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One of my dream is to open a petstore with pets in it

fridzalone

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I know that most of you would be shocked when read the title of my thread...but yes, I do want to open a petstore someday.

I realized that one good and effective way to promote pets welfare is via petstore. Most people asked help, and guide from petstore, unfortunately not all petstore are really thinking about animal welfare (more likely they thinking about : money, money, and more money). And I have to admit that having animals in the petstores are another charms so the people would come and visit the petstore. By having animals in the petstore, there are more chances to open people's mind about animal welfare.

So I have 3 things in my mind that I have to solve :
- open petstore
- having pets in it-without selling it (because it would be against animal welfare)
- promote animal welfare

After thinking for soooo long to, then I came up with the conclusion :
If one day I'll get my chance to open a petstore, then it would be a petstore with my pets in it. Maybe many of you would ask me "How would that happened to help you promote animal welfare?". Good point. I'll use several space in the petstore to make a proper cage for my pets. Example : for my guinea pigs I would make a C&C cage, maybe in a different room, soundproofed to make sure my pigs would not distract with the business of the petstore and have a good ventilation system. People can see from outside the room, and maybe wondering how great is that to have such a beautiful cage in their house. And when they ask me or one of my staffs (which need to trained to make sure they understand about animal welfare and everything that sold in the petstore), we'll explain about C&C cages and suggest them to use C&C cage as well. I would also sell coroplasts, grids, fleeces, cage toys and accessories so the buyer can get them easily. And I won't sell any small cages, unless it's pet carrier. The same thing goes for my cats as well, something like"dog boarding facility luxury" in this article (Luxury Boarding Hotel for Paws) seems nice, but maybe with more toys in it. And maybe I can make the rooms look like this : (broken link removed)
So when the buyer come to me and ask me if she/he could buy pets in the rooms, I'll would proudly say "No, those are my pets. We don't sell pets here". And the buyer would see how happy me and my pets are, how healthy they are, and how adorable they are. Of course my pets won't be there 24/7. My cats are set free in the petstore, the room would probably used for them to take a rest, eat, drink, pooping and stuff. And the guinea pigs are mostly in the cage, but they do have their floor time area there too to make sure they get enough exercise. And they can accompany me in the petstore some time, having a nice lap time with me. And when it's time to close the petstore, they'll come home with me too. I won't leave them there alone in the petstore.

Oh yeah, and I would only sell acceptable-good range of pet food and accessories, and make notes in every shelves of products explaining why is it acceptable, and why this is categorized as a good product. And I would make a list about any products that I do not sell and why. Example : Vitakraft Menu for Guinea Pigs > contains seeds that's not good for guinea pig. I'll make brochures about proper treatment of each pets as a guide. Perhaps it would be all about proper cages, proper food, proper daily treatment, diseases and the treatments, and of course there should be a "why adopt is better than buy pets" in every brochures.

Personally, I think my idea would be great to open a petstore (at least until now). But I also need some comments and critics if there's something that I missed or something bad about this idea that I don't realize yet. So it would be a great if you give one...

Thanks for reading. :)
 

Hhbean

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I would make sure you list it as a pet supplies store so customers wouldn't get confused. Why not sell rescue animals to good homes? I love your idea about educating your customers!
 

lissie

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You can work as a rescue that sells supplies. Take in homeless pets and adopt them out to good homes.
 

fridzalone

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Hhbean, in Indonesia no one use pet supplies store. Even if it's pet supplies store, we call it petstore or petshop.So it won't make any difference at all. But I would make sure to put "support animal welfare" sign anywhere around the store's sign.

And actually I do want to make an animal rescue too one day, but I don't want it to be in the bussiness area. If one day I have animal rescue, it would be completely separated from the pet store. The petstore would support the animal rescue by giving money or supplies, but that's the only connection. By differentiating it from pet store, it would be easier for me to make sure all the money that I get from animal rescue would completely goes to animal rescue and not split with the petstore incomes.


Lissie, I'm not sure if having a rescue that sells supplies would be better or not. But open a petstore is something for personal profit and open a rescue is something that all the profit would go to the rescue only. So pet store is something that I would do to support my life, and rescue is to support homeless animals.


