PetSmart
3.4 out of 5 stars.
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3.3Work-Life Balance
3.0Pay & Benefits
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3.3Culture

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Fun work environment in Grooming Salon, but is busy all the time. Can be stressful. Not much help from management.

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I was employed for 13 yrs. with PetSmart. I loved my co-workers, my clients and my dogs! Only negative is no support from management. They promise to help you out, but don't. No discipline for people who do wrong, weekly.

Pros

Good benefits, good pay

Cons

No breaks, too busy...No extra help from managers..always short staffed.
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Rewarding but Challenging

Being a pet stylist for Petsmart can be a very fun and rewarding job. You'll develop valuable skills and meet hundreds of clients and their pets, forming relationships built on trust. It is a wonderful feeling to have your regular client come in for their usual haircut and trusting you to take care of their pet. The downsides, however, can outweigh the perks. Petsmart has a tendency to overwork and overbook their groomers, pushing for faster grooms and more dogs taken, which is highly unsafe. In the name of safety, Petsmart will also make arbitrary rules and regulations that are actually making the tasks less safe and more difficult. In addition, a lot of the clientele are attracted to Petsmart because of the low price, so you will deal with a lot of angry customers who do not understand how to take care of their pets and won't listen when you explain it to them. Some people will never be pleased and will verbally berate you and your work. You will also see loads of neglect - extremely matted pelts, infected wounds, and nails that curl into the pawpads. It is hard to deal with this on a daily basis, while also being yelled at by customers despite you making their pet feel more comfortable. Lastly, you will encounter a lot of challenges and difficult tasks on a daily basis. This is not an easy career, and Petsmart's way of managing things is not always beneficial to you, the employee. Management can be all over the place depending on your store, and there is a high employee turnover rate, which means you end up taking on extra appointments when people call off. If you are - 
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Easy place

Honestly this was an easy place to work. You clock in and either are stuck at the register or stocking or being on the floor helping. You got paid weekly and had 30 minute breaks.
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Fun people, mostly good customers

Depends on what the management team at your store is like. I was lucky to get a great management team that supported our desires to actually treat the animals properly and not take garbage from aggressive customersVery collaborative environment, i worked with great peopleThe salon can be very competitive and cutthroat though, watch out
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Great

Awesome place to work love the co workers love pets love people benefits are good loved my manager miss my conworkers can’t wait to see how much the company grows
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Productivity above all

You will enjoy working in the salon and getting to help dogs feel great. If you have a great Salon Lead that helps, but the Corporate aspect of pushing for more isn't realistic.
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Not bad, not great

Overnight work is extremely high demand, daytime is unorganized and chaotic. Unsanitary environment in the back and little care shown to fix. Dogs are left in kennels most hours of the day with small sessions of play, they spend most of their time locked in small individual kennels and are made to use the bathroom within the same space they sleep and eat.
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Fun

Fun and exciting place to work, great benefits, honest company and community approach to team work. Never regretted going to work as it was something different everyday and fulfilling work
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It's not for everyone

The best part was the tips that you can make, but we were always worked to the bone. The pay for the amount of work done on a daily bases isn't worth it. The only incentive is becoming a groomer with them, but even then they don't pay nearly as much as they should. Tips are the main source of income.
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Company doesn’t care

Company doesn’t truly care about employees. The management just wants everyone to follow the motions and not have any enjoyable time at work. Co workers and animals are great though
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Underpaid and overworked

I was signed on as cashier and had to bring in carts in -40°C late at night, take out trash, stock shelves, face shelves, bring stuff out from the back, deal with pet messes that customers didn’t pick up..etc was paid little to do a lot of work only good part is the discounts that I got on pet food. Also so many people come in with dead animals to return with no disregard for the fact that an animal died in their care and then they would demand their money back and the policy is to refund them if it’s within 30 days. Super depressing to have to deal with that huge amount of mistreated animals.
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fun place to work and a lot of hands on

spend the whole day with dogs and cats and care for them until the end of the day to where all you do is clean. The manager was really cool and connected with all of us.
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Okay

Overworked and underpaid. If you like taking care of animals that is a good reason to work here. Good as a stepping stone to start working with animals.
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Very Good Teamwork

