It can take years to make a loyal customer. And just one bad experience to lose one.
That’s what a PetSmart shopper says happened at its recent Halloween event. It was supposed to be a fun day for Kelli Jo Worner (@simplykellyjo) and her dog Blue. Instead, she walked away feeling disappointed and misled.
In a TikTok, Worner explains what happened when she attended the PetSmart Halloween celebration in Southern Minnesota, where she lives.
She says she could’ve slept in or stayed in sweatpants all day, but instead she got up, got ready, and put Blue in a costume Worner bought for the occasion. Shortly after 10am, when the event kicked off at stores nationwide, the two arrived at PetSmart.
It’s Worner’s first time as a pet parent. Last February, she wrote on Instagram that her father had passed away unexpectedly. “He left behind his best girl, Blue,” Worner said.
She and her brother couldn’t bear to put her up for adoption, so Worner and her husband took Blue in. On Sunday, she was looking forward to sharing a little bit of joy with her pup at PetSmart.
Tricked into expecting treats
On its official Instagram, PetSmart said all its stores would have three or four treat stations for dogs and would be spritzing them with a dog-friendly cologne at its salon. It encouraged pet parents and their pooches to dress up for the occasion.
“I go and there’s nothing set up,” Worner says in her post, filmed from inside her car directly after leaving PetSmart. “…Nothing says anything about trick or treating, so eventually I go to an associate. I’m like, is trick or treating happening? And he goes, ‘Not until later.'”
Per PetSmart’s Instagram and Worner’s retelling, the event was supposed to be held from 10am-6pm.
Worner says the associate handed her a pumpkin Reese’s, a pumpkin decorating kit, and a freeze-dried piece of beef liver, which she says is the same treat Blue always gets there.
“I have been seeing this advertised as this whole event that they go to all these stations. I’ve been seeing things where they have toys to give away,” she recalls. “They have all these little things of treats, like it’s going to be this whole event. I dressed up my dog!”
Blue’s bucking bronco costume didn’t get much use that day, Worner says. She wasn’t the only one. As she films, she says other people were arriving with costumed dogs and leaving with disappointed expressions.
People blame PetSmart corporate
Worner’s post has over 1.4 million views and over 6,000 comments, many from disappointed PetSmart customers. “She was SADDD,” Mariah wrote, along with a picture of a black Labrador puppy in butterfly wings.
“On my dogs 9th bday too!” Carissa said, including a photo of what appears to be a cockapoo in a chicken costume.
In a follow-up, Worner says she wasn’t “expecting a bunch of freebies,” just “really wanted to have the experience with my dog.”
“We should be holding corporations to a level of accountability,” she says. Worner didn’t respond to direct messages sent via Instagram and TikTok.
Worner blames PetSmart’s corporate office, not store employees. She claims they were informed of the event less than a week prior and were instructed to give out a total of four bags of treats throughout the eight-hour event.
On the PetSmart Subreddit, dozens of purported employees describe similar experiences. They say the company had woefully insufficient supplies and didn’t schedule staff for the treat stations.
“Girl… a mess. My manager tried her hardest but we just couldn’t spare any people. We ran through our treats in one singular hour. None of the staff were told about it,” said one.
Even those who thought it went off rather well, all things considered, feel PetSmart corporate dropped the ball.
“I love that people seemed to be super stoked for it, and that it was a huge success, but corporate did not allocate enough of anything for this event,” another said.
PetSmart did not respond to an email sent Wednesday morning.
Worner agrees that the Halloween letdown isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but still thinks that PetSmart shouldn’t get off the hook, or leash, that easily.
“I walked out and I didn’t spend a dime,” she says, adding that now she’s looking for a locally owned pet store to shop at instead. “Yeah, I’m disappointed.”
@simplykellyjo Good thing Blue doesn’t understand the concept of trick or treating but I still spent my Sunday morning getting us ready to come to this event and was ready to support my local @PetSmart. Just disappointed. #trickortreat #petsmart #halloween ♬ original sound – Kelly Jo
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
