This was the first job I hated. - Head Cashier PetSmart Employee Review

1.0
Aug 11, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-seeing animals -positive interactions with customers/coworkers -fairly consistent schedules

Cons

-Customers were AWFUL. I've worked in several customer service jobs, but for some reason they were terrible here. You constantly have to deal with fraudulent returns and people who think they are better than you. -Horrible training. They make you watch videos for like 6 hours and then that's it. My first day training as a cashier, my manager said she likes to just have people jump in. They had someone else who worked there for 2 weeks show me how the cash register worked, and that was it. -Managers all said different things. One would tell me I was doing something wrong, when another manager told me to do it that way. -They say that you should never tell a customer "I don't know." I took this to heart. I don't like lying to people, so I would find a manager if I didn't know an answer. They got annoyed that I would always come to them for help, but I was never trained in all the questions that customers would ask. Customers consistently ask you questions that should be asked of a veterinarian, and managers expect you to give them an answer. I personally witnessed several managers give customers bad animal advice simply so they would buy something. -All the company cares about is MONEY, MONEY MONEY. I originally wanted to work here because of all the great work PetSmart Charities does. I quickly learned it is all a marketing scheme. You would get in trouble if you weren't selling something to every customer that walked through the door because they have monitors above the door that count each customer that walks in. They compare the amount of customers to the amount of transactions in a day, and expect unrealistic sales. -When I became full time, they NEVER told me what that meant. I simply thought it meant I would get 40 hours a week, but it also meant that if I was sick one day, you have to make up for it later in the same week. You cannot go below 36 hours in the workweek. This was extremely frustrating because my part-time coworkers were consistently getting 4-8 hours a week, and I couldn't give them any of my shifts, even if I wanted to.

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5.0
May 4, 2026
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CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun, welcoming, easy, flexible, growth

Cons

Weekends, slow, customers, busy, fast pace

2.0
Jul 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Dynamic environment with good opportunities in various departments

Cons

Leadership cuts at store level led to overworked environment and that had a profound impact on employees' ability to keep up minimum standards of quality and safety, especially in the salons.

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