Animal House Pet Store
Cincinnati, Ohio
Kathy Raleigh, Owner

How’s business going?

Very good. I was only really hit with the economy in September/October last year. I had a pretty decent Christmas and things are going great right now.

We do a lot of rescue work. That’s the only reason we’re probably still in business. 

Any trends in your business?

We’re redoing our fish rooms. I would say probably puppies, rescue puppies; that’s probably my biggest draw. We take consignment, we don’t purchase puppies. We get a lot of add-on sales. I also get a lot of ideas out of your books.

We do crate kits with our puppies, sort of like starter kits. We do really reasonable pricing with that.

Anything new?

I’m getting a little bit more of the new Merrick foods, and the new Royal Canin. I’m also doing some boutique and cloths, too. Toys-wise, Skineez are doing really well, I just got the whole line from Loveland.

Do you sell livestock?

We do puppies, kittens--all rescue--and fish, parakeets, small animals, reptiles. We do have bird supplies and birdcages.  --EM

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Jolly’s Reef Shack
Jacksonville, Fla.
Faye Elder, Owner

How’s business going?

Okay. It went up and down since the holidays.  It was going really bad before the holidays. The more Obama does, the worse it gets. Before the tax season, we did well. I got your new magazine. It’s sitting here for me to read.

Any trends in your business?

Freshwater is doing really good right now.  Salt’s okay, my store likes soft leathers, as opposed to hard leathers.

My store is on the low side of town, money wise, so they don’t like the high-end. I sell a lot of bettas.

Anything new?

I always try to have something new every week.  New fish, I always try to get new betta things. I’m interested in trying these new Aquablocks, they have a really unusual pretty design on them. 

People like unusual products. For that on the betta, that would sell really well.  Anything that’s unusual, pretty and inexpensive will sell really well. 

What is you best-selling livestock?

Our biggest seller is still the tetras because they’re community fish, then the oscars. On the saltwater side, I would say mostly tangs, then rabbits [rabbitfish]. Of course, your damsels are always going to sell. --EM