As many of you know I work for a pet product distributor. Oddly enough, I've been getting alot of unknowledgable new clientelle. Why?...we distribute Nestle Purina. Purina, being the most well known brand of dog food, attracts those people that think it would be cool and easy to open a pet store, that they'll make lots of money playing with puppies. But they do absolutly no research. They call us, to supply them with Purina, because that's all they know. Some of them honeslty do not know that there is other dog fooda out there besides Purina, Iams, and Ol'Roy. Why would you even think of opening a business if you were not an expert on that industry? Beats me...[&:] But I end up spending too much time trying to help them be successful, which isn't my job. After all they went into the business without doing research.
Anyways, it is impossible for the small guys to compete with Wal-marts and Pet Smarts pricing on Purina One and Pro Plan and Dog Chow and Friskies because they aren't buying $25,000 + of Purina a week. I try to talk them out of making their business selling Purina, but alot of these people have never heard of anything else. Then they don't understand why they aren't making money.
Really...I had a client today that wants to open a pet store in
2 weeks in a great area, but she never heard of Royal Canin, Eagle Pack, Canidae. She didn't know how to read an ingredient list. Infact, she didn't know dog food had an ingredient list. She wanted dog vitamins, but didn't know what Glucosamine was. It was apparent she did no research. She wasn't familair with pet industry trends, just what she saw on television. Not a great way to start a dog boutique, when there is a Wal Mart in town. Should I also mention that she had 4 kids under 10 and she wanted to run her own pet store[8|]
I need someone to send me a "Layman's term" nutrition site. So I can send it to these people.