For the final installment of our holiday shopping series, we stopped into Pet Pantry Warehouse at 21 Grove St. and talked to Sara Roman, an assistant manager with the family-owned and -operated company.
Sara Roman: “The ‘Pupsicles’ here are a little bit newer. They’ve only been in the store for about a year-and-a-half. They’re an occupying kind of toy where it’s meant to keep your dog occupied for long periods of time and to help relax them. They have different kinds of treats that go on the inside that can be just normal treats and then have additional benefits like hip and joint and like multivitamin. It’s a good thing. If your dog doesn’t have a lot of teeth they can lick instead of chew. So it works with senior dogs pretty well.” Priced $20 to $30 depending on size.” Photo credit: Michael Dinan
Here’s our interview.
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New Canaanite: How is this holiday shopping season going for you here?
Sara Roman: Overall, we’re good, busy as usual. This location’s really big in the community, so a lot of people know this store. They come here on a regular basis. It’s a very welcoming place because we work with pets, so it’s fun.
Sara Roman: “St. Rocco’s Treats are from two guys in Pennsylvania, so it’s a small company. They run everything, and it’s a simple jerky that’s very no-nonsense. So it’s easy for dogs that tend to have digestion issues. And I haven’t seen a dog turn away any of them yet. Even their fish flavors are essentially single-ingredient. There’s one or two in there, and then there’s nothing else. So it’s really good for those allergy dogs. And you can shove the treats in toys and stuff like that, very malleable.” Priced at $13.99 to $28 depending on the size of the bag. Photo credit: Michael Dinan
And what are some of the things that people come in looking for?
It’s always chews to occupy them so that way they’re not hounding around the table during meal time. And usually just fun little gifts because we don’t want to forget our furry friends during the holiday season. Both cats and dogs—even though it’d be a little more fun if we had more cat stuff. But that’s the main stuff.
Sara Roman: “These are Bowsers Pet Products, there’s the Luxury Blanket Topper and different kinds of bed styles. All of these are from the same company. Bowsers is Canadian. It’s a really high quality bed brand. It is more on the more expensive side, but I like to call them ‘lifetime beds.’ As long as you don’t have a destroyer of beds they’re super easy to clean. They have zippers to be able to take off cases and separate everything. And they really hold up the test of time. I’ve known people that have had the same bed for years, an adult’s entire lifetime. And they have a lot of different styles too, from crazy to calm.” Priced from about $80 to $250 depending on the bed size. Photo credit: Michael Dinan
How does Pet Pantry differentiate itself within the world of pet supply stores?
Pet Pantry is heavily community-based. We’ve been around for over 75 years. We started in the Greenwich location, then broadened from there. Because we’re so community focused, I would say that definitely makes us different from the big box stores and that we can work one-on-one with customers for getting products that they might want and you have a little bit more of a custom experience that’s perfect from person to person.