fun job but cons outweigh the pros - Guest Experience Specialist Petco Employee Review

3.0
Nov 26, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

customers are usually cool, you get to handle and play with animals, employee discounts, great team to work with

Cons

severely understaffed and overworked stores. corporate is constantly changing things, mostly for the worse. they don't listen to staff at the store level, aka their customer-facing, on the ground, actually seeing everything first-hand staff. they are constantly making unreasonable demands and changing the goal post however they think will make them money, These are unreasonable demands considering you will only have 2 people on shift at a time managing high-volume stores, split between "conference calls", register, animal care, web orders, assisting customers, stock, resets, etc. on top of constantly changing sales tactics and "standards". corporate spending is a mess, no budget for scheduling or compensating their staff liveable wages for the amount of work they do, but they have enough money to pump into multiple corporate campuses, celebrity campaigns, and bonuses for people who sit in offices all day patting themselves on the backs while their front line workers put in the real work that makes the company what it is. worst part is the store staff are so dedicated and love what they get to do every day with customers and animals, yet are completely taken advantage of and run into the ground with the insane amount of work constantly being pushed on them. they stick it out for each other and their communities despite the mess corporate has made of the entire company.

Explore other reviews about Petco

5.0
Jun 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good environment, good management and able to learn and improve

Cons

none so far that ive been working here

2.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

friendly store managers usually good discounts nostalgic

Cons

Forced to stay short staffed. Couldn't take proper breaks most days as a closing lead unless it was during the first few hours of shift. At the time the regional manager seemed more worried about the aesthetics of the back animal rooms floor that only employees saw when we had ac issues, issues getting access to an exotic vet, and only had enough hours to have two employees working at a time most shift on most days. I only had a couple interactions but that was one of them. Could not call off sick without leaving the store scrambling to find someone to stay open. Also sold improper habitats.

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