Leash on Life
Iowa City, Iowa
Julie Phye, owner

How’s business?

It’s been really good. We had a good solid Christmas, and January stayed strong. It seems like February was a little slow, but I don’t whether it was the economy or the weather or a bit of both. But it seems March has picked up.

What’s new?

We expanded the store in January. The opportunity arose to [acquire] space adjacent to us. We’ve had really good feedback about it. We made [the new section] completely all about food, which opened up the rest of the store.

We [sell] dog and cat [products], and I guess the other new thing is in the fall, we started carrying other new things for rabbits. We started carrying stuff for rabbits because of customer encouragement.

We’ve been working really closely with WellPet. We carry both Holistic Select and Wellness. We’ve been doing some fun promotions with them to get the word out about holistic foods. They’re strong sellers for us.

In Iowa City, the local food movement among people is really growing, and I think that’s translating to what people want to feed their pets, and [they] look at labels and ingredients and choose what’s healthy for their pets.

WellPet has provided us with some great training about nutrition in general, We’re a small store, and we know our customers well, so it’s important to us to have the time to spend to talk to people about what’s going on with their pets.  We’ve certainly learned in a short few years that there’s no one food that’s going to be the right one for all dogs and all cats.

The thing I think people are really showing an increasing interest in is natural chews: the bones, the antlers, the bully sticks. There’s more of an availability of things like lamb bones, etc., for dogs with allergy issues. --KI

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Full Line Pet Retailer (anonymous)
Raleigh, NC

How’s business going?

It’s been head above water. Nothing to get excited about. Um, no, it picked up after the holidays.

We another Nemo 2. Or some psychologist on Oprah telling everyone that aquariums bring your blood pressure down. No other thoughts, really.

Any trends in your business?

Mostly dog, but I’m optimistic that we’re getting more aquatic business all of a sudden. We’re strong in aquatic, in reptile, but we’re full line. No, I haven’t seen any other trends in sales other than dog and aquatic, nothing stands out.

Anything new?

No, we’re not doing much new. We’re holding tight right now.

Do you sell livestock?

Yes, we do. We do all livestock as far as reptiles and fish goes. We occasionally do puppies, but we don’t do puppy mills, so it’s breeders we know locally.  --EM