Healthy Spot, a pet food and care store with eight Southern California locations, has come to Manhattan Beach.
According to marketing manager Nick Batcheller, the new location, continues to support the small chain’s philosophy that pets are family, providing a wide range of organic, healthy food and treat options, eco-friendly and safe toys, grooming, and small dog day-care services. Healthy Spot is also devoted to supporting humane animal treatment overall.
“The first Healthy Spot was founded after the massive pet food recalls that occurred back in 2007,” Batcheller said, referring to contaminated pet foods that the FDA learned were sickening and killing dogs and cats.
“The founders of Healthy Spot, Mark Boonark and Andrew Kim, were looking for food options for their pets that they could trust. They found out that even well-known brands had ingredients that were often sourced through co-packers who could potentially use inferior ingredients. They also found there were tons of great brands out there that were not as widely known, smaller companies that people were simply not aware of although they offered healthy choices.”
Based on that discovery, Boonark and Kim started Healthy Spot as a convenient place for getting healthy pet food.
“We were founded to provide pet owners with the highest quality of food and treats available. Our owners set up a series of guidelines, a strict selection process, criteria that food and treat provides had to fulfill before Healthy Spot would bring in a particular brand. For one thing, it is required that vendors have complete transparency as to the ethical sourcing of food, and their company culture,” Batcheller said, noting that this is also true for their supply of treats and toys.
As for the food itself, the store carries items ranging from traditional, healthy and organic dry kibble to raw alternatives.
“Raw diet foods are something we consider to be both an ancestral and healthy diet for dogs. Like every other product on our shelves, we stand behind them. We don’t carry a lot of brands similar to other pet boutique retailers. We would rather educate our customers on why we feel our brands are superior than stock more familiar brands,” Batcheller explains.
In addition to pet food, treats and toys, Manhattan Beach Healthy Spot offers services such as grooming and day care, wellness clinics, dog training and dental cleaning.
Like their fully-stocked retail floor, the grooming operations are also based on creating a high-quality experience, according to Batchheller.
“We recruit our groomers, and we put them in an apprenticeship program, so that we can offer truly consistent practices and standards.”
The result is a grooming program that often rates 5-stars on Yelp reviews, Batcheller reports. Healthy Spot’s day care program gets similarly rave reviews.
“We are always mindful of the safety of the dogs in our care. The program is restricted to dogs 30 pounds and under, and is designed specifically for small dogs,” he said. “It’s a good opportunity for the dogs to exercise and socialize. We play with them, we take them on walks. It’s a great program for people who are looking at both safe and social aspects of dog care.”
Healthy Spot is located at 204 S. Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach, and is open seven days a week.
