Indies Can’t Beat Chewy On Price. They Can Beat It On Education.

Editor’s note: Each month, we ask members of the PETS+ Brain Squad — our survey group of 1,100+ independent pet retailers and service providers — to share their thoughts on the pet industry. These “letters to the editor” are plentiful! We print as many as will fit in each issue’s Inbox, and even more run here on petsplusmag.com — like with this latest installment of From the PETS+ Inbox.

Victor Santucci of Garden State Pet Center in Audubon, NJ, had this to say about the future of independent pet:

“One topic I would love to see the industry continue discussing is the changing role of the independent pet retailer. We are competing in a marketplace where customers can have almost anything delivered to their door, often without ever speaking to another person. If independent stores try to compete with Chewy, Amazon or the big-box retailers solely on price and convenience, I think we are fighting the wrong battle.

“Our greatest advantage is education. Customers are increasingly interested in fresh, raw, freeze-dried, gently cooked and functional nutrition, but many are overwhelmed by the choices. They hear about probiotics, mushrooms, goat’s milk, bone broth, rotational feeding, limited-ingredient diets and dozens of other concepts online, often with conflicting information. That creates an enormous opportunity for knowledgeable independent retailers.

“Instead of simply selling someone a bag of food, we should be helping them understand why they might choose one product over another and how different foods can work together. One of the biggest changes we have made in our store is encouraging customers to think beyond feeding exclusively from one bag. Adding even a portion of fresh, raw, freeze-dried or gently cooked food can introduce variety and moisture while allowing customers to stay within their budgets.

“I also think independents need to be careful about assuming premium automatically means expensive. There are customers walking into grocery and big-box stores every day paying surprisingly high prices for heavily marketed foods. When we compare actual feeding costs, sometimes a higher-quality independent-pet product is much closer in price than the customer expects, particularly when the recommended feeding amount is lower. We need to become better at communicating value rather than simply discussing the price of the bag.

“The same opportunity exists outside of dogs and cats. Birds, reptiles and small mammals remain underserved in many parts of pet retail. These customers are often extremely passionate about their animals and desperately looking for reliable information, quality nutrition and retailers who understand their needs.

“I believe the independent pet store of the future needs to become less like a traditional retail store and more like a neighborhood pet wellness and education center. Products will always matter, but knowledge, relationships and trust are things an online shopping cart cannot easily replace. If we can own those three things, I believe independent pet retail has a very strong future.”