Brookside Barkery & Bath
Olathe, Kan.
Craig Piburn, Manager

How’s business?

It’s going well. Even given this time of the year, which is generally slower.

April seems to be a slow month for us also because of taxes. After that, it picks back up again. We do lots of events[and fundraisers through the spring, so that gives us more exposure and brings in customers.

We still had growth last year,[but not as much in past years.

What’s new?

We have a promotion from Nature’s Variety. They’re doing a free tote bag to draw in new customers. If a customer brings in a new customer, they both get insulated tote bags.

That’s the biggest main thing we have going on.

We’ll start adoption events at the store when the weather gets nice—late March, April, May. We do those outside.

Do you sell ivestock?

No. We’re more adoption focused rather than purchasing from pet stores.  --KI

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Ernie’s Seven Seas – Build, design and install any type of tanks, small animals, poision dart frogs
Orlando, Fla.
Ernie Shandler, Owner

How’s business going?

We’re slow, but that’s expected with everything that’s going on in the industry. 

Slow time?

Yeah, right after the holidays is really bad.

What’s new?

We’re starting to do more poison dart frog setups, small animal themed cage environments and stuff like that. It’s pretty neat stuff.

We’ve found that, since there are so many maintenance companies out there, it’s better to be diversified. You can get more business from that.
We’re down about 40 percent from what we were [in terms of setting up and maintaining aquariums], even two years ago from reef and aquarium stuff. It’s been quite a drop.

Any products that are doing well? Usually, customers go of our recommendations when it comes to products for their setups. We try to stay with high-end product, it’s better for us, it’s better for them, we have a lot better relationship when we go that way.

Do you sell livestock?

We do sell livestock. We can quarantine animals ourselves. We have a 350-gallon setup just for this.

What’s selling well?

Saltwater fish, angels and butterflies and tangs are still the three big sellers. Puffers are always cool, but they’re cheapie little things.  --EM