# Walmart!!!



## FishMatt

Have any of you guys heard that 10 Walmarts in the nation are going to be redone which means possibly a better fish department. They say their will be restaurants, meat market, ETC, Just a whole lot better stores they said if it works they will do more stores!! This is great am I right!


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## Corwin

lets hope they become responsible fish sections


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## hXcChic22

We saw a Wal-Mart down in Columbia, SC that had a renovated fish section. It looked really nice and there were only a few dead fish (but that can be expected anywhere). However, it looked so new that I'm not surprised it was doing well. I'd like to see how it looks in 6 months; if it was still as healthy and nice.


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## FishMatt

Let me know too.


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## emc7

Our walmart took out the live fish, but still have supplies. I used to love that I could go buy meds at 2 am, but they started closing at midnight, too. I don't think they should sell fish. Occasionally I'll visit a wal-mart with a first-rate fish manager and decently kept tanks, but its the exception rather than the rule. I'm afraid they will do what they did to the sewing/fabric section. After they drive all the independents out of business, decide that the space could be used more profitably and stop carrying it, leaving the locals SOL.


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## Revolution1221

i wouldnt count on it walmart cares about one thing and thats money the more specialized they get in fish starts to mean the less cost affective it becomes because it takes more money to do it properly like most lfs do. unless some animal laws start to be enforced on the fish industry i highly doubt we will ever see a change in the way walmart conducts their fish department as for now its up to the highly unlikely chance they hire a person who actually knows what the hell they are talking about when it comes to fish. not to mention the fact that there are a lot of people out there that dont want to go into a petstore and be told they cant have a fish or they are doing something wrong they just want to buy the fish they want no questions asked and walmart does a good job of capatalizing on that. both the walmarts here in town have done a remodel and changed the fish department it only looks good from the outside the tanks actually appeared to get smaller tho they really only expanded the supplies department. they now have about 20 puffers in a five gallon tank and i think before they had them in a 10 gallon also they used to have the koi and goldish completely seperated now they are all running off the same contingency system as the tropicals. sad but true story one day i walked up to the fish department and there were about 30 dead goldfish atleast the water was disgusting then a guy came over and asked if i needed help so i said are these fish for sale and the guy goes ummm yeah why wouldnt they be and i told him are u kidding me look how many are dead and how many are sick and he was like no they just die. another day i got in an argument with an employee about gsps being brackish because they have them listed as only needing 1 tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons. and he tried telling me i was probably mistaken with another species of puffer haha but then i called him an idiot and he walked away.


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## Corwin

thats depressing, thankfully most of the LFS near me have been there forever, and its unlikely that they will be easily pushed out by places like walmart.


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## FishMatt

Thats very depressing it not so great then. But the sad thing is that is the closest thing to me the closest Petsmart is 40-50 miles away from me I only can go their every 2 months. You walmart is worse than mine if they leave that many fish dead. Mine just gives the fish Ick


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## hXcChic22

Our local Wal-Mart that carries fish does not keep them in good conditions at all. There is always tons of Ick and even big white patches on them sometimes. They generally don't have anything unsual, but they do carry GSPs sometimes and also have the parrots, and once, I saw a synodontis there. We got our most spectacular betta there, too. 
I recently bought some platy fry from them because I knew the poor things wouldn't survive very long in those terrible conditions, if they managed to not get sucked into the intakes. The girl there was nice and snuck me an extra three for the price of five, so now we have eight platy fry in a breeder net, and we didn't lose any of them. Doesn't seem that they were carrying any disease, either.


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## FishMatt

You did a very good deed to save them.


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## Tallonebball

yeah i dont care what walmart says. Any big chain could care less about their fish because its not what the store is about. I highly doubt Walmarts CEO gives two craps about their fish sections. They should just give it up all together.


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## conradd

I prefer to shop at my local fish store even if the prices are alittle more expensive. I just don't like anything about the walmart corporation.


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## FishMatt

Thats what I'm gonna do shop for fish their not Walmart.


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## sabbath

I shop at aquarium shops as much as possible. If the small shops go under, the Walmart's and Petco's will corner the market, and be able to do whatever they want.


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## TheOldSalt

HA!
They can already do whatever they want.

Here is something that explains everything, and something most folks don't know:

Walmart doesn't own or carry live fish.

_"What???
Well, of course they do TOS, have you lost your mind?"_ you may be thinking.

The fish at Walmart are NOT owned, maintained, or even part of the inventory at WalMart. The tanks are owned in some cases, but the fish themselves are owned by the local fish distributor who services that area. The distributors pay Walmart a percentage of fish sales as rent for the tanks & floorspace, and they are the ones in charge of taking care of everything, officially.
Walmart couldn't care less how the fish are doing, because Walmart has nothing invested in them whatsoever. This is the primary reason they don't take better care of them or even give a crap about them. They are just a source of a little bit of free money to WalMart, and a way to attract customers to the store who will buy dry supplies.

There you have it. Now you know the #1 problem with the whole system, and the #1 reason it will never change. Wally doesn't want to have to learn anything or spend any money, and the way they see it, why should they?

