Tractor Supply Employee Knowledge About Chicks

[off-grid hen]

I don't think there really is a right or wrong on this issue, arguments on both sides are valid.

I do feel badly for the woman who bought meat birds for pets, or for the ones who bought straight run pullets (this is still cracking me up!). However, when I go into walmart I do not ask the girl who stocks shelves or cashier advice on which blender I should buy. They're all blenders, right?

 

[gmendoza]

TC irritates me.

Last year my wife was looking for a boot scraper for me for a present.TC said they dont have those because they are "seasonal".

Really? Mud is seasonal? so it dirt and muck??SO this year she went to buy me muck boots,you know those rubber boots.They said"we only have this kind because they are seasonal".

Geez!

and you cannot plant your garden past fall into winter here because seeds are "SEASONAL".

 

[tnchickenut]

Quote:
No ,you're right, they aren't all bad! I just wish there were more like you,that actually care what happens to the chicks and ducklings.Like so many others on here have talked about,they should at least know the breeds and what they're mainly used for.
Good job!

Thanks, but I do want to make something very clear after reading over some of these posts. This is not a TSC issue... this is a cultural issue. Here is why - TSC puts out (even if the individual store doesn't) posters about breeds, pamphlets about care, signs for the brooders naming the breeds and what they are good for and what they will grow to look like, the daily paper each employee has to sign has a little thing to learn everyday (BTW yesterdays was "pullets is a term for females in poultry and straight run is a mix of both male and female") so that each day each employee can learn a bit more, they also have a banner of definition of terms for customers..... the problem is both on the customer and the employee. Yesterday I sold roughly 12 boxes of chicks and ducklings in my short 4 hour shift. Only one guy seemed to know what he was talking about and had a brooder warmed up and ready. ONE GUY. The rest came in for tractor oil and left with chicks. Secondly, TSC as a company provides ongoing training... in this day and age... no one pays attention to it. Why? Because no one cares about anything THAT is why you don't get real help and assistance anywhere anymore. TSC makes a point of hirering people with farming and welding experience... and I don't get minimum wage (and I'm also not straight out of high school for the one who said that - that was more than a decade ago)... so if ya'll want a 15% discount on your feed... hop on down there to your store and get a application. Honestly, TSC will rather hire you than some punk kid out of high school.

I don't know squat about tractors. People ask me tractor questions (especially about parts) and I don't know. I don't pretend to know... I do my best to look it up. Again TSC supplies us with books full of information so if you don't know you can look it up and learn. And there is a part just for chick care, down to the tempatures and protein levels.

Maybe you should ask your individual TSC where the little signs for the breeds are. Also if it is a mix like the bantam mix... you wouldn't know what they are either if you ordered a grab bag special from the hatchery. That's just rediculous to expect anyone to be able to tell you for sure what each chick is just by their chick colors alone. Some breeds are easier to identify than others. If it is a set of a whole breed... then they will be in their respective places (unless kids mix them up) and they should have a sign saying what they are, what they are for, and if they are pullets of st. run.

I guess what I'm saying is, people are comming down on TSC as a whole when really it's a problem with our culture in the last few decades. People don't care about their job... they just want a paycheck. Sometimes they make it to store manager and then you have a whole store like that. It's sad, but someone raised these people up like that... they didn't just come out that way. There was no switch that got flipped where one day people cared and the next they didn't. Somewhere the parenting got bad and now those kids are having kids... we'll only see more of it all.

But trust me, TSC tries to fill stores with knowledgable people that care. They have to apply first and pass the drug screen second.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

TSC is the only place I have ever complained to corporate head office. A few years back Kimble Tn TSC was avoiding customers that walked over to the chicken like the plague. I drove all they way there just to buy some RIRs an after 45 minutes of trying to get someone to sell me some chicks an having people literally turn there back on me I walked out... the manager called me at home the next week trying to act like I didnt wait long enough to get help, that they were busy.... I was the only customer there.... He told me if I drove all the way back up there he would sell me some chicks.

 

[AlienChick]

I read and learned from this forum for almost a year before I decided to purchase chicks. So when I went to TSC to buy some chicks, I knew what breed I wanted and what sex I wanted. I did not want to bother the employees there.

At the chick bins at one particular store, however, there was an employee who gathers the chicks for you. I guess they did not want people grabbing chicks and mixing up the bins. The employee got a box for me and asked me what I wanted. I glanced at the chicks and I told her I'd like to see the pullets.

I got a long pause and a blank stare.

I knew I was in trouble.

Fortunately, as I bent over to look closely at the chicks I noticed an itty bitty sign on the inside of the bin that said "Rhode Island Red PULLETS!"

NOW I was happy.

The rest is history. I bought my chicks (all pullets) and left the store.

My point to all of this is still that I feel at least one (1) employee should have a minimal knowledge of what is being sold.
If the employee at the chick bins had simply read the lables on the bins, she would have known that they were pullets and neither of us would have had to feel so helpless.

I'm thinking these employees must get the SAME QUESTIONS asked all day long every day during chick days.

