Petcetra Bankrupt!!

[Ephraim]

Petcetra announced bankruptcy today! they are liquidating everything with huge discounts, some stuff 75% off or more!

[tgoeujon]

all petcetera stores???? how long will this sale be goin on?

[digital-audiophile]

Really? There is one up the hill from me Ill have to go.

[mseepman]

I believe the liquidation sale starts Saturday...they are trying to generate an influx of cash to keep the chain afloat.

Hard to believe they were listed as one of Canada's hottest start-ups just a few years back.

[Myka]

Hard to believe they were listed as one of Canada's hottest start-ups just a few years back.

Until everyone realised they carry a lot of overpriced crap!! :eek:

I won't miss them, but I do feel empathy as they are humans too.

[xtreme]

Do they stock any dry goods that are saltwater related?

[Leah]

Not surprised, ours is a mess and thought the same about the one in North Van, Park
Royal. And they do not carry much in the way of salt stuff. Food, Medication little stuff.
Kinda dissapointing actually. The concept was great.

[digital-audiophile]

I'll be checking out food, test kits, tanks for QT and such.

Well and I could use some cat food and litter at a discount :)

[banditpowdercoat]

So, 65-105% markup, 75% off sale, is it really on sale? Was st the kelowna one yesterday. WAY overpriced IMO

[Leah]

Maybe another kitty-meow

[Leah]

I thought the Kelowna one turned into a petsmart?

[Reefer Rob]

Now that sucks

[banditpowdercoat]

I thought the Kelowna one turned into a petsmart?

Maybe it was Petland? few blocks from Orchard Park mall. on same side of the road tho

[mseepman]

Petcetera lost their lease in Kelowna at the location beside Toys-r-us...they have since moved over to Capri Centre mall...which is usually the kiss of death for any store.

[Leah]

Oh, interesting, I see. Really have to get up there more often. Darn construction.PITA

[Ephraim]

i just went down there to scope out what i hope to nab tomorrow. Staff were putting a bunch of Hagen product in boxes, maybe they worked out a deal to sell that back to the supplier. I hope they still have exoterra uvb bulbs out to buy, i could really stock up on those, i go those at my house faster than bacon.

I went to the one in NE Calgary, on 32nd and it looks like they stopped getting in stock weeks ago, many shelves empty, but still enough stock to make it worthwhile to stop by when it goes on clearout.

[brizzo]

Maybe it was Petland? few blocks from Orchard Park mall. on same side of the road tho

That's Total Pet... They called the cops on me one time when I was in there... Long story...

[Leah]

The cops.....what you tried to steal a fish?

[DBM]

I have no sympathy for the owner, but hopefully the staff will find work quickly. Anything is better than working 12-16hr days (anyone with a manager's title) and getting paid salary for 8hrs.

[michika]

That's Total Pet... They called the cops on me one time when I was in there... Long story...

Yes, well I read fast...I totally want to hear this.



...if you're willing to share.

[my2rotties]

Dog toys for the pups... oh yeah!!!

[brizzo]

Yes, well I read fast...I totally want to hear this.



...if you're willing to share.

Long story short:

I lost my temper at the lady in charge of the salt water setup.

Normally I never buy anything there, but when I'm shopping at Choices (wonderful health food grocery store) next store, I'll stop in.

So I saunter my way over to the SW setup. All the pumps are off. Almost everything is dead. This is around 3pm. I feel my temperature raise to boiling.

I walk over to the front counter where three staff are laughing and chatting away. I ask them what's the deal with their tanks, do they really not care?

Lady 'acts all suprised' like 'omg whats gone wrong'. Runs over to the display tanks. What's the first thing she does instead of finding out why the pump system stopped? Cracks out the hydrometer to check the salinity.........

I said some very not nice things I somewhat regret. I had a run in with the same lady a couple months before when I asked her why they feed lettuce to their crickets in their reptile displays. I knew the answer, but I also know lettuce has almost zero nutritional benefit to reptiles....

*sigh*

Why are some businesses aloud to continue on day after day with pride in what they do?

/ RANT

[tgoeujon]

so that is all petceteras then?

