Consider it your very good fortune to enter Three Dog Bakery in Encino. The first thing to greet you is an amazing aroma of freshly baked goods – so pleasant is the scent that it just simply makes you smile. Then when you feast your eyes on the wonderous creations on display, and happily, you start reaching for your wallet only to realize that these treats are not for your consumption. Read More »
Six years ago, Milya Burian (a lifelong animal lover) chose to open a pet store and grooming establishment in the famous beach community of Santa Monica, California. She called it, To Wag For. Located on fashionable Montana Avenue, it is a welcoming establishment for A-lister pet parents. In 2016, Milya opened another To Wag For location in Bel Air, Maryland. These beautiful bi-coastal stores offer toys, hardgoods, pet nutrition products, and grooming. Read More »
Sustainability. It is a word tossed about in our culture for quite some time. Yet, sustainability is more than just about we humans leaving a smaller carbon footprint. For Brett Newton (store manager of My Pet Naturally), it means a commitment to an agrarian lifestyle where people, animals, and the land work in partnership with each other. Read More »
A year ago, we introduced you to Diane Dewberry and her amazing shop The Healthy Animal. We wanted to get Diane’s take on the current climate in the pet retail industry during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as her opinions on the future of the independent pet retailer. Here, we give you her insights and our original article about Diane which ran in May 2019. Read More »
Picture this: Two teenage boys working at a pet shop when suddenly a pipe bursts flooding the store. It is the task of these two young men to clean up this watery mess so the store can reopen. To pass the time, one decides to crank up the tunes on his iPod mostly to the music of the band Strung Out. Read More »
Born and raised in New Jersey, you can say that Robert Walling isn’t one to stray too far from home. He is a man dedicated to the township where he grew up, got married and raised his children. Part of that dedication was to open a pet food store where his neighbors could get exceptional products, and he, in turn, could support his local community. Read More »
Although the third largest city in Los Angeles County, the municipality of Santa Clarita (and its surrounding cities) is populated with citizens who have lived there for generations and have worked hard to maintain a small-town feel. Read More »
What can you say about a man who is devoted to his community, his customers, and all species of animals? Perhaps he might be Camarillo’s resident Dr. Doolittle! Chris Hoeflich seamlessly cannot only communicate with a variety of animals but has an instinct to help pet parents find exactly what they need. Read More »
Some people in this world were destined for their professions. This certainly seems to be the case for Dan Lavallee, manager of Pet World in Natick, Massachusetts. Read More »
For many people, California is a mythical locale of countless celebrity sightings, a place where year-round tanning is a requirement, and the only things predictable are traffic jams and earthquakes. Although those of us fortunate enough to call California our home may see “The Golden State” through polarized sunglasses, it doesn’t mean we are not down-to-earth nor value ties to our neighbors and local communities. Read More »
A wise man once said, “do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life” – for Angela Marra, this adage holds - she loves being a groomer and a small business owner. Although her shop, Fur-ever Grooming, has been at its current location since 1976, Angela bought the business in 2011. Read More »
While not devoting her time to fiction or felines, you can find Judy managing a pet store in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. The Holistic Pet Center is in Clackamas, a county located on the east side of the Willamette River and situated near a freeway and railroad tracks. The store has been in its strip-mall location since 1988. Read More »
Outside of the metropolitan area of Minneapolis, there are plenty of small towns which occupy a rich history for the good people of Minnesota. In these towns, there are plenty of classic buildings that need a little TLC and are brought back to life. Enter Mike “Spike” Persons Read More »
The entrepreneurial spirit is not lost on George Vukmirovic, owner of Friends Forever Pet Food located in Kirkland, Washington. Read More »
Within the historic town of Litchfield, Connecticut lies the small borough of Bantam. This rural hamlet (with less than 800 residents) has quickly become a favorite spot for weekend trips and summer holidays by New Yorkers. But if one of these New Yorkers asked a local where to buy food for their dog, they would tell them, “go to the hippie store.” Read More »
It is not often you stroll into a premium pet store and hear “La donna è mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto sung a cappella by a twenty-five-year-old parrot, but if that store is The Healthy Animal in Pembroke, Massachusetts chances are good that Ollie (the parrot) will offer up an aria. Read More »
In this month where we as a nation celebrate our pets, no better person is an advocate for rescue animals than Felicia Singer. Both her dog Oliver and cat Siclone where adopted from local southern California shelters. Her greyhound, Song, is a rescued track dog from Mexico, and her treasured dog Neung, spent its first four years at the Soi Dog Foundation in Thailand. Read More »
Over 20 years ago in picturesque Kitsap county, Randy Maag opened his first Pet Town store in Port Townsend, Washington. Since then two more locations were added, one in Port Orchard and the other in Belfair, where Steve Brown leads a team of six employees as store manager. Read More »
When you speak with Connie Manning, the owner of Bare Bones Dog Wash, you are immediately struck by her passion for dog nutrition and her devotion to helping her customers and their pets in her beloved hometown of Eugene, Oregon. Connie did not begin as an entrepreneur. She had a thirty-year career in corporate retail Read More »
