Cats are a home’s visible soul:
I love cats because I love my home and after a while they become its visible soul.
– Jean Cocteau
This is true, cats add a sense of warmth and friendliness to a home. Nowadays many pet stores are large facilities with acres of space. There are pets for sale such as hamsters and rabbits etc., tons of food and toys piled high in a cavernous space. They are functional, efficient warehouses without a soul.
All you have to do is add a cat from a local shelter to add the missing ingredient. Assign an employee from each shift to take care of the cat. Voilà, you have a functional facility that has character and warmth. Cats sell products. People who go to pet stores are interested in animals. A cat who has made a pet store his home is an attraction for customers. He is a topic of conversation and when a customer converses with a sales assistant a connection is made between customer and business. Good for sales and so is the fact that a big business is caring for a cat. This is an excellent promotion. It shows the business cares about animals.
On the basis that there are about 15,000 pet stores in the USA, if every store adopted a cat it would mean that 15,000 unwanted cats were then wanted and useful as well.
It is all but impossible to to find out how many pet stores there are in the USA. I am not sure that my figure is correct. However, the two top businesses: Petsmart and Petco between then have getting on for about 2,500 stores between them.
In the UK the pet stores that look somewhat like the US stores are Pets at Home. They are warehouse facilities. Graham is a wandering ginger and white cat who likes to visit the Pets at Home store in Lincolnshire everyday starting 6 am. He waits to be let in.
At first, I am sure the management were reluctant to let him in but now their spokesperson says:
“I don’t know what I’d would do without him now”.
Sales are up. He likes meeting customers, looking at the fish, diving into the toys section and generally having a good time. Customers are having a good time too.
It does not matter if the management like cats or not. Just make a decision on business grounds. There are benefits for the staff too. Employees at pet stores must like companion animals and some will like cats and enjoy looking after a cat. It could be built into their duties.
Think of the great publicity if Petsmart announced that they were going to install one cat per store. Someone will now tell me that it is illegal to do that in the USA under some remote health and safety legislation. I hope not. It’s a nice idea.
No. 10 Downing Street, the office of the UK’s Prime Minister has a resident cat. Many bookshops have a resident cat. Some warehouse have resident cats. It is not an exceptional idea.
Graham is gorgeous and Pets at Home are real good guys about animal charities yes maybe it gets them more customers but there’s nothing wrong what that as they deserve to.
I don’t think there is any law prohibiting resident cats at Petsmart. Pet owners are allowed to bring their pets inside as long as they are healthy, vaccinated, and well-behaved.
They may have their own policy, though, not allowing it. I don’t like some of the company policies. The one I don’t like the most is that they throw away damaged pet food (like dented cans or broken bags) instead of donating them to shelters or offering them at discount to customers. They say that their contract with pet food manufacturers specify this. Such a waste…
The cats and dogs up for adoption are from rescue groups and are kept caged.
Graham is very handsome.
Thanks Dee. I have a feeling that these corporations are run by men in grey suits. Not the most cat or animal friendly type of person. Yes the customers are animal friendly. I like to see lateral thinking. Expansive thinking. Risks taken. Then we can get out of the rut. The rut is not a very comfortable one except for the bosses of big corporations.
What a feel good story! Graham is such a handsome boy and it’s lovely that he is made so welcome in that store, I love going into Pet Shops with resident cats or visiting celebrity cats like Dylan of Ark on the Edge.
Pets at Home are a wonderful firm for helping cat charities, our local ones have hosted our Cats Protection branch, The Ark on the Edge and Kays Hill recently, enabling them to raise much needed funds for their overflowing unwanted cats in care.
I do too. If I knew there was a resident cat at the Pets at Home in New Malden, not that far from here, I would be more inclined to go there for cat provisions. But alas, it is quite rare. It is too unpredictable, perhaps, for businesses to have a resident cat or the people who run these businesses don’t see the advantages.
Funny. Just like you are selling your website to get money from cats, be it from exploiting stories about their suffering or not. Too funny. Penultimate hypocrisy reigns supreme in the world of cat-lovers.
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” – Winston Churchill
Hi Woody, I haven’t faintest idea what you are prattling on about. I am simply suggesting a way for pet stores to increase sales while simultaneously saving some unwanted cats. You’re a stupid, useless troll immersed in negativity and a worthless pastime. Sad.
Woody you have totally lost the plot now and are making an utter fool of yourself writing your rubbish.
I think you have no right to quote Winston Churchill as he was more of a man than you will ever be even if you live one hundred years.
Ruth, I am convinced he is a sad little weed sitting in a bedroom in his parent’ house in a suburb somewhere in America. He has no work and likes to troll just for the hell of it. Pathetic. I actually feel sorry for him.
Woody you are pathetic and never make any sense with your ridiculous rantings which no one takes any notice of so you are wasting your time but you can’t seem to realise that.