We have three petshops close to where I live, none of them having a very good selection on things for little animals, despite two of the shops selling small animals. (and surprisingly, the one shop that does not sell animals is the one most willing to order new things in for me!)
Now it has always been a dream of mine to be self employed and run my own shop. Obviously this is far far in the future yet as I need to put lotsa money into my piggybank first, but still. I think most petshop owners arent fanatic about the animals they sell, which is why they do not know about all the different houses and treats and feeds available, so I think that a shop actually stocking a variety of grassy hutches, treats from pampered piggies, gorgeous guines stuff, cuddle cups, and actual GUINEA sized houses (cmon, most houses sold as piggy houses only fit newborn ones!) would have a big advantage over the other ordinary shops.
Big problem: Shops that do not sell live animals are unattractive to customers. Even my husband says he prefers the shops where he can go and have a look at animals (a bit like a miniature zoo free of entry charge I suppose), to the ones that just stock food and housing. Now we had a talk about this yesterday and I wondered if I actually came up with a good idea here.
If a shop was to foster rescue piggies (RSPCA etc), and have them "on display" so to say, customers could have a look at the animals while they are shopping just like in any other shop. However there would be no impulse buying as a person being interested in an animal would have to go through the normal rescue procedures of homecheck etc.
The rescue piggies would probably have a better chance of being rehomed to a nice home as people are more likely to wander into a petshop and fall in love with a piggy than browsing through websites to find a suitable addition to their tribe.
What do you think? And do you think most rescues would be willing to put their animals into a fosterhome that is a petshop?
Now it has always been a dream of mine to be self employed and run my own shop. Obviously this is far far in the future yet as I need to put lotsa money into my piggybank first, but still. I think most petshop owners arent fanatic about the animals they sell, which is why they do not know about all the different houses and treats and feeds available, so I think that a shop actually stocking a variety of grassy hutches, treats from pampered piggies, gorgeous guines stuff, cuddle cups, and actual GUINEA sized houses (cmon, most houses sold as piggy houses only fit newborn ones!) would have a big advantage over the other ordinary shops.
Big problem: Shops that do not sell live animals are unattractive to customers. Even my husband says he prefers the shops where he can go and have a look at animals (a bit like a miniature zoo free of entry charge I suppose), to the ones that just stock food and housing. Now we had a talk about this yesterday and I wondered if I actually came up with a good idea here.
If a shop was to foster rescue piggies (RSPCA etc), and have them "on display" so to say, customers could have a look at the animals while they are shopping just like in any other shop. However there would be no impulse buying as a person being interested in an animal would have to go through the normal rescue procedures of homecheck etc.
The rescue piggies would probably have a better chance of being rehomed to a nice home as people are more likely to wander into a petshop and fall in love with a piggy than browsing through websites to find a suitable addition to their tribe.
What do you think? And do you think most rescues would be willing to put their animals into a fosterhome that is a petshop?
