Quoted – Pet Age Retailers Report 2009-2010 – Pet Age Magazine

Pet retailing certainly has
withstood the recession better than
auto manufacturing and home building.
“People have not stopped buying things
for their pets,” said Dr. Scott Testa,
assistant professor of business at Cabrini
College (Philadelphia). “What they’ve
done, because of the recession, is change
the way they buy things for their pets.”

But as impressive as these two categories
were, the real star in 2008 was ancillary
services. In 2007, services accounted
for 11 percent of gross dollar volume. In
2008, that total almost doubled. The top
services in 2008 were grooming, boarding
and delivery, in that order. All told, 62
percent of respondents said they offered
some kind of ancillary service in 2008,
versus 60 percent in 2007.
Pet retailers say services will continue
to play an increasingly important role in
how they run their businesses. That makes
sense to experts like Testa: “Services are
becoming a point of differentiation, of
uniqueness. When you can’t compete on
price with the national retailers, you have
to find something to offer that they don’t.
And services do that. Target and Wal-
Mart aren’t going to be able to offer the
same kinds of services that independent
retailers can offer.”

http://www.petage.com/pdf/0910retreport.pdf

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