Insanity at the feedstore.

[NCBantam22]

There is a mom and pop feed store in a nearby town that gets their chicks in earlier than TSC (late Jan) and everyone who wants/likes chicks knows about it. Some of these people are intense!

They crowd around the bins like the chicks are very rare and covered in gold or something (chicks are normally RIR, BR, Orps or something else common), they scoop out chicks like you would nuts out of a bin and they run the poor employees ragged.

"Do you have X breed?" (Without looking in the bins)
"Do you have anymore X?" (Same as the above)
"What do I feed it?" (Sign right next to you)
"Is that a duck/goose?" (What does that little card in front of you say?)

. They also give you the stink eye if you go near "their" chicks. Last week I thought a woman was going to kill me when I picked up a White Leghorn (note: there were over 50 of them!).

Today all I wanted was Bantams so I was left in piece. Oh, this store opens at 7:30, I got there at around 8:20 today and the madness had already begun. They get chicks in every week through Oct, so its not like they are going to run out of them.

I feel you, especially when my chicks that I have ordered are magically "theirs", well I guess that's what happens when the feed store is in town :/

 

[Arztwolf]

*sigh* This morning I had to return to Crazy Town to get two more ducks.

Got there at 7:15 (they open at 7:30) and by 7:20 there were already two cars in the lot. By the time they opened the doors several more people showed up. The chicks didn't arrive till 8:00 and their chick order was a jumble.

By that time almost ten people stood waiting around the bins. I grabbed three chicks from the Assorted Oriental Pullet bin and two ducks and got out of there as quickly as a I could. Those people are scary!

 

[N F C]

It sounds pretty chaotic!

 

[Arztwolf]

It sounds pretty chaotic!

Have you seen that scene from The Lion King where the hyena's eat Scar? That's what it looked like when I left.
Several chicks didn't even touch the bins, they let people (including me since I mentioned that I was interested in the Orientals) take them directly from the shipping box. They also had a mix up between the BRs and some black broilers, though thankfully they figured it out before the woman walked out the door!

 

[N F C]

It sounds like they need one of those number things...take a number and wait your turn. I'd be worried chicks would get hurt in that melee.

Just for a different feed store chick day story...

One of the local places close by us had people pay for and reserve the chicks they wanted before the chicks arrived at the store. Sounds like a good idea, right? That way you know you're getting the ones you want. Didn't work out that way...the manager sold the chicks to whoever showed up that day that wanted them. There were some (understandably) irate pre-paid chick customers!

 

[Arztwolf]

It sounds like they need one of those number things...take a number and wait your turn. I'd be worried chicks would get hurt in that melee.

Just for a different feed store chick day story...

One of the local places close by us had people pay for and reserve the chicks they wanted before the chicks arrived at the store. Sounds like a good idea, right? That way you know you're getting the ones you want. Didn't work out that way...the manager sold the chicks to whoever showed up that day that wanted them. There were some (understandably) irate pre-paid chick customers!

I cringe when I see people just scooping chicks up (this mainly happens with the BR, Orps and RIR). I'm one of the few people who tries to sex them, but today was just too hectic for me to even do that. I hope they really were pullets.

I wish our feed store had a "working" reservation system. It feels almost like one of those reality shopping competitions. The ones were people dash around the store grabbing things before time runs out.

Did the people who reserved the chicks have to pay to have them held for them?

 

[Parkerizer]

Hardly any stores around here get Bantams.. I'm having to order mine. I've got two more weeks before the one I want become available.

 

[N F C]

Yes, they paid for the chicks in advance. That's what was so messed up because the store manager didn't hold the chicks for the people that paid for them. One of the clerks told me the customers got their money back but no promise of more chicks to come. That would be disappointing!

 

[N F C]

Forgot to add...Artzwolf, I hope you ended up with females!

 

[Arztwolf]

Forgot to add...Artzwolf, I hope you ended up with females!

I do to! As of right now I have 6 roos living in peace with one another, I don't need more.

That reminds me of one good thing about this feed store; they will buy chickens and other poultry from you and put it in their sell cages. The lady told me I can bring in a roo and they will give me $5 for it, even it I had bought the roo from them as a chick.