Chestnut Hills Shopping Center — Local services in Beltsville

So it's just best to say in this area I am done with the competition! Literally total COMPLETE different experience compared to PetSmart!!! Let's start with me calling in! As my previous review told most, I am a first time Betta Fish keeper and my Halfmoon King, seemed to be having a hard time getting acclimated. I went to PetSmart and literally wanted to give up on my Betta, after OVERSPENDING ON JUST BETTA FOOD & FOR NO REASON! I decided to give PetCo a call.

THE CALL: The first person to answer was Scott! It must be God I told myself because Scott was literally THE person to speak to about my Betta!!! Hes super knowledgeable and helpful!!!!! I arranged some time to make way to retrieve water conditioner as well as a plant for my Betta bowl! (After buying literally every betta fish food in petsmart, it had NOTHING to do with his feeding, which petsmart was not so helpful nor knowledgeable about!)

THE VISIT: Walking into Petco I immediately seen a young lady and asked for Scott, she was super welcoming (even though I interrupted her cleaning out the hamster cages), she smiled GREETED ME and told me it was no problem to get him! Scott came up and assisted me right away! Giving me so much helpful information and upkeeping tips for my Betta! I was able to leave with everything I COULD NOT get from petsmart and most importantly that was knowledgeable and friendly customer service! Not to mention, while Scott left me to decide which plant I wanted for my Betta Bowl, I was standing next to two other employees who seemed to be very helpful as well. Now I'm not sure if the first young man was new or not, however he was assisting the older gentleman next to me. There was another employee who seemed to be more comfortable working alongside him, I asked that young man (since he was just overseeing) if he was able to help me with a few questions. (At this time Scott was assisting another customer). And would you have it, this young man too was EXTREMELY helpful and knowledgeable and what he didn't feel too confident about he let me know who the best person was to speak to about it!!!!

(To see each employee MORE THAN helpful and knowledgeable about not only fish but other pets in general was most definitely a breathe of fresh air compared to my petsmart experience!)

THE CHECKOUT: I get to the register and Darren rings me up! Super engaging and VERY helpful! He was able to give me information about the rewards program, letting me what I get as a customer!!! Score!!!!!!!!! Did I mention he even let my niece check out the crickets after she was so intrigued to see one escape ☺️😂

(OH I didn't mention!) So, I did have my 5 year old niece with me who is SUPER PET FRIENDLY and literally talks talks talks and wants to see see see! However, from the young lady at the entrance to Darren as we exist, EACH employee took their time with us, engaging with my niece's excitement and answered every question, PLUS giving us helpful tips in not only how to SAVE MY BETTA BUT ALSO IN HOW TO SAVE ME SOME MONEY!!!

SIDENOTE: I'm stuck with all of these food purchases from petsmart but it safe to say thanks to Petco my Betta will live and I guess in a light of laughter, will never run out of food!!!!!

SO HUGE SHOUT-OUT TO ALL 4 OF THOSE TEAM MEMBERS!!! I apologize I didn't get everyone's name but I'm sure you guys know who they are!!!

T H A...

I've come here since I was a kid. Petco has the KINDEST employees that have always gone above and beyond every time I've asked for help with something. The store itself may be older and not as shiny and pretty as others, but you won't find better people to help with your pet needs than these in any of them!

Walgreens is great, I switched my prescriptions from cvs and it's been a dream. No mistakes, no hours wait for one to be filled. And they remind me to refill. As for the store, it's always clean and we'll stocked. Everyone working is nice, but I get the vibe they're understaffed a bit. Looks like most days there's only 2 maybe 3 people trying to run around and do everything between stocking shelves, cleaning, helping customers, working registers and so on. The issue is not nearly as bad as it is at the cvs a little further north on route one.

Also, the bakery that was Raulins u til recently has always been a family favorite. As a little girl, the former owner (Me Raulin) would donate 2-3 dozen donuts to our church for the congregation between services. It's recently been changed to "la familia" and I've only had a couple things since but they're all still wonderful.

The liquor store used to have a drive through, bug that's closed. It's pretty run of the mill for your usual stuff. I wouldn't come here for something unique and not well known as it's not very large, the one over in the shopping center with the autopart store and 3 brothers next to Costco has more of that kind of thing, it's in an old circuit city building so tons of room!

There's also a small international grocery store, not huge but lots of foods a place like...

Store kinda dirty and roaches in some of the merchandise. Items were not clearly priced. Cashier cussed about needing to put some items back when they cost way too much, even with the 40% off. $70 for a basic plastic litter box, really, Petco! They were closing the store for good at this location. Everything was up to 40% Off, which is why we chose to shop here. Now people will have to travel to Laurel, MD to go to a Petco. I prefer PetSmart for their cleanliness, prices, and quality merchandise anyway. Not to forget that PetSmart has better sales on a regular basis. All-in-All, Vetco is why we used Petco. Though Vetco's prices have gone up (like most everything these days). The Vetco vet was so kind and helpful. She did an Amazing job with my pets. Thumbs Up for Vetco traveling...