Anyway, thanks for the suggestion
 
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SweetiePig

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This is my dream too! For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to open my own pet store! I have volunteered at them growing up and always loved going in them. I owned tons of animals and I have learned so much that Im pretty animal savvy but of course, knowledge is endless! And yes, I want animals in it too!! I didnt want to just throw them in a little cage or tank though, I wanted to have the best possible set up for each kind of animal so people could see how they are supposed to live and be cared for! I LOVE the idea of taking in pets that needs home and adopting them out of the pet store! That would be awesome! I think your dream is awesome and I say you should follow it!
 

lissie

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This is one of my most favorite pet store. They don't sell animals but do have them in the store sometimes since they host adoption events for rescues in the area.
Pet Food Express: Who We Are
 

logansmomma1228

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I don't have time to read through this whole thread but you read my mind! I am actually in school for Busniess Administration and that is one of my goals as well. Getting my guinea pig is what made me decide that I wanted to it in the first place. I would sell all the things that are really needed for the right life for the pets, instead of making people go all over the place to get the right supplies.

I also want to inform people of proper pet welfare, and what I want to do is merge a rescue with my store and allow people to adopt from there, provided they go through the application phase and whatnot. The rescue and adoption fees would be non profit.

I am in the process of creating an ecommerce store right now for a class, maybe we can collaborate! :)
 

Nikkipig

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Just make sure that clueless owners don't decide they want a pet and go buy it from another store. Promote rescuing and let them know about it.
Besides that, I think it sounds great :)
 

Hhbean

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I admire all of you and wish you all the best! I asked all my neices and nephew to consider becomeing Vets so then I can have free pet care when I'm able to adopt more piggies.
 

CavySpirit

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This single, local store is a world-class example of how to do it right and do it well:

Home (For Other Living Things in Sunnyvale, CA)

They don't 'sell' animals in their store, but have rescues come in at various times, I believe.

Personally, if you want to actually BE a rescue and do real adoptions and pet education yourself in your store at the same time, then it's totally possible, you just need another source of income, because you definitely won't be making any money from your store. That's the way it is, business-wise.
 

Squint96

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This is exactly what I want to do too! I want to open a pet supply store, but also have local shelter animals on display in healthy, large cages. And I would only sell the top brands of food and things like that. I figured I could sell coroplast and cubes and things like that too so that people could see how great they are. All guinea pigs and other small animals would have C&C cages and the cats and dogs and other animals wold have large pens, I think that when people se how happy the animals are in large cages they will want to get one too! Plus I will be able to bring in my own pets to work everyday. I think I will also do grooming and maybe veterinary later, but I think that having resuce animals instead of selling pets is great!
 

fridzalone

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Wow, thank you so much for the support everyone...
Believe me, I'm smiling now seeing so many people positively respond my idea.
And wish me luck so I would get a chance to start my business as soon as I can.

@logansmomma1228 : I really wish you were here so we can join this business...
@lissie & @CavySpirit : thanks for the links, really helps me

By the way, I have another question. In those kinds of pet supplies stores that also do pet adoptions and rescue, do they also do surveys of the adoption applicants? Or do they just giving information about animals that open for adoption?
 

cryssa

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I also have a little advice for you. I think it would be kind of stressfull for your piggies to spend the day at the store and the night at your house(of course it depends on the piggy too, my first piggy loved when i took him out while the second really hated it he was sooo scared)
So instead of showing your pets I think you could bring abandoned/neglected piggies, get them better and try to find good parents for them. Maybe even have someone to spend the night there(make it nonstop) so they wouldn't get stressed because of permanent moving.
You could also sell some meds(not to encourage avoiding the vet!) but for example if the piggies fight, something to clean the wound or vitamin c or stuff that you need to use before going to the vet.
In Romania we encourage people to have a kit that contains some medicine(for diahrea, for the tummy, to clean wounds, to clean the eyes/nose and so on) because if he/she gets sick in the middle of the night you can rarely find a doctor.
 

Pretty Piggies

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That's an awsome dream! I agree, you should have have some piggies in the store from rescue places. Man,I wish there was something like that in Texas!
 
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