What breed? . . . What sex? . . .

So to me it does not seem like a great hardship to memorize "name and sex."

 

[lolita117]

Quote:
I went and got some baby chicks yesterday at TSC. Same thing happened to me. "Straight-run pullets." You would think the managers and people above them would want their employees to know a little about the products they sell. (same thing for Walmart too. I worked there for less than a year, and I would try and learn everything about the products in my department. I had co-workers who could care less about costumers as long as they got their paychecks)

 

[NYRIR]

Quote:
No ,you're right, they aren't all bad! I just wish there were more like you,that actually care what happens to the chicks and ducklings.Like so many others on here have talked about,they should at least know the breeds and what they're mainly used for.
Good job!

Thanks, but I do want to make something very clear after reading over some of these posts. This is not a TSC issue... this is a cultural issue. Here is why - TSC puts out (even if the individual store doesn't) posters about breeds, pamphlets about care, signs for the brooders naming the breeds and what they are good for and what they will grow to look like, the daily paper each employee has to sign has a little thing to learn everyday (BTW yesterdays was "pullets is a term for females in poultry and straight run is a mix of both male and female") so that each day each employee can learn a bit more, they also have a banner of definition of terms for customers..... the problem is both on the customer and the employee. Yesterday I sold roughly 12 boxes of chicks and ducklings in my short 4 hour shift. Only one guy seemed to know what he was talking about and had a brooder warmed up and ready. ONE GUY. The rest came in for tractor oil and left with chicks. Secondly, TSC as a company provides ongoing training... in this day and age... no one pays attention to it. Why? Because no one cares about anything THAT is why you don't get real help and assistance anywhere anymore. TSC makes a point of hirering people with farming and welding experience... and I don't get minimum wage (and I'm also not straight out of high school for the one who said that - that was more than a decade ago)... so if ya'll want a 15% discount on your feed... hop on down there to your store and get a application. Honestly, TSC will rather hire you than some punk kid out of high school.

I don't know squat about tractors. People ask me tractor questions (especially about parts) and I don't know. I don't pretend to know... I do my best to look it up. Again TSC supplies us with books full of information so if you don't know you can look it up and learn. And there is a part just for chick care, down to the tempatures and protein levels.

Maybe you should ask your individual TSC where the little signs for the breeds are. Also if it is a mix like the bantam mix... you wouldn't know what they are either if you ordered a grab bag special from the hatchery. That's just rediculous to expect anyone to be able to tell you for sure what each chick is just by their chick colors alone. Some breeds are easier to identify than others. If it is a set of a whole breed... then they will be in their respective places (unless kids mix them up) and they should have a sign saying what they are, what they are for, and if they are pullets of st. run.

I guess what I'm saying is, people are comming down on TSC as a whole when really it's a problem with our culture in the last few decades. People don't care about their job... they just want a paycheck. Sometimes they make it to store manager and then you have a whole store like that. It's sad, but someone raised these people up like that... they didn't just come out that way. There was no switch that got flipped where one day people cared and the next they didn't. Somewhere the parenting got bad and now those kids are having kids... we'll only see more of it all.

But trust me, TSC tries to fill stores with knowledgable people that care. They have to apply first and pass the drug screen second.

You are absolutely right about people not caring anymore...there are some who try to figure it out for you and others,like the guy who sold me the GLW's,that could care less.When I informed him he had 2 dead chicks in 2 seperate bins,he just looked annoyed that I noticed and said something to another employee and they both looked over at me like I was a P.I.T.A. I realize chicks die...just didn't want some little kid to see the squished dead chicks if possible...sheesh...But it's good you're sticking up for what the company does do...and I wish more people cared like you seem to.

 

[GoldenCometLady]

In defense of TSC employees when I went to get my first ever chicks
last spring they had a lady working in the chicks that knew her stuff.
She recomended Golden Coments
to me as high production, early laying brown eggers.
Seems she had ordered some of those chicks the year before
and raised them up. She even told me about what time to expect
eggs.

I had absolutly no help with picking out my chicks this spring.
No one seemed to know anything. I guess she probably found a
better job.

 

[tnchickenut]

I wanted to share with you guys....

I told the manager yesterday some of your thoughts and opinions and you should have seen his face when I said "You know there are lots of people angery with TSC talking about it on the internet" (LOL!!)

I told him some of your concerns and problems with various stores and he went back to the office to call his regional manager. Maybe something will be done to work on next year being more consistant.

Also there was a "chick care" training sheet we needed to all sign after we read... no one read it but just signed it. Like I said in my previous post... they don't care on a individual level and that happens everywhere.

Well, thought you would like to know... I forwarded your feelings.

 

[suzeqf]

i live in a very rural area and most of the people who work at my local tractor supply have either grown up on a farm or have a relative who has a farm but around here it's mostly row crop or cattle & pig farmers and horses not many people have chickens and if they do they are just "plain ole chickens" as my granddad would say and most of them really don't know much about chickens I don't know much either other than what i've read and what my granddad taught me but there are very knowledgable people at TSC you just have to be there when they are working