be getting worse with cycle. Training is minimal unless you're a groomer. They always want more more more, and are of course on the same level as many corporations as far as wanting to always show a profit, which means labor cuts and understaffing and management working every position instead of focusing on their actual duties. Many things fall through the cracks because of this. High turnover. Grooming salons tend to be drama centers with higher turnover than the rest if the store. The company speaks a message of trust and care for employees and pets, but in my opinion sends a strong message of money money money and that's it through their actions and policies. Overall, working here, you get the overwhelming impression that not only does the company not care about the workers or the animals in their care (or anything but profit), but doesnt even care to pretend they do above the most basic face value claims. Working there is frustrating at the best of times, and you feel a lack of support from any management above the store level. You will learn a lot about animals here, but unfortunately not all of it is correct, and you will have to do your own research outside of the job to properly guide customers. Also, the general customer base is terrible. Entitled and know everything and look for any opportunity to prove you wrong, yet simultaneously expect you to know every fact about every animal and every ingredient in every food. Many will get angry that you cant identify a piece of kibble they bring in a ziploc baggie and don't remember the name of. They do no research for the animals they intend to buy, and expect you to spend an hour with them and tell them every single step even if there are other people waiting. And then most of the time wont follow your advice anyway. You will fight daily to keep people from keeping goldfish in a bowl. Some of them are great, some regulars are fantastic, but overall it's a worse clientele than other types of retail, largely because they put animals lives on the line regularly. Don't work in petcare if you actually care about fish, reptiles, birds, and rodents, you will not be happy, trust me.
