Ditto, I wasn't paying attention to the year.

Agreed. Two of mine were also pet store chain birds although I think it was petco and they were healthy when I got them. I wouldn't buy a budgie from the little petstore near my house because it is dark and scary in there.

All the Petsmart stores in my town are clean and healthy. They are also way less $$$ than Petco! I get all my bird food at a small indie store that sell Volkman and I bought 4 birds there, and they are not as clean as either chain store! Better birds though, go figure!

couldn't even get through half of that video. and to think i was going to possibly get another parakeet from there..

I got Bijou from a PetSmart in town. The boy/girl (couldnt tell, seriously.) that sold it to me pretended to know what he/she was talking about but clearly did not. I had experience with budgies before Bijou and this person tried to "educate" me with things that were all wrong.

Ditto..

that is cruel and unusual punishment for the animals that deserve none of that....but i know not all pets come from their and not all pet stores are bad. i used to work in a pet store and to show what good pet stores do for their animals i will let you know what we did. Every animal we got, small or big, were received from a private breeder....someone in home that raised and loved animals. We had a vet visit the store every week to give all the dogs (we sold dogs and cats and all small animals) and cats physicals and to administer medicine to sick animals. all animals that were sick were either taken care of by the vet at their facility, birds were taken care of with heat lamps and hand fed (we raised them also), and any animal that needed at-home attention were taken home by a store employee to give them the attention they needed. All dogs had walks outside every day and cats were taken out to stretch their legs. any animal that wasn't sold, or had a problem, were placed in an adoption program so no animal was left behind. I personally took home a budgie that had a wing clipping accident and accidently got his leg cut off. He was well taken care of by me and later died from something unrelated that a vet could not fix. this place was hartland pets in erie. so just to let anyone know if you live near erie pa and still want to shop there, its fine, believe me i know.

i bought marble from pet co. it was a very well kept store and the employees were knowledgeable and very helpful. mar is a wonderful little bird. happy, busy, "busy" LOL! and in excellent health. i had an exceptionally hard time picking my newest edition from there... all of the birds were in good shape, feathers in good condition, very active and playful. (a room type enclosure)
i got red from petsmart. she was no prob for me to pick because she was the only albino i had ever seen, but i did spend quite a long time watching all the birds before my final decision. this store was exceptionally clean and busy. the worst problem i had there was waiting for an employee from the bird section. (who was dealing with a couple who were getting several types of birds, so it took her a while) i was politely acknowledged and was apologized to for the wait, as there was no one else there who was able to work with the birds besides her. again, service and general knowledge quite good. (cage enclosures)
nik nak and tringkit came from a "bin-o-budgies" from p j's pets. all birds seemed in good health, lots to play with, active and very vocal! it is not a "big chain" store but bigger than a "mom and pop" business. this is where the service was most personalized and knowledge was not bad at all considering their "bird person" was not in that day. other staff members were doing cage duty according to a sheet left for unfamiliar staff. one of the employees was a little nervous around any of the hook bills but they did a good job from what i saw. nikki and tring are also clean, active, healthy birds.
in all 3 places, i did not see anything that disturbed med me or was noticeably wrong. (and believe me... i looked!) i think it all boils down to who the people are that own or run the places. employers who don't care have employees who don't care and that combination is trouble for all the animals in those places, from the fish to the birds, mammals and reptiles. check a place out, walk through, look carefully at how the stock and shelves are maintained, the floor, counter area are maintained, how the employees treat you and how organized the store itself is. as a person who has been in retail a loooong time... these are key things to look for before even going to look at the animals. if none of these things are well maintained, it will give you an approximation of how well the "inhabitants" of the place are kept. don't automatically decide against a place because of something you may have heard, go there, use your own eyes and head to make a decision. be as informed as you can be before you go. if the staff at a place cannot answer questions you have already found the answers for yourself... chances are... you may want to think twice. but DO look to see how things are before deciding against a place also.

My big gripe is where are all the bird vets. I have had a hard time finding them. I could not watch the video I wanted to be a vet all my life but cant afford the education price. I'm wishing I would have found away. I would make sure that I would be available to anyone at anytime.

I have 2 sides on this topic, I was absolutely horrified when I saw that video for the first time. I couldn't get the image out of my head. I think someone should email this video to the Petsmart headquarters and see what they think about it. But on the other side I have had to buy birds from both Petsmart and Petco which I hated but I also love because I felt like I was saving them from that filth and sadness. But if you love birds and animals and there are no breeders within 70 miles of you, you kinda have to buy from a pet store. I have tried to buy a bird from a breeder and I was trying t make an appointment and when I called she didn't answer so I tried again and she didn't answer so I emailed her and she still didn't answer so i just gave up.:( but i love my fids so much!