Millers of Thurso

**Tugmistress** · 22-Jan-07, 00:22

Found out the other day that they are planning on shutting the doors for good in the next couple of months or so

sad to see this place go.

**buggyracer** · 24-Jan-07, 11:15

thats a shame i went in last night and bought a load of stuff i didnt really need, just to try and help a little, people wont miss it until its too late, support your little shops, by all means shop at the bigger ones but try to support the wee ones too.

**henry20** · 24-Jan-07, 12:02

I've never been a big user of Millers pet shop. When younger, they sold me 2 male hamsters - only for them to have babies not long after. They reluctantly took the babies back in exchange for a bag of food (less than £1 for hamsters selling at over £5 each). Also, anytime I have been in lately there have been numerous dead fish floating in the tanks. Not only is this a bad advert for the shop, its not nice for kids to see. My friends kid pointed it out once and they just said 'I know' and made no attempt to remove it.

**emszxr** · 24-Jan-07, 13:06

Originally Posted by henry20

I've never been a big user of Millers pet shop. When younger, they sold me 2 male hamsters - only for them to have babies not long after. They reluctantly took the babies back in exchange for a bag of food (less than £1 for hamsters selling at over £5 each). Also, anytime I have been in lately there have been numerous dead fish floating in the tanks. Not only is this a bad advert for the shop, its not nice for kids to see. My friends kid pointed it out once and they just said 'I know' and made no attempt to remove it.

have to agree i have never liked the shop. there always been a smell in it. not that i been in it for a few years. and the dead fish always put me off. i did once buy some fish from there that must have had something wrong with them as they died very soon plus the fish i already had had for many years.

**kitty** · 12-Feb-07, 12:43

I know alot of ppl that have bought fish from there for them to infect and kill the other fish they already had. They then started buying from the pet shop place in wick before pets at home arrived here. I have also always found them to be very expensive aswell

**lab** · 12-Feb-07, 12:54

not sure if this will get me an infraction, but my sis bought something from them last week which was broken and unfit for the purpose it was sold for, it was delivered when she was out so she was not able to look closley till next day, phoned them asked for a replacment or refund was told to take it up with trading standards. Seems they dont care about customers now they are closing

**highlander** · 12-Feb-07, 14:02

The thing that put me off shopping in Thurso pet shop, nothing was priced, and you were told to take it up to the till to find out prices, what a waste of my time.

**kitty** · 12-Feb-07, 14:07

Originally Posted by highlander

The thing that put me off shopping in Thurso pet shop, nothing was priced, and you were told to take it up to the till to find out prices, what a waste of my time.

Got to admit, that put me off aswell. not only was it a pain it also could mean that you ended spending alot more than you planned

**young** · 12-Feb-07, 17:19

Why are they closing??? they say its because of tescos but they have only been open for a few months surely it cant have affected them that much......... If anything when reading about it in the paper i would have thought they might have used pets at home as an excuse not tescos????

**Cinders392** · 13-Feb-07, 00:06

I got fish from there too. There was the quarantine sign on the tank next to it but I still went for the fish. It didnt live long and either did the fish we got in the Wick pet shop. So I went and got another one off the Wick pet shop. Parsnip III and he is still going strong.
Hear the Wick one is in trouble too with bad christmas sales. Shes having big sales to see if you can recoup the loss.
Sad way things are going for the local shops.

**henry20** · 13-Feb-07, 10:08

I was on the understanding that the copy shop side of it was the main income and supported the petshop side of things. I believe he is going to continue with the copying side.

**Bobinovich** · 13-Feb-07, 11:18

Last year our kids were desperate for a pet so we decided goldfish were the easiest way to get them into looking after, feeding, etc. We took them to Millers and found most of the goldfish tanks were quarantined with dead fish in quite a few. Our kids were a bit upset with this so we left.

We headed through to the Wick shop and got a great starter kit plus a couple of fish for a reasonable price (about £25 for everything) - the very helpful lady made sure we had everything we were going to need.

Just recently we were offered a 2nd hand 3ft tank complete with stand, light, pump, heater, gravel, plants, ornaments, etc. from a relative. Our 2 goldfish suddenly had a home instead of a bowl! They've since been joined by a few other species and the whole thing looks lovely in the sitting room - adding a relaxing sound and a splash of colour to the place!

I too don't understand how Tesco could have affected Millers that badly - it's not as though they're actually in the same business, unlike Pets at Home, and neither of the 2 new businesses has been open here really long enough to make that much of an impact surely. Strange call I would say!

**buggyracer** · 13-Feb-07, 12:26

i think any business in the town has been effected by tescos as people are going through to wick to shop there, and then doing other shopping/eating etc whilst in wick, its not the direct competition its causing but purely the people are not in thurso in the first place there all in wick.

**ABC** · 13-Feb-07, 23:14

I think a lot is to do with their staff and their attitudes. Maybe if they were a bit nicer and more approachable they would have more customers.

**dragonfly** · 14-Feb-07, 10:11

in their favour, I've had no problems with them and a fish we got from them is now over 10 years old (granted, the other we got at the same time only lasted a matter of weeks) - it is sad to see another local business close for whatever reasons which are known only to them

**2051donna** · 14-Feb-07, 12:00

Absolutely agree. the attitiude of some of the staff leaves a lot to be desired. Nothing priced, we bought fish out of there and lasted 2 days yet the ones from Pets at home we bought in Oct are still going strong. No idea how can blame tesco, pets at home i would understand, but Tesco dont sell animals..

**minxy_69** · 15-Feb-07, 19:09

ABC, any particular member of staff in mind?

**dozerboy** · 20-Feb-07, 13:40

It seems you are determined to blame Tesco for everything here!! Even before they were built people were saying it would make businesses close etc!! From the accounts in this thread, it just sounds like the shop is badly managed and maybe someone should investigate if they look after the fish properly? What about the poor wee monkey? Is it well looked after? Where will it go?