If Marcia Massaro had stuck to the plan, her store wouldn’t be open just yet.
She’d still be working for the Niagara Falls Housing Authority, probably still managing Wrobel Towers apartments.
Instead, more than a year ago, she saw a vacant storefront on Pine Avenue, situated between Latina’s grocery and DiCamillo’s Bakery and knew that was the spot where she wanted to open a retail store selling pet food and accessories. “I jumped when I saw this store,” she said of her location at 1700 Pine Ave.
She quickly retired from the NFHA and this month, she celebrated her one-year anniversary as owner of the Pet Stuff Store.
Why pet supplies? She says its because of the trouble she had getting specialty dog food when her little dog had food allergies. Plus, with her husband, Anthony, retired, kids raised, grandchildren coming up and one great-grandchild on the way, she wanted to do something different with her life.
“This is the only pet store in Niagara Falls,” she said. “There is nowhere anywhere around here to get decent pet food and decent supplies.”
After a year in business, a visitor to the store asked her how things are going? “I’m still here,” she said. “When I first opened I strictly did cat and dog supplies. Now I’m carrying hamster food and bedding and rabbit and chinchilla food and bedding and more.”
She also carries tick and flea supplies, shampoos, buffered dog aspirin, dog tooth brushes and tooth paste, chew toys, bedding and pet clothes, and aromatherapy stuffed toys, along with assorted pet clothes from leather biker jackets to colorful hoodies. As the holidays approach she is planning on getting more cat supplies, including cat towers and cat sweaters.
Even though she once worked in retail at an auto parts store, over the past year, she has learned much about owning a pet supply store. The most important thing? Decide for yourself what your market needs and don’t rely on distributors to tell you what your customers want. “Don’t let your sales people stock your shelves,” she said.
One distributor gave her so many different types of dog food that she was overwhelmed. “Some of it I didn’t sell,” she admitted. “It was priced too high for the area.”
As for making the jump into opening her own store a few years earlier than she planned, she said, “As much as I loved what I was doing, I enjoy this so much more.”
She enjoys meeting her furry customers, thanks to her open door policy for pets on a leash. “I pet all the puppies I can pet,” she said smiling, “and then their owners take them home.”
The Pet Stuff Store, along with many other Pine Avenue businesses, will be participating in the Small Business Day shopping event on Nov. 25.
For more information, call 371-0873 or visit online at http://ift.tt/2flahWk or search The Pet Stuff Store on Facebook.
WORKING IT OUT
• Local news and notes,
BUSINESS WEEKLY, 6-7A