My coworkers were nice and helpful, but the workload was not so good. Too many dogs were scheduled with not enough time to complete them given the care needed.
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Depends on Immediate Area Culture and

Too many variables. You have your good days/ weeks/ years and you have your bad ones. You'll never have enough time in the day but are never able to drop any tasks.
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Factory

They just want more more more. Quantity over quality. Favoritism and bad management. If you report something they will just tell everyone and then expect a quick exit
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Official response from PetSmart

September 25, 2023
Hi there. We appreciate you sharing your experience with us and would like to learn more. If you wouldn't mind, please reach out to us to connect via the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693.

Management wasn’t the best

The people who work there are amazing and so sweet, but the managers or individuals in management aren’t so friendly and aren’t welcoming with a smile.
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Official response from PetSmart

September 25, 2023
Hey, thanks for taking the time to share a bit about your #LifeAtPetSmart with us! If you're willing to share more details about your experience, we're here to listen via the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693.

Good pay

I’ve worked at two locations and the best location of work. That was the location I started at. My management here is great and I’ve been with the company for eight years now, and have worked my way up from a bather to the salon leader, and my sales in my salon are skyrocketing and the pay is great. Sometimes the higher ups can be challenging to deal with and expect unreasonable things from you, but being with this company for so long and in this industry, I understand how things work there’s tons of room for growth in this company in general. And I enjoy working for Petsmart.
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Official response from PetSmart

September 25, 2023
Hi! We're happy to hear you enjoy working at PetSmart, and we're happy to have you on our team. Please know if you ever want to speak further about anything regarding your #LifeAtPetSmart, you can connect with us via the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693.

Fun place to work!

Great place to work but the pay could have been higher. When I worked there benefits were only offered to full-time employees. Cross-training is offered.
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Fun place to work

I Love it here! The staff are great, friendly, and willing to help with whatever you need. Management is flexible with your schedule and eagerly try to accommodate your life needs.
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A PetSmart salon offers benefits and a little training, but they are likely going to focus on numbers and continue to micromanage the salons

Grooming:Short answer: PetSmart is a good place to start grooming and learn basic skills and pet safety while grooming, but chances are you will be happier elsewhere as soon as you have developed enough grooming skill to move on. Don't expect to learn a lot from the academy, you will learn mostly from books and your manager when they have time. The full time benefits and PTO are just okay, but PTO increases after being there so many years. If you get hired as a bather to become a stylist through their "academy", don't expect much actual grooming training, and beware, multiple people may also be hired for the same position around the same time or there may already be someone in the salon who gets to go before you. The managers may play favorites over who gets to go first or stall in moving you forward to academy over something like attendance or any negative feedback about your performance in the salon. The academy is a group thing and one trainer cannot possibly teach everyone so much important information and skill in 2 weeks, so they focus on book studying, the safety of grooming and some tips far more than how to groom and do it well. I was fortunate in that I already had years of experience grooming and just did the academy to brush up on things, I was really surprised and disappointed about how little new stylists are taught. Your manager in the salon is probably the one who will do most of your training, so look at the manager's grooming and consider whether you want to learn from them -- if and when they are available around all their other duties, and they may - 

Pros

Decent benefits, I heard maternity leave is good, Pto, working with pets, commission pay during and after academy, potentially working with a good team of others like you, possible advancement

Cons

corporate micromanages and cares more about numbers than employees & quality, Training from academy is limited and more about safety than technique and grooming, Training to be a pet stylist can be greatly delayed or even denied, Pet grooming is hard physically on your body, you have to accept the risk of being bitten or hurt on the job, If you or a dog you work with gets hurt you will most likely have a strike against you, Strict about attendance and sick days, PTO blackout from November to Christmas so don't plan traveling on holidays
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Official response from PetSmart

September 25, 2023
Hi there! Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful review about your experience with PetSmart. Please know, you can always connect with us via the CareSmart line at 1-800-738-4693 to speak further about your feedback.

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Overall rating

Based on 12,646 reviews

Ratings by category

3.3 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
3.0 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits
3.0 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement
3.0 out of 5 stars for Management
3.3 out of 5 stars for Culture

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