Weeklybriefing/hollingsworth/10″/dt1st/mark2nd
The arrival of giant pet-supply chains has put a number of mom-and-pop operators out of business. When Petco Animal Supplies Inc. put up about 85 stores in Southern California alone, local pet stores were faced with a new challenge. Lauren Hollingsworth spoke with Hervey Chapman, owner and operator of Verdugo Pet Shop in Highland Park, about how the chains have hurt him. Chapman’s store sells feed, supplies, and an assortment of birds including chickens but it doesn’t do grooming.
Your average pet shop does grooming. That’s where they make their bucks. They charge 20 bucks and expend maybe 5. If you don’t do that, it’s a battle (to compete with Petco). It’s a big store, they have good prices. They give dog food away to get people in there. We’ve been here for over 21 years, (but) five or six years ago, I started feeling the difference.
They have vets there. They do dog grooming right there. They have all kinds of things that draw people, but there aren’t really a lot of knowledgeable (people who know) about the merchandise, as far as shampoos and dog food and what’s in this or that.
It’s not that I don’t think about competition, (but) I can offer things that nobody else does. This is an old-timer place. I have two-gallon fishbowls full of dog biscuits. I have trout chow for ponds. Most people don’t even know what (trout food) is, and I have three different sizes. Most places don’t have anything in bulk. It’s all by the pound, whereas I have these food bins. I have a lot of stuff other pet shops don’t carry, and it’s all fresh.
You have to do everything that’s what keeps the cost down. You have the plumbing, the painting, the carpentry. That’s what you have to do. I’m going all the time. I never sit. I built my own fish room. If you have to pay someone to do it, you never get out of debt.
When you do everything yourself, it cuts overhead. I work 10 to 12 hours every day. I also try to (carry high-quality products). I’m in a good position. If somebody has a new product, say a new kind of dog food, and they say it’s great, I say, “If it’s that good, then let me take it home and try it.” People at Petco, they don’t do that.
I also make deliveries every day to customers who have wild birds or pigeons. I have a gal in a wheelchair who’s been getting wild birdseed for 15 years. These are old people in their 70s and 80s. I have six to eight (customers like that). That’s a labor of love. Service is the difference, that’s the thing. This place has a personal touch.
