Buying gift cards for a few dog lovers scattered about the U.S. Where I live, Petco is kinds downscale, PetSmart is nicer with a larger inventory. How about where you live? Recipients live in Pittsburgh, Detroit and St. Paul.
Not in any of those cities, but I prefer PetSmart too.
If you’re buying gift cards, well, the two stores carry almost exactly the same items at almost exactly the same prices, so it makes almost no difference.
That said, I have a Petco and a PetSmart close to my home. The one difference is that PetSmart tends to have more knowledgeable emploiyees. So, if you need pet care advice, I’m more likely to get it at PetSmart. But if I’m just buying fish food, or crickets for my son’s lizard, or a terrarium, or a new leash for my dog… I’ll just go to whichever happens to be handier.
I suggest you get the gift card at whichever location is more convenient for you.
We shop at Petco more than PetSmart, but there things to be said for both. Gift cards for either would be appreciated, I’m sure.
That reminds me, PetSmart is having a sale on the cat food we like.
For some reason, the local Petco (and maybe all Petco stores; I’m not sure) does not carry the dog or the cat food we use. It’s a very common brand, too (Purina ONE for both). Both stores are overpriced on items unless they are on sale. Petsmart is the only place around that carries the larger 33 pound bag of “Small Bites” dog food, so it’s almost always Petsmart for us.
I go to PetCo because it opened here first. PetSmart opened up several years later, literally around the corner from PetCo. PetCo happens to be larger here, but I agree they are basically the same things at the same prices.
But there are some subtle differences (usually when it comes to food) so everyone will probably have their own preference.
That being said - if someone gave me a PetSmart gift card I’d be just as happy as if I got a PetCo gift card (PetCo being “my” store) because even if PetSmart doesn’t have my food and I don’t have a PetSmart loyalty card, I can still go there and buy toys and treats and stuff!
PetSmart by a mile, IMO. We go to the Monroeville or Mills Mall stores.
A Petco employee abused my dog while he was there to be groomed. They conveniently deleted the security tape that would have shown it, attempted to pass off the broken skin, scabs and bleeding as a “reaction to the shampoo” in spite of a veterinarian and city policeman stating that it was not possibly true, refused to give me the name of the regional manager, and tried to pay me off with a $75 gift card when I posted pictures of it on their facebook page (Amazing how fast the Regional Manager called *me * after I posted the pictures!).
So, not Petco.
Petco sells puppy mill puppies. There’s one nearby we protested for a few years which gets a delivery every week. An 18-wheeler from the Hunte Corporation pulls in around the back in the wee hours of Sunday, to minimize the attention. They’ve been fined twice in court for abusive practices that I know of. One time a Hunte Corporation truck caught fire and burned by the side of the road…not sure if it was delivering to this particular Petco. Sixty or so puppies burned to death and police officers and other first responders cried, and got quoted in the news about how horrible it was, but another truck rolled ext week and none of them ever came to the protest.
PetSmart sells live animals too – milled birds (the inbred budgies are particularly sad), reptiles, and small mammals. But they have the public-relations savvy to avoid selling the dogs and cats more Americans regard as family. But treating living things as commercial commodities inevitably leads to wastage, unsold stock, and cost-cutting – the well-being of the “product” is a vague ideal by comparison, indifferently pursued.
We avoid both chains as much as we can, preferring local Weber’s Pet Supermarket, a mom & pop place that does NOT sell live animals as pets (I think they do sell crickets and mealworms as food items). But if an animal family member’s health is at stake, I will use PetSmart, although reluctantly.
We have both in this area. At least with respect to buying stuff for an ill-tempered Chinese water dragon, there is no difference. Same stuff. Same prices.
As per the OP, our Petco is ghetto while our PetSmart is classy. However, our Petco has a lot more animal adoption events, which is where I got my cat, and only Petco carries my litter, even online.
Neither shop sells dogs or cats here.
Also, PetCo online gift certificates can be used in-store, while PetSmart’s can only be used online.
Mea culpa–it’s been pointed out to me that it was PetLAND, not Petco, that did the things I described above. Apologies for the error. Petco apparently does not sell dogs and cats,and both Petco and PetSmart allow rescue groups to hold events in their facilities.
Petland is…worse.
Oh, yeah, PetLand is the horrible puppy-mill place. Ugh. 
Concur that Petsmart is better than Petco – the latter certainly runs up more protests and online finger-pointing for abusive practices, and IME the employees at the former are far more knowledgeable and better-trained.
Thanks, all - on I go to enrich the lives of dogs nationwide!