Date: All the time

Date: May 2006

Date: 10/04/2005

Loved their store..they just moved back to where they started 30 years ago!! (Bennington NH) a little smaller than their last store in Antrim, but, it's still as clean as can be, and the employees are still as friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful as ever, all the animals seem to be well cared for, I will continue to go to Empire Pets
Date of visit:
11/2006
Your rating:
Excellent

It took me forever to find this new store location and then when I got there, I couldn't figure out which building it was in. The basement of the house was now the store and hold your nose if you check out the mice ! I will never go back, Yuck !!
Date of visit:
12/05/2006
Your rating:
Poor

Owners comment:
I am the owner manager of empire pets, thanks for all of the great comments, and for the one person who wrote something bad, here is what I have to say, being 70 years old is not easy, things like putting up signs, etc become harder to do when you're in your 70's, and as for the mice, what do you expect mice to smell like? we do everything possible to keep things as clean as they should be, and to any nay sayers you're more than welcome to see our state inspections, we have never had a bad one in 30 years, and all of the visits the state makes are surprise ones, and we never know when they'll come by, and everything has always passed with flying colors, and we're sorry our store is in our basement, but, with rents so high in town, and being on a fixed income other wise, it was hard to make ends meet, and this was the only viable solution...thank you
Date :
1/12/2007

(Bennington NH)
Just found them at their new location this month, will continue to go, its only a few minutes out of town, and everything looked good, it's in the basement now, but, you do what you have to do when times get tough.
Date of visit:
01/2007
Your rating:
Very Good

Date: 5/01/06 and frequently
I have bought a lot of items here and have been very pleased with my service. I will say that the owner does seem very disgusted with having to help customers herself. But lately I have not seen her there. The fish bowl is unlike any other pet store around due to the fact they just don't want to hand a animal to anyone. They want to make sure you know what you are getting into and what care is involved, before buying on impulse which alot of people seem to do.

Date: 2005 and frequently
The absolute dirtiest, overcrowded pig sty I have ever been in. The aisles are so tight you can barely move, and they keep non-fish animals upstairs, where it is hotter than Hades in the summer. Hardly anyone handles their birds, and the pretty cockatiels that people bring in to sell, sit there for months with little attention. The owner is RUDE, RUDE, RUDE. If she hates her job that much, she should do the pet industry (and the poor pets she sells) a favor and retire. Disgusting place.

I will never set foot in this store again, she had lots of items for sale, but, with the prices she had them marked for, was unbelievable..her fish and animals, were also marked extremely high..not only that, the owner, was so extremely rude, it was as if we meant nothing to her, and we were a nuisance because she had to help myself, along with other customers that were in the store, several times she sighed with sounds of disgust because she had to catch certain fish, I know plenty of other pet store, who love to help their customers, such as the pet store in Antrim , NH, you can tell they enjoy their line of work..but the Fish Bowl, they are in the wrong business, never again will I step foot in her establishment

Date: 09/26/2005 and frequently
I buy all of my tropical fish and fish supplies at the Fish Bowl. The fish are always healthy and the one time one died within 24 hours, they replaced it for free. The staff is very knowledgeable, however it is a small place and can get very busy.

Date:6/10/2007
We recently visited Zoo Creatures for the first time in over a year, and they've evidently undergone huge changes throughout their store. Talking to a couple of the managers, they had a problem with employee theft & have cleaned house of a lot of their problem causers.
The fish department has gotten a complete overhaul - we went in because we've heard that their saltwater department has improved & we were very pleased. They have a large selection with clean tanks & a nice variety of both fish and corals. The fish in the freshwater section looked great too, again a very healthy & clean selection in well-maintained tanks. Their prices seemed reasonable for a live fish store, and the dry goods section is HUGE - they have so many products its eyepopping!
The reptile room was in great shape, they've put in some custom caging and all of the cages were clean, all of the snakes & lizards looked good, had available water, hiding places etc. We got to pet a big friendly snake, I think it was a boa, and that was very neat to have some hands-on interaction. Our kids LOVED the boa!
Bird room is very nice, with a big hyacinth macaw on display and some nice handfed babies in brooders, as well as some other smaller birds like conures and lovebirds and parakeets. Their birds all have abundant toys, clean cages & look well cared for, we saw fresh fruit & cooked grains in many of the cages along with seed & water.
The store was very busy when we were there & we didn't have time to check out small animals or the dog/cat section, but what we saw was a vast improvement over our last visit, and we were curteously approached by sevaral employees to see if we needed help.
2 thumbs up - keep going in this direction!
Your rating:
Very Good

Date: 11/24/2006
While we weren't looking for fish, We did purchase a gecko from Zoo Creatures in January for our daughter. We asked lots of questions, and took notes of the answers provided. We purchased items to create an environment that the employees suggested. It's really what we didn't know and weren't told/taught that is really upsetting. We didn't know that our pet was to have only been given a small quantity of prey at a time, and to then remove anything not eaten overnight. We did what they told us to, purchase 1/2 dozen or so crickets, dust them with calcium powder and put them in the aquarium with the gecko. We were never told that by doing that they would contaminate the environment the gecko lived in. We were never told that stress weakens the immune system, making it difficult to fight of natural parasites. I could add a lot more, but you get the picture. We didn't find all this out (and more) until we took our pet to a local vet when it became very ill and they explained the proper way to feed and care for leopard geckos. I was shocked at what I learned. Our pet didn't pull through. My daughter is crushed because she thought she was doing everything right. We went there to purchase our pet because they were supposed to be the best in the area. Talk to a vet who specializes in reptiles and do your own research.
Your rating:
Poor

Date :04/08/06
My daughter and I visited today. The store is crowded and the staff is less than friendly. I asked one staff member for feeder fish and felt like I was bothering him. Also, when asking the staff questions - they are NOT knowledgeable about the fish they carry. They attempted to look in a book, but were not helpful.

Date: 11/24/2006
I visit this store frequently. they have a very large selection of fish, many you do not see elsewhere. recently they had a very beautiful golden puffer. The store is cleaner than most stores I have seen. The staff are extremely knowledgable in their areas, some even in all areas. All of the animals are clean and well taken care of I will continue to do most of my shopping there.
Your rating:
Excellent