Mean dog food salespeople!?!

[Jill123]

I've been approached by Nutro salespeople almost every time I've purchased food at PetSmart. They usually come up, ask me if I've tried Nutro and then start their schpiel (sp?) about how great Nutro is and how much better it is than whatever it is that I'm using. I'm polite in return, say no thanks and go about my business.

Once, however, we decided to buy a bag of Nutro. Ellie wouldn't touch it. I bought a different type of Nutro, thinking it was just this specific taste/smell/etc. She didn't like it either. So we switched back to Hill's. She gobbled it up right away, so we decided to stay with what she likes.)

The other day, DH went to PetSmart to buy a new bag of dog food. He was standing in front of the brand we normally buy (Hill's Science Diet) and a Nutro saleslady approached him. She starts with the normal bit, DH listens politely and then says, "We switched to Nutro at one time and we couldn't get her to eat it, so we switched back to Hill's and she seems to like it. But thanks for the information...maybe we'll switch again sometime."

HONEST TO GOD -- the lady leans down to Ellie, puts her face up to Ellie's face and says, "It's good stuff. Too bad for you, doggie." And marches off!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? She got snotty WITH OUR DOG!! :confused: :mad:

The utter lunacy of talking to our dog like that aside, it really irks me that people get so upset re: different dog foods. I know they aren't all the same, but Hill's (or Eukanuba or Iams or whatever) is perfectly fine dog food! It's not like we feed her table scraps or some generic chicken beak food! Granted, there's better stuff out there, but I just can't see spending more on Ellie's food than we do on our own!

So, first of all -- am I alone in thinking the Nutro lady is crazy? And...are DH and I bad doggy parents?

[KristaMB]

Originally posted by Jill123
So, first of all -- am I alone in thinking the Nutro lady is crazy? And...are DH and I bad doggy parents?
No, and No.
...or some generic chicken beak food!
This made me LMAO! :D

[donleyk]

I agree, no and no. That is just plain goofy. :eek:

[Svadhisthana]

I think I would tell the manager of PetSmart that this happens and you find it annoying each time you try to buy your pet food.
I don't know if there is another store in your area that sells Hill Science but I'd make mention of the fact that you will take your $$$ elseware if this behavior continues. Jeez.:rolleyes:


Crystal

[Laura B]

Wow! I've never been to a Petsmart. I'm a little surprised that the store allows representatives for a certain product to roam around and approach customers. Or does Petsmart own the Nutro brand? I'd be put off by that right from the start and probably wouldn't shop there again!

[stefania4]

How bizarre! And the fastest way to get me to leave a store is to be pushy; I'd definitely say something to the manager.

I wandered into a specialty dogfood store one time to see if I could find something hypoallergenic (our senior golden had bad skin problems that we believed were from food allergies). The dogfood guy basically told me that my vet was a moron, dogs rarely have allergies (excuse me?), there was no such thing as hypoallergenic food and if I couldn't take Reggie to the vet twice a week for allergy shots (wait - I thought they didn't get allergies?), then I should reconsider doggy parenthood.

I left and haven't been back.

[Leisa M]

Stay with what your doggie will eat. We tryed switching to Eukanuba with the same results. We wound up giving the food to our groomer.
You are not bad doggie parents.

[MrsReber]

I believe there is an affiliation between Petsmart and the Nutro people. Yes, they are annoying. I totally agree. I went there to buy food a long time ago and they had to have a 20 minute conversation with me and tell me how Iams uses old rubber tires in their dog food (which I'm sure is not true). I actually did buy their brand for my dog because she liked it and DH's dog (DBF at the time) seemed to love it. He was underweight then. I started to order the food on line since we went through so much of it with our 2 dogs. When we lost our lab, I went back to going to the store (although NOT Petsmart- so we switched brands).

[colleency]

Originally posted by Jill123
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? She got snotty WITH OUR DOG!! :confused: :mad:

OMG!!! ROTFL!!! What an idiot (the woman)!!!

Your dog probably considered biting her, and then decided the hassle of the lawsuit wasn't worth it.

[PoppyJ]

It's moments like this that I wish I had taught my dog to lift his leg on command.:D

[Gecko]

[/QUOTE] Your dog probably considered biting her, and then decided the hassle of the lawsuit wasn't worth it.

And she probably wouldn't have tasted good either! :D

[swquilts]

I think you should call PetSmart AND Nutro and tell them what happened! I'm dying to know what their responses would be!

What a moron she was! :rolleyes:

PetSmart has their own line of dogfood, Authority. I wonder why they let Nutro do their thing in the stores.

[Jill123]

Thanks, everyone!

I was pretty sure the lady was crazy -- I think Ellie thought so too (she was probably afraid the lady would bite her back!) :p

But it's nice to know that you guys don't think we're abusing our "baby" by feeding her sub-standard pet food.

I remember reading something online that compared the major dog food brands and their ingredients and nutrition. I might be wrong because it looked a lot more complicated than a people food label, but it looked to me like they were all pretty much the same, with minor differences here and there.

[swquilts]

Our vet told us that if ground corn was one of the first 3 ingredients to look for something else.

I was also told that less ground corn in their food would produce smaller....stools. :eek:

PS: One of our dogs names is Ellie :D

[Mimeea]

Just a thought if you do ever plan on changing dog foods- It is best to slowly switch over for about 7 days. So the first day use 85% old food, 15% new, and slowly dwindle down to using all new food. It helps the dogs tummies, and helps them get used to the new food more gradually as well. :)