West Melbourne Aquatics
West Melbourne, Fla.
Richard Musser, Owner

How’s business going?

It’s been pretty steady. I can’t really complain. I know other people are hurting. We sell fish and corals.

Any trends in your business?

Probably, I’d say sales-wise we’re selling more of the smaller reef tanks. We’re also selling 10-gallon aquariums and up, like around that size to 30 or 40 gallons, around there. We’re selling a lot less of the 90-gallon and up aquariums. I think it has a lot to do with the economy, they’re not investing as much as they would if the economy was better.

Anything new?

More LED products are coming along, Eco Exotic type strips. We don’t do reptiles. We’re not doing any new promotions. On our freshwater side, we do a lot of direct mail type of couponing, stuff like that. On the saltwater side, we’re offering more frags than we used to carry.
Tankwise right now, Aqueon is practically giving their aquariums away. We’re passing that through, trying to get more people to buy tanks. They extended that by 2 months.

What’s your bestselling livestock?

It seems that whenever we get in any Acans or Micros, like the Australian varieties, those move pretty fast. Everything else is steady right now. The last trend came when we started carrying ORA frags, but that is dying down. --EM

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Mt. Rushmore Birds/PAWS Pet Bakery and Gifts
Mukwonago, Wis.
Barbara Paur, Owner

How’s business?

January and February were slow, but March has picked up. It’s a little slower than it has been in other years, but it’s looking up, and I know we don’t have it as bad as other stores do.

We’re looking forward to a great tourist season. We get a lot of tourists here at Mount Rushmore.

What’s new?

The Friday and Saturday before Easter, we did a big program where we had a live lamb and a bunny in the store, and Jackie Lake, who’s in the store with us, has a business called Pet Antics, and we took a whole bunch of pictures [of people with the animals].

We’re adding obedience stuff. We just got new agility T-shirts, and they’re going real well because there’s a lot of interest in dog obedience here in this town.

What is your best-selling livestock?

Probably a cockatiel. We (Paur and her husband) raise 90 percent of the birds that we sell on the ranch north of town. It’s a full-service store, so we do a lot of bird grooming. We sell toys, cages, supplies.  --KI

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Angie’s Shampoo and Shave
Christiana, Pa.
Angela Wallace, Owner

How’s business going?

It’s going pretty good. I can’t complain.  Well, business has picked up this past month.  It’s definitely increased since the holidays.
Any trends in your business?

I do grooming, boarding, daycare and training, retail. Grooming is the highest thing right now. Business has been pretty steady otherwise.

I do retail in the same shop where I do grooming. Nothing really stands out as selling especially well.

Anything new?

Let’s see. Not really, no new trends.  We aren’t doing any new promotions. --EM