Local Pet

Frankly, there ain't much in the way of expendable income during these days but we did dig deep enough into the coffer to make a small donation to The Black Mental Health Fund operated by Steel Smiling. Among other assistance, they provide free mental and emotional support programs to Pittsburgh's black community. My wife happens to be a psychologist and she helped steer me to this organization. She knows the founder and she told me about the good work that he does.

I've been working in pet stores since I was twenty years old. That's about 30 years of accumulating knowledge but, in all that time, no one has ever taught me how to reopen a store to public browsing during a global pandemic. I think I've come up with a game plan that exists in the middle of the Venn diagram between providing access to customers while keeping us all as safe as possible. I've spent a lot of the long weekend reorganizing the front room to include many of our mo...st popular products: lots of treats, toys and chews. The plan is to streamline your shopping experience and keep the items that you want at hands reach while minimizing the space that needs to be constantly disinfected. Of course, the dog and cat food won't fit down here but Ryan and I are happy to run back and grab whatever you need. Some other items; leashes, collars, supplements and cat stuff primarily, are still in the back room as well. We're certainly not going to stop anyone from going up the stairs to browse but please be aware: since we have crammed so much merchandise up front, the shelves in the rear don't look as overflowing as usual. Starting June 1, we are also extending our hours. 10:30am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday and 11am-3pm on Saturdays. Frankly, we're still figuring out what this is going to look and feel like and we truly appreciate all of your patience and support. WE STILL LOVE CURBSIDE PICK UP. If you prefer to handle things that way, we're more than happy to oblige. Lastly, the standard rules apply here too: masks are mandatory, we will have to implement some control of customer flow since it is a tight squeeze upfront so one or two customers at a time. Ryan and I both take all this very seriously, so we will be keeping things ship-shape regarding cleaning and disinfecting. Thanks again. Local Pet customers are the best around. Cheers.

Update-wise, Ryan and I have been doing lots of cleaning and restocking to get Local Pet back to ship shape. We wanted to be open for browsing by now but it's proved to require a little extra hustle. During quarantine, we really has to focus on dog and cat food since lots of customers had stocked up. Now, we're getting in some big orders of toys and treats and small animal items like bedding, hay and foods. We're still open for business but for another couple of days, it's still curbside service. Thanks for all your support, I'll have more details soon.

Hi. It's Wednesday, May 13. Local Pet is going to be closed today due to some staffing issues. We will return to our new schedule (11-4pm, Monday through Friday) tomorrow. We are looking forward to moving back to a more traditional shopping experience soon with customers permitted to enter and browse. Ryan and I are still hammering out how it's going to work and I will create a new post as soon as we nail down the details. Thanks for all your help so far.

This is just a reminder that we're still here at Local Pet. You can't come in but we do offer a pretty efficient curbside pickup service. Also, Ryan or I disinfect every bit of merchandise that comes in the door. In addition, we frequently disinfect the surfaces throughout the store. When you're ready, just give a call or Facebook message, email, use whatever communication channel you like and we'll get your pet supplies prepped and ready to go. Good luck everybody.