Pet shop closed for the holiday period?

Pet shop closed ? Does your local pet shop close over the holiday period? Many small independent pet shop businesses close over Christmas and new year, just at the time when their customers need them most.

pet shop gloucester

We are closed for Christmas day and most of Boxing day and most of New Years day (see my blog for exceptions). I work seven days a week and these are my only three days off a year. However I make sure that we are available through our online pet shop during these periods and that we are open on every other day of the holidays.

A lot of small pet shop owners complain about the challenges facing their business in the modern world then refuse to take the steps necessary to protect their pet shop from those challenges. They complain about big chains being open longer but won’t open seven days a week or on bank holidays or over the Christmas period. They complain about online pet supermarkets; faceless, uncaring giants that do not know anything about their products (all valid commentary) but then fail to invest in an online pet shop presence to compete with them(and in fact compete very well as they would be able to offer the help, advice, additional services and customer service the big pet shop companies and warehouses cannot).

Well we are a different sort of independant pet shop. We open when we are needed, we have an excellent online pet shop, we have an active Facebook page to interact with customers that can’t make it into the shop and we deliver free to our local community, offer nail clipping for small animals for only £1 with a free health check, free water testing (by someone who lectured on water quality on a diploma course not some little Saturday person who doesn’t know one piece of very soft anatomy from a bonier bit), offer micro chipping and lots of free advice. We support our local community with school talks and community events, charity prizes and free advertising of charity events.

Over the past few years (we have been open over 4 years now and we opened in the very depths of the recession too) we have seen independent pet shops close all over the country in the face of growing competition from pet superstores etc. (you know the ones) that should not be able to hold a candle to the small independent pet shop (and in reality everyone knows they can’t), and online warehouses. In all case, including that of friends of ours, none of them have taken up the challenge and put things in place to protect their business.

How many had an active Facebook page (so often, when I’ve talked to business owners they said things like “I don’t see the point” or have bothered to find out how to use it properly)? How many had an online pet shop or anything more than just a one page site with the business name and address on it. I was going to say better than nothing but not really. If it is not an actively updated page it may as well not exist, it won’t come up in any searches (unless someone was searching for that specific business name). How many still didn’t open on Sundays and bank holidays? How many closed at 5pm so anyone on their way home from work couldn’t just pop in and get their supplies? How many didn’t do free deliveries from their pet shop to their local community and so missed out on all those customers that just couldn’t make it in when the shop was open or found the shop just that little too far to travel?

Again our pet shop is different. That is why, to use terms you hear on the business slot on breakfast TV every day, our total sales and market share have continued to grow ever since we opened and with the launch of our online store, backed up with the knowledge of our staff on the products we sell, continues to grow almost daily.

So thank you to our regular pet shop customers who remain incredibly loyal, welcome to our new customers, online, on Facebook, on the telephone or on foot and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year if we don’t see you in our open pet shop between now and then. We have ordered in extra stock of all the best selling products to cope with the normal rush from customers who usually go elsewhere but can’t because they are closed or have run out.

Have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year everyone.

The Angell Pets Team

Angell Pets Christmas Opening Times

Angell Pets is OPEN over the Christmas and New Year holiday period. We close for only three days a year. Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. We are OPEN every other day of the year.

Angell Pets co

Angell Pets Christmas opening times are as follows:-

Christmas Eve – 9am – 6pm

Christmas Day – CLOSED

Boxing Day – CLOSED (I will be at the shop for one hour from 11am to 12 noon feeding the animals if you are really stuck)

Friday 27th December – 10am – 4pm

Saturday 28th December – 9am – 6pm

Sunday 29th December – 10am – 4pm

Monday 30th December – 9am – 6pm

Tuesday 31st December – 9am – 6pm

New Years Day – CLOSED (again I will be in for an hour at 11am to feed the animals)

Thursday 2nd January – back to normal hours (9am to 6pm Mon – Sat, 10am to 4pm Sunday).

Any online orders will be picked and packed as normal but will be subject to Parcel Force’s own Christmas shutdown. Any Angell Pets online orders for FREE local delivery will be picked and delivered on days (evenings) when we are OPEN.

We will be delivering FREE to GL1, GL2, GL3 and GL4 post codes right up to Christmas Eve. So if you forget some one or need a last minute present or bag of dog food, order online or give Angell Pets a call to place your order and get it delivered FREE.

Angell Pet December discounts

Angell Pet wholesaler discounts new for December. Best Pets have issued their fantastic discounts for December. A host of excellent deals on some of the most popular brands.

angell pet shop gloucester

best pets december 2013

In this months wholesalers discounts are:-

King British goldfish food 55g. Normal price £3.79 – Angell Pet price now only £2.49

Kagesan sanded sheets blue 6’s and red 5’s. Normal price £1.55 – our price now only 99p

Whiskas tasty textures pouches (12x85g). Normal price £4.49 – Angell Pet price now only £3

Catit play circus. Normal price £13.69 – Angell Pet price now only £7.99

Eukanuba adult large breed 15kg. Normal price £52.99 – Angell Pet price now only £36.99

Wagg training treats. Normal price £1.00 – our price now 3 for the price of 2

Iams cat chicken 3kg. Normal price £16.49 – Angell Pet price now only £8.99

Applaws dog multi pack tins (5x156g). Normal price £7.79 – Angell Pet price now only £5.49