Have you ever tried to talk to someone high up the Walmart corporate ladder about their fish? It's almost impossible. They deliberately block all attempts people make to annoy them, simply due to the sheer volume of people who would be constantly annoying them if they didn't.

I'll let you in on another dirty little secret, in case you're wondering how Walmart could be so heartless when it comes to fish, and why they feature the very worst sorts of fish.
They feature the very worst fish because the distributors use Walmart as a dumping ground for all those fish that more legit fishsellers won't touch. The reason Wally lets them do this is because they don't care. The reason they don't care, and have such poor taste in fish, thinking things like tattooed red parrots ( _fish of the month!_ ) are a good thing, is because the lady in charge of all the Walmart pet fish division thinks they are _coooool._
Her name is Maggie Wu.
Yes, Wu.
You might have just figured out what that means. If not, then sorry, but I won't explain it. Anyway, now you have a name, in case you felt inclined to pester Walmart some more.


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## Paul75

*how?*

How did you find this out?


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## Corwin

interesting, I didnt know that.

though im confused regarding the importance of her last name being Wu, is there supposed to be a distinction regarding the fact that shes asian?


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## Paul75

*Walmart*

No its so if you want to know who to blame or who to complain to.


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## Corwin

ahh ok, the way he worded it just threw me off.


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## FishMatt

In some states their is a law that pet stores must take care of their fish. I just wish my Walmart would put the man that worked in the fish department before he was moved back in that department because those tanks were fish store quality.


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## Paul75

*Law*

It should be.


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## TheOldSalt

I know this because I work at WalMart. I tried to fix the situation at wallyworld for a long time, but couldn't accomplish anything more from the inside than I could from the outside.


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## Paul75

I figured.


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## FishMatt

I thought so too.


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## sabbath

I had no idea about any of that. Thanks for the info. I have have had the fortune to be in the hobby for over 30 years now and remember what it was like when it was all specialty shops and not large retail chains. By "Wallyworld" do you mean Wallingford CT? I am in Milford.


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## JimWG&Oscar

TheOldSalt said:


> I know this because I work at WalMart. I tried to fix the situation at wallyworld for a long time, but couldn't accomplish anything more from the inside than I could from the outside.


My wife works at Wal-mart. She gets so many dead fish returned it upsets her (she doesn't work in the fish department she's a people greeter but everyone brings her the dead fish first).

We get her 10% discount so sometimes buy fish supplies at Wal-mart if we ever find any worthy of our consideration. They have no decent test kits nor anything else really important though so I end up going to my independent lfs anyway.


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## TheOldSalt

Wallyworld = WalMart


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## hXcChic22

Funny story... we've never lost a fish from Wal-Mart :shock:
But we have from the local fish stores, Petco, Petsmart, etc. Maybe the ones at Wal-Mart are so used to living in terrible conditions, they're expecting the worst and are able to manage better in good tanks


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## FishMatt

hXcChic22 said:


> Funny story... we've never lost a fish from Wal-Mart :shock:
> But we have from the local fish stores, Petco, Petsmart, etc. Maybe the ones at Wal-Mart are so used to living in terrible conditions, they're expecting the worst and are able to manage better in good tanks


I haven't lost fish from their either, except for 4 plecos but all the fish I have are from walmart except for the hatchetfish.You're probely right expect the worst but than manage to do good in better tanks.


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## JimW/Oscar

hXcChic22 said:


> Funny story... we've never lost a fish from Wal-Mart :shock:
> But we have from the local fish stores, Petco, Petsmart, etc. Maybe the ones at Wal-Mart are so used to living in terrible conditions, they're expecting the worst and are able to manage better in good tanks


Maybe they've undergone a form of unnatural natural selection and are hardier?


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## FishMatt

Good news I went to Wal-Mart today they have a new fish department! Its pretty sweet they have very good filters, Clean tanks, No dead fish..... And a huge selection. BUT..... it a little overstocked but its better than it was! For now.....


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## Cam

TOS is right in what he said 

And I say if you even THINK to stop by Wal-mart regarding fish, you're doing it wrong, way wrong lol


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## dan3345

Tallonebball said:


> yeah i dont care what walmart says. Any big chain could care less about their fish because its not what the store is about. I highly doubt Walmarts CEO gives two craps about their fish sections. They should just give it up all together.


this. IT is unfortunately always true that a chain store that does not specialize in fish or any animals for that matter will not treat them in good condition. It is also true that even stores like petsmart and petco dont treat there fish right. And I dont know how they should care for lizards and snakes and such. But my local petsmart always seems to have healthy reptiles and rodents, along with healthy looking dogs and cats. The fact is or seems to be that these chains along with most people feel fish are fish, and nothing more. Now I Im no peta person, but a living life is a living life. And while they shouldnt be forced to spend more money than they have to take care of these animals they should at least educate their employees so maybe they can do a better job and sell to better people


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## dan3345

Matt not to be a downer but how long has the new section even been running?


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## FishMatt

Whoops forgot to mention that... :shock: *Gulp* about 5-6 days..... To early to tell but hopefully they keep it up.


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