Business
New pet store offers more customer convenience
By Elyse Reel
Aug 27, 2008 - 10:16:38 AM

PETCO's team of 20 includes, from left, Lindsay Wood, Jeff Jones, and Benjamin Robin, sales associate; Rachel Schmidt, manager; Tracie Johnson, pet stylist, and Amy Koven, grooming manager.

Most pet owners agree: they’ll go (literally) the extra mile for their pets. But now, Chester pet owners don’t have to. With the opening of a PETCO location in the Bermuda Square Shopping Center, locals can stop in and pick up whatever they need for their pets.

The full-service pet store, which took over the 12,000-square-foot area vacated by Rite Aid, opened on Monday, August 18 with 20 employees on staff; but the company had begun work long before that.

“This location has been in the works for about a year,” says Rachel Schmidt, manager of the Chester PETCO. “We knew we wanted to put a location here, but it just took time. We began renovating two months ago, and moved everything in in about two weeks’ time.”

Along with standard pet items – food, treats, collars and leashes, cages, toys, aquariums, carriers, and many others – and some pets, like reptiles, birds, fish, and guinea pigs, PETCO offers a number of services for pet owners. “We have full-service grooming,” Schmidt says. “Amy Koven, our local grooming manager, has 12 years of experience with that. We also have canine education training, which starts in September.” Free dog training seminars are also in the works; the next, to be held on August 29, will cover puppy socialization.

Other areas of the store include an adoption section, where adoption agencies will offer cats and dogs every other week; and a natural foods section for brands like Castor & Pollux, Solid Gold, and Nature’s Best.

“We love it out here,” says Schmidt. “We’re really excited to be here, and the customers are excited that we’re here.”

Those who haven’t yet experienced PETCO’s newest location might want to wait until August 29 and 30, when PETCO will be holding a grand opening celebration. The celebration will include adoptions for dogs and cats, a hamster derby for the kids, pet-and-owner lookalike, loudest bark, and coloring contests; and pet photography.

However, some customers already have visited PETCO, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Notes Flynn Cowling, a customer from Petersburg, “This is very convenient when we’re in this area, and it’s a beautiful store. They’ve done a great job.”

Gail Davidson, a Centralia resident, adds, “I love the newness of it. It’s very clean and convenient – very nice.”

“It’s a friendly atmosphere,” Schmidt says. “PETCO is very much an interactive experience for the customers. Everyone here is an animal person, too, and animal people understand both pets and the needs of their owners. And this is a fresh atmosphere, too – it doesn’t look like other pet stores, and it’s a new experience.”

But there’s one thing that may be the biggest draw for customers: the location. “Our other area PETCOs are set so far apart from one another – we have one location on Hull Street Rd. and one in Short Pump – that we wanted to have one closer,” Schmidt says. “We really wanted to make it easier for the customers.”

PETCO is located at 12633 Jefferson Davis Hwy. and is open Mondays through Saturdays from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. For more information, call 706-1850.

ereel@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421


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