The Petcos near us are clean, the staff friendly, and I have never seen sick animals there. One - the Newton/Needham one - has very few animals at all - it's a smaller store right off the highway, so that's probably for the best. On Saturdays the Natick store often hosts rescue groups in their store, the House Rabbit Society, Greyhound Rescues and others.

Like any chain store, I am sure the individual store managers and owners make more of a difference than corporate headquarters does.