[i have crabs]

http://www.petcetera.ca/page646.htm

i was once so ****ed off about thier saltwater section i called the big boss of alberta and told him id work 1 or 2 days a week,i didnt care about how much he payed me and id spend all my money in thier store if he let me run the saltwater, i only had 10 years of managing a retail store so i guess i wasnt qualified cause he didnt seem to think anything was wrong with it.
he also didnt know what the problem was when i told him you cant keep lionfish and snowflake eels in open top tanks a foot and a half off the ground

[DBM]

Anybody else here work for them at one point and time?

[Ephraim]

i havent worked for them but i have some friends and co workers work for them in management. Slave drivers, definately not an exageration that you are expected to work 12-16 hr days on a 8 hr salary. Petcetra management is the worst job in retail, period.

[Diana]

yay! PetCemetary is gone!

[sunce_22]

You got that right Diana!

[Zylumn]

Just think of all the marine life we could take off the endangered species list if a few more mega stores would drop salt water livestock.

[Raf]

Thank god that hell hole of a store is going under, there will be a fishy party in the ocean tonight!

[randallino]

I was so happy when they stopped caring saltwater fish.
Good Bye!

[Zoaelite]

Coming from a past Petcetera employee, this is not a surprise. The head office of the company is about as us less as the lint in my pocket and any profits they make are swindled away by the constant turn over of managers trying to stay alive on the $24,000 Salary (for 60-90 Hours a week). Good to see them declare bankruptcy, no longer will Petcetera provide dismal service/ animal husbandry to the masses of Canada. Rest in peace Dan Urbani:twised:.
Levi

BTW. I worked there for a year and a half and I saw over 24 managers and around 15 staff members come and leave, most of the time I was in the store by myself and the amount of work load put onto the employee's was STUPID. At the age of 16 I did payroll, staff scheduling, inventory, stock, store cleaning, doggy daycare, REP scheduling, care for all small/ large animals, birds, fish walls and the CHS Dogs/Cats, Cash, Cash checkout/ bank deposit/ change, pricing and garbage (plus ever other responsibility you could think of) and I was paid a massive $10.00 an hour!!!

[mseepman]

Hmm...never happy to see people out of work or a Canadian company go down. The most local store for me (Kelowna) never really carried SW and otherwise the store seemed reasonably clean and far better than the local Walmart for how they treat their FW fish.

We can't really count this chain as gone...they only declared chapter 11...so they are still going to try to make a run of it....maybe just a smaller run.

[Ephraim]

I doubt they will be able to make even a small run at it, they are in debt to thier suppliers over 25 mil(no way they can generate a decent portion of that with this 60 day liquidation). They were put on a cash only basis by pretty much every wholesaler over a year ago when they stopped paying thier bills. Hell they werent even keeping up the rent payments on many of the stores, thats why the Poco location closed recently.

Thier only chance is a bailout or buyout by someone else in the industry. Truth be told, as much as they are in debt they are quite valuable to some of thier suppliers who stand to lose over 40 stores that were purchasing product from them.

[Zoaelite]

I doubt they will be able to make even a small run at it, they are in debt to thier suppliers over 25 mil(no way they can generate a decent portion of that with this 60 day liquidation). They were put on a cash only basis by pretty much every wholesaler over a year ago when they stopped paying thier bills. Hell they werent even keeping up the rent payments on many of the stores, thats why the Poco location closed recently.

Thier only chance is a bailout or buyout by someone else in the industry. Truth be told, as much as they are in debt they are quite valuable to some of thier suppliers who stand to lose over 40 stores that were purchasing product from them.

Great, all we need now is 40 PetCetera locations owned by Hagen :lol:. Add insult to injury why don't ya?
Levi

[Ephraim]

Great, all we need now is 40 PetCetera locations owned by Hagen :lol:. Add insult to injury why don't ya?
Levi

You hit the nail on the head, that is the exact rumor that I am hearing right now. They are in deep with hagen for 1.95 mil.

[Purple]

So I went to Petcetera today for the big sales. Didn't find them, all they had was 15% off the whole store. BUMMER!

[DBM]

You hit the nail on the head, that is the exact rumor that I am hearing right now. They are in deep with hagen for 1.95 mil.

Can't see Hagen picking them up. Hagen knows how to run a business, why pick up a company that can't come even close to turning a profit, and is so poorly structured?

[Zoaelite]

Can't see Hagen picking them up. Hagen knows how to run a business, why pick up a company that can't come even close to turning a profit, and is so poorly structured?

