Groom Pet Shop

The people are Groom are amazing. They are friendly and extremely knowledgeable. My birds love their food because it is wholesome and fresh. I would never go anywhere else!

I have shopped at Grooms for several years and have found them to be great. They have special ordered a certain Nylabone that I wanted for my bulldog as well as arranged a custom winter sweater to be made for her odd shaped body. I would recommend them to anyone.

After years of buying fish and other supplies--totalling in the hundreds of dollar--from Groom Pets in Bloor West Village, I had an experience today that leads me to recommend that customers go elsewhere. I had a long conversation in the shop about transferring fish from the bag in which they are packed to my tank at home, during which I received a variety of advice from sales staff. We discussed the relative merits of the 20 minutes in the bag/20 minutes with a cup of water added from the tank/then into the tank versus doing this slowly,overnight. I was told that doing it overnight is only necessary if I had a long trip home and the temperature in the bag dropped by more than a few degrees, compared with the temperature in the store's tank. I said I was going home on the subway. At no time was I told that I had to add new oygenated water to the bag within an hour or the fish would die. I have own tropical fish for four years and have, in fac, NEVER been told this at any of several reputable stores I have dealt with (including Groom Pets).
In fact, they were the first per store at which I ever bought fish (white clouds) and I recall distinctly that they replaced a fish that died overnight during the first night in the tank.
Today, however, when I got home and put the bag into the tank to begin the acclimation process, I noticed that one of the three fish I had purchased was dead. I phoned the shop immediately and was told that since an hour had elapsed since my purchase, there was nothing the shop was prepared to do. I checked my bill and the time said 3:36 and it was by that time 4:40--so barely an hour had elapsed, including the time it took me to look up the shop's phone number and place the call.
I pointed out that nobody had ever told me about the hour rule of fish mortality and in fact that nobody in the shop at the time of my purchase had mentioned this either, despite our lengthy conversation about transferring fish. I also told the saleswoman--who said she was not one of the THREE I spoke to while making my purchase--that this meant losing me as a customer and she seemed to be completely prepared to lose my business forever over what is basically a $2.39 dead fish that they sold to me.
So be it.
I will also recommend that nobody else ever shop there again either. Go to Spadina Pets where they are wonderful and stand by their products.