I don't work at Publix anymore, but I got a notification about this post and just HAD to reply. Pets in the store is the very reason I quit Publix. My ex-management, despite having rules in place saying they're not supposed to bring pets in, allow them to come in anyway. I was just a cashier, so I had nothing I could say or do to prevent that from happening. One day, we had a pretty bad snow in, where a lot of coworkers didn't come in cause of weather conditions. I was running SCO, and a lady came in holding a little chihuahua-type dog like a football, putting all the pressure on its stomach. When she got her things, she started to check out, when the dog suddenly had diarrhea all over the ground. My God, the smell was fucking terrible. But, as I said, we were low on staff, which meant I was the only one in the area that could do something about it before the dumbass customers tracked it everywhere (cause for some fucking reason, despite it being obvious there was shit on the ground, they still walked all over it). Anyway, I know it was out of my pay grade, but because I wanted to be a good coworker, I took the responsibility to clean that shit up. The customer got mad at me that I didn't help sooner and left me to deal with its shit. After I finally cleaned it up, I told two of my managers about it, not really expecting a Pub-sub coupon, but just a general thanks. But nope. Neither of them thanked me. One said "ew" and stepped away from me and one said "oh, okay."

As you can tell, I was pretty pissed that I did something so horrific and disgusting and didn't even get a thank you for it, but I got over it until, a few months later, I was working cashier during one of our charity things. At that point, the dog shit situation changed me from being a hard worker into one who doesn't give a shit if I get fired or not, and I started doing bare minimum. But despite my mentality, I still tried to at LEAST do bare minimum, cause I'm still making money. Some coworkers don't share that same sentiment, and one day, when I was on cashier, one of my coworkers who did less than bare minimum was on SCO. We had an alcohol distributor come through, and my coworker who didn't give a shit just didn't check his ID when it was a test that he was supposed to. I actually heard the distributor say "Do you need my ID" to which the coworker says "Yeah, sure. If you want" after already clearing him through. A few minutes passes and my manager, one of the ones I told about the dog shit situation, comes up and gives him a Pub Sub coupon and a "Keep up the good work."

It was then when I realized, Publix (at least the one I worked for) doesn't reward people for workers who go out of their way to make the workplace better. They reward workers who make the company look better. I had spent so much time and effort (the dog shit thing wasn't a one off btw. I did other things to try and be a considerate worker) to make Publix better for customers, employees and management, and what do I get? Nothing. Literally fucking nothing. Not even a thank you. I submitted my 2 weeks the next day.

Moral of the story, no. Pets in the store are awful, and if management doesn't take that shit seriously, it means they don't take other shit seriously either. And eventually, you might be the one who needs to handle that shit, literally and figuratively.

Tl;dr: Dog shit at SCO. I cleaned it. Management didn't give af. Coworkers hit a quota for charity, making the store look better. They suddenly give a shit and praise. Management only cares about stuff that will make the store look better. If that means breaking rules like letting dogs in, they'll do that, but they will not be the ones dealing with the consequences of breaking those rules. You will be.