NIU

pet supplies

Posted by Stacy on Friday, June 06, 2008 7:42 PM

I am home for the summer now and I learned today that my parents have changed the way the run the family business. We run a little pet store in our hometown and we have always done our business totally locally. Ever since my dad started the shop about fifteen years ago we have not given in to any of the changes that we've seen in the business world. That has all changed this year though since business has not been doing as well usual. The problem is all a part of the much bigger economic things going on in the country. We have typically done things in a way where we find local farmers and producers to help us make pet supplies and to help breed the pets that are sold at the store. Unfortunately this has become much too difficult and almost impossible to profit from.

What my parents have done now is to gradually, over the course of the last semester, transition over to buying and selling pet supplies over the internet. They still maintain the shop but they no longer sell only local products. When I walked in all of the shelves were stocked up with high gloss labels and intricate packaging. They hadn't told me because they knew I would be a little bit disappointed. I am going to college now for sustainable community development and these are the kinds of situations that I want to design for. I have a vision of the world as a place where we can all function in this larger community as a vast web of small, sustainable, communities. When I saw the new packaging in the shop I was a little bit stunned. I didn't ever gte to a point of anger though because I know where they are coming from. I don't think that anyone is really to blame for the loss of community business but I think that not enough people try to combat it. I am happy that they have transformed the business in a way that will allow it to survive but I guess a local pet supplies business needs to be global to make a profit.