They would rather hire outside people without knowledge/experience than promote hard workers - Petcare Specialist PetSmart Employee Review

2.0
29 May 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The primary reason I still work at PetSmart is the animals. I do have a lot of regular customers that ask for me personally and I do enjoy helping most of the customers that come in the store.

Cons

If you are hired in at a low level, you will never be promoted higher than maybe a lead position. Pet Care there is a lot to do every day, all day. It is a lot of hard work with very little assistance from other departments, yet they are expected to cover other areas in the store making it very difficult to complete daily duties and provide proper customer service. The down side to others helping in Pet Care is lack of training and knowledge which can result in improper information given to customers which can have bad results when they purchase live animals without clear understanding of their needs and care. Training for all areas and positions are minimal at best. Most of the managers have very little experience, if any, and most are outside hires, very rare to find a manager that was promoted to the position. Pay is low and so are the raises.

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5.0
26 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good job and location nice

Cons

None that I can think of

1.0
2 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company pushes for more and more from the bottom level employees without better pay. I worked there before the restructuring and; not much can make me cry, but working here sure did, even back then. I can’t imagine how anxiety inducing it must be to work there now. Animal welfare is a complete non-concern. The only thing that’s pushed is sell, sell, sell. It’s borderline dystopian. Bad management seems to be a common issue, not only from my experience, but many others’ as well. I worked until I was an exhausted sweaty mess to make sure everything in pet care or, when I groomed, the salon, was cleaned to perfection as expected of me (and I reiterate: “me,” because these standards were not expected of my co-workers, just me) and overall felt very unseen. The only times I did feel “seen,” was when mistakes were made. Work was treated like boot camp. A co-worker that was subtley targeting/bullying me, and even started rumors accusing me of racist remarks(!!!), was promoted and anything I reported was downplayed because they were friends with the assistant manager. Working here was an overall traumatizing experience.

Cons

Employees are expected to be work-robots

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PetSmart Response
1w
We’re disappointed to hear that your experience didn’t reflect what we aim to create for our associates, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. We invite you to contact the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693 so we can learn more and see how we can support you. Thank you.
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