Best Pets premium wild bird food 2kg. Normal price £2.99 – Angell Pet price now buy one get one FREE

Go Cat adult cat 10kg. Normal price £24.60 – our price now only £16.49

Selective rabbit and guinea pig foods 3kg. Normal price £7.99 – Angell Pets price now buy one get one Cosi N Dry 8Lbedding FREE

Whiskas dry complete cat food 2kg. Normal price £6.32 – our  price now only £3.99

Smart Y Ball illuminating ball. Normal price £5.99 – Angell Pet price now only £3.49

Hills Science Plan feline adult cat 400g. Normal price £3.65 – Angell Pet price now buy 2 for £5

Add to this our FREE Angell Pet local delivery service and hundreds of Angell Pet web discounted items. See us instore on online to grab a bargain.

Angell Pets October offers.

Offers this month again include some supermarket brands like Bakers and Pedigree at below supermarket prices. There are also some decent brands amongst the offers as well, such as Burns original at £19.99 for 7.5kg, Hills hairball at £9.99 for 1.5kg etc.

Click on the link to have a look at some of what’s on offer this month. More discounts to follow in our webstore.

Best pets October

Grab you offers whilst you can as they do sell through rapidly.

Regards

 

The Angell Pets Team

Online pet store launched today

Online pet store for all your pet supply needs with a company you can trust.

We have been working on providing an online pet store service for our customers who live too far away to make it into our store but still want to use a pet shop with a reputation for caring for our customers animals. The site was launched today.

online pet store

 

Orders generated from our online pet store will be received in our Gloucester pet shop and picked and packed by our experienced staff from our shop stock (not from a warehouse by a nameless picker on minumum wage with no interest in your order). Orders will then be dispatched the next morning by one of our couriers.

The online pet store site is new and still needs alot of tinkering, more photos, some technical changes to the price displays etc. but it is now live and reporting to our shop system. Some stuff might move around the site as these changes are put in place but the main structure is there.

One thing you will quickly notice is that livestock can’t be purchased with a “click” of the mouse from our online pet store. We strongly believe that buying an animal needs a proper dialogue between the seller and the buyer. If you select livestock you will be directed to call us to discuss the sale. The on line pet store site will however let you know just what we have in stock and some of what we can get.

Our range is large and getting larger every day. My next task is to get all of the stock in the shop on the online pet store site. All of our main sellers are there but we have a lot of other stock that we order less frequently still to be put on, so if you can’t find what you want this week, check back as it may just suddenly appear. Of course you can always give us a ring and we can get in what you need (if we don’t already have it).

We pride ourselves that we stock all the good big brands and a lot of smaller brands that you may not see elsewhere. You may find us light on some of the  “supermarket brands” on our online pet store. This is because we stock products that offer quality at good prices. Low quality products that in many cases do not suit the animal are not what we are about. We do have a couple of the obvious ones but that’s just so we can ask the customer that comes in why they are using such a product and then help them find a better, often cheaper alternative.

So have a look round, contact us if you need clarification on a product before buying and enjoy our new online pet store.

 

The Angell Pets Team

Why we joined the Pet Retail Association (part of the Pet Industry Federation)

When we first started out Angell Pets I had a picture in my head (trying to avoid the management jargon “vision” here) of what i wanted the business to look like. I summed it up on the homepage of this site. I looked around for a professional association that shared the same aims and landed on the Pet Care Trust, who even had a very similar tag line of “promoting responsible pet ownership” (ours being “promoting responsible and ethical pet ownership”). This organisation also offered excellent training courses that suited our business exactly. Some of the courses staff have under taken with the federation include “Pet Store Management” and “First aid for animals”.

Since then the Pet Care Trust has changed name to the Pet Care Trading Association (keeping the Pet Care Trust as their charitable arm) and more recently to the Pet Industry Federation (still funding and administering the Pet Care Trust). Within the federation are a number of trade associations, the Pet Retail Association being the one appropriate to our busniness. Throughout they have remained active in representing the trade in all areas (regulation, government consultation, legal representation, standardisation, training, care advice, publications etc. ) and have now produced a charter that all members must adhere to. They have also recently been instrumental in producing enhanced model licence conditions for local authorities to apply when reviewing what are now stringent licences.

Pet shop gloucester

 

 

I am please to say that this charter matches exactly with what we at Angell Pets have been trying to do over the past four years and will continue to do in the future. The charter is attached here and is on view in the shop. Have a look and ask yourself  “Would I be comfortable buying an animal from someone that DIDN’T aspire to these standards?” Look for the federation and association logos before you buy. There is an awful lot going on behind the scenes to ensure they mean you can buy with confidence and a clear concience (can you do that if you buy on Facebook or a forum from someone you know nothing about?)

Pet shop Gloucester PRA logo

Pet shop Gloucester July offers

Pet shop Gloucester summer offers in store now. Pop in to our pet shop Gloucester to get one of these fantastic bargains, many at below supermarket prices.

Pet shop Gloucester offers July 2013

pet shop gloucesterKeep up to date with all our offers and register on our pet shop Gloucester email list and get an extra 10% discount.

The Angell Pets Team