You would be suprised, Hagen owns a STUPID amount of Petcetera already through shares in the company. Appx 80% of the product they sell in there locations is Hagen (From Nutrience to ExoTerra). A complete take over would have Hagen taking a retail step into the pet buisness, this should be fun to watch.
Levi

[digital-audiophile]

I was in this morning. Basically everything is just 20% with a few higher discounts here and there. Got some food and litter for the kitty.. we also picked up a bigger bird cage.. they were 50% off so not a bad deal.

[KingTitan]

I was so happy when they stopped caring saltwater fish.
Good Bye!

I agree with you I live in Calgary and i used to work at the old big als and i used to visit the Pet Cetera's around town to see stock and prices, but before i worked there i used to buy from them. this company treated the saltwater stock like GARBAGE, they never knew anything about the species, fish prices were 3-5 times more for a fish then our store, they tried to make it up by giving you a free fish. Fish survival rate was ~25%, tanks were very unclean and a lot of fish always looked diseased. They had a 14 day saltwater fish guarantee but it was pointless the cycle was never ending (buy fish, die, return and get new ones, die, return to get new ones) and on top of that you were also introducing the diseases and parasites from their fish/systems.

Pet Cetera is not going to be missed by me, only upside was that i got to take my dog in and sometimes the pricing was good enough to buy a couple things.

[Ron99]

Popped in there today as I was running errands and all they are running is the same 15% off sale they have had all month. The only stuff that was 70% off was Christmas left overs. The sales guy told me that they aren't doing anything special and it was only that the company had entered creditor protection. He told me that business had been good today because people were coming in looking for big clearance prices but buying stuff anyway since they were there and it was 15% off.

So it looks like they are using the bankruptcy protection to get a little press and lure people into the store with the hopes of seeing alot of product at 70% off.

[Marlin65]

I checked it out as well only 20% off on all their stock and since they are 20% over most stores no deals to be had.:sad:
My 2 cents

[Zoaelite]

I checked it out as well only 20% off on all their stock and since they are 20% over most stores no deals to be had.:sad:
My 2 cents

Petcetera is garbage for this, If you look at the flier they send out every month its the EXACT same product just a different color paper. They say there dog beds are regularly priced at $250-400 and then they are magically price dropped to $99.95. Well Petland (who is naturally also expensive) sells a better dog bed for $75.99 MRSP... Salt water fish are the same, 4" Yellow tangs are $149.99 but if you buy one you get one free (worst part of this is that the yellow tang is put in a tank that is like 7g with 2 other fish).

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Petcetera is garbage for this, If you look at the flier they send out every month its the EXACT same product just a different color paper. They say there dog beds are regularly priced at $250-400 and then they are magically price dropped to $99.95. Well Petland (who is naturally also expensive) sells a better dog bed for $75.99 MRSP... Salt water fish are the same, 4" Yellow tangs are $149.99 but if you buy one you get one free (worst part of this is that the yellow tang is put in a tank that is like 7g with 2 other fish).

Yeah thats a great species to have a buy one get one special with :rolleyes:

So I guess in the end you are really just buying one...

[i have crabs]

i once bought a sailfin to get a puffer for free, the girl told me the puffer had been thier for a couple months and was eating alot, since the puffer looked like a skeleton i asked what was he eating, big surprise flake's puffers love flakes i guess

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

i once bought a sailfin to get a puffer for free, the girl told me the puffer had been thier for a couple months and was eating alot, since the puffer looked like a skeleton i asked what was he eating, big surprise flake's puffers love flakes i guess

So, so sad...a puffer living on flakes for a few months :(

Must have literally been a skeleton.

[fishoholic]

i once bought a sailfin to get a puffer for free, the girl told me the puffer had been thier for a couple months and was eating alot, since the puffer looked like a skeleton i asked what was he eating, big surprise flake's puffers love flakes i guess

That's so sad :sad: Were you able to save the puffer and get him healthy?

[FishIsGood2]

I can't agree more with myka. I went there this afternoon and found that all fish related goods are only 20% off. But .... a small fish net is 4.77 while the same thing at KEd is 0.99... aqua clear foam block is 7.99 while J&L is 2.39.

[i have crabs]

That's so sad :sad: Were you able to save the puffer and get him healthy?

he fattened up nicely and i had him about 2 years after that, the sailfin dissapeared during a heat wave about a year later