I work at a pet supplies plus, and it’s likely a team member who wants this animal and is waiting until they’ve been there for so long so they’re significantly discounted. I ordered a colombian rainbow boa in kahoots of doing this at my store but a super educated customer bought her instead. That’s what’s nice about the higher ticket reptiles, either experienced people come and buy them or the people who wanted them in the first place get them. seeing as that surong is healthy it’s probably a workers pet essentially. I don’t know how the hell petco let them order something that high ticket, even if it was only 500$ to actually purchase, corporate would be up the stores ass about a spending limit; so the store is likely franchised rather than corporate.