Four Muddy Paws and the Healthy Pet Market
Edwardsville, Ill. and St. Louis
Jeff Jensen, co-owner

How’s business?

It continues to be very strong. We’re seeing growth in both of our stores. We’re seeing continued nice growth in all of our departments.

What’s new?

We always try to bring new products in to the store to add new dimensions and have something new when the customers come in. We have events all during the year. We usually pair up with local rescue groups.

We just did a couple benefit dog washes in each of our stores, and we were able to raise just about $2,000 for each store. It was really exciting. The volunteers from rescue groups come and they wash the dogs in our self-service facilities, and then 100 percent of the proceeds go toward the rescue group.

What is your best-selling livestock?

We do adoption events, breed meet and greets, and play groups. --KI

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Anonymous bird specialty store, with a focus on bird sales and bird products
Stamford, Conn.

How’s business going?

It seems to be bouncing back a bit. We aren’t setting any world records, but it’s certainly improved over the last six months.

Has business been effected by the holidays?

No, it’s normally busy at this time of year. We’re a specialty store; we only carry bird products. Over the course of the year, we’ll sell everything we raise. We don’t depend on a puppy mill or anything like that. Normally, we go like gangbusters through the whole year. I’m still getting nothing but doom and gloom when I talk to west coasters about the industry.

Any trends in your business?

There’s really no big trend. It’s not a trend industry. There are new products--everybody grabs them. It will be interesting to see the attendance and dispositions at Global. For all of their BS, there aren’t as many people there. They’re losing vendors left, right and center. Whether that format has lost its usefulness, is another story. Attendance is down, vendors are down, people are leaving in droves. There aren’t a lot of new products out there. There’s not much out there that’s really very innovative. The suppliers I work with that are coming out with new products are “booming,” but their sales are still off by 25 percent. The domestic market is in the crapper. In a specialty business, it’s a little bit different. In my retailer business, we will sell every single thing that we raise. After 35 years of doing this, I know what I’m doing.

What I’m really doing is I’m stretching out my inventory. I’ve cut back my production schedule March through November. I’m in a bit of a different position because I do control what I raise. People who go in for specialty stores like bird stores tend to be more loyal.

Anything new?

No.

Do you sell livestock?

Birds. We keep a large collection of other species here, a large dog, a cat, reptiles; they’re just personal pets for people here. It’s really entertainment for the walk-in consumers. There’s a lot of display space taken up with entertainment features. Our store is big, but it’s more of a boutique-type atmosphere. By the way, all of that costs money, but if the business was booming like crazy, and we could turn those spaces into profitable spaces, we would fill those spaces in a minute. But if you fill 10,000 sq. ft. with bird stuff, you’ve got a lot of product. I always have $500,000 in product on hand.

I have a Petsmart and Petco right around the corner, and I wish they were closer. They don’t have the specialty items, they don’t have the species, they don’t have the expertise, no loyalty, no innovation, it takes them a year to get new products on the shelves, it takes them two years to get old products off the shelves.

They’re not going to put you out of business if you’re clever, responsive and creative. If you aren’t, they’ll pose a threat to you. Stores get panicky when they see them coming. Then again, I’ m not looking at a full line store where I have to stock everything. I look at some of the merchandise on their shelves, and I would never buy their stuff.