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I was driving today and we ended up near a pet shop that's quite far from our house but has some good cages usually. I asked to stop and have a look to see if there were any potentially good cages, there weren't. 
But we also went to where they keep the birds and had a look. There was a big aviary of lutino, whiteface pieds, cinnamon pearl pieds, etc (fancy mutations). There was also a woman looking to buy one. The first one she looked at looked like it was at deaths door, definitely not a healthy bird. The employee pointed this out. Then she was admiring another whiteface pied but was wondering how to sex it, she wanted a male. I went over and asked what she was after and after checking with the employee that these weren't babies ("well, they're not baby babies, but they're still young" - *cough* adult) i said the one she was looking at was most probably male (it had dark tail feathers and no bars) and i explained why i thought that but also said that with all the varieties in the cage there would never be a sure way to tell visually. I mentioned that males sing. The employee then said that females bite really really hard. I said i found the opposite to be true and that females tend to be cuddly and males goofy but hormonal. The lady was going to come back and buy the whiteface pied. It's not tame but hopefully it will tame down for her. It didn't really seem like there was much research going into the purchase, but i guess that's how it is often at pet shops. It was nice to be of assistance, but i would struggle to sell birds to just anyone who walked in if i worked at one.
On another note, there was a pair of sun conures......$1500 for the pair!!! That's over charging for you.
But we also went to where they keep the birds and had a look. There was a big aviary of lutino, whiteface pieds, cinnamon pearl pieds, etc (fancy mutations). There was also a woman looking to buy one. The first one she looked at looked like it was at deaths door, definitely not a healthy bird. The employee pointed this out. Then she was admiring another whiteface pied but was wondering how to sex it, she wanted a male. I went over and asked what she was after and after checking with the employee that these weren't babies ("well, they're not baby babies, but they're still young" - *cough* adult) i said the one she was looking at was most probably male (it had dark tail feathers and no bars) and i explained why i thought that but also said that with all the varieties in the cage there would never be a sure way to tell visually. I mentioned that males sing. The employee then said that females bite really really hard. I said i found the opposite to be true and that females tend to be cuddly and males goofy but hormonal. The lady was going to come back and buy the whiteface pied. It's not tame but hopefully it will tame down for her. It didn't really seem like there was much research going into the purchase, but i guess that's how it is often at pet shops. It was nice to be of assistance, but i would struggle to sell birds to just anyone who walked in if i worked at one. On another note, there was a pair of sun conures......$1500 for the pair!!!
That's over charging for you. 
