Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Welcome to
aquarium Mania.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, doctor royan On, speaking to you from
the University of Florida.
Speaker 3: I fis Tropical Agtaculture Laboratory. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2: Aquarium retail stores are the primary gateway to.
Speaker 3: The hobbies for many beginners.
Speaker 4: How do large retail chains work to ensure healthy, quality
animals and to provide good fish keeping information? My guest today,
Jay Springer, is director of Live Animals and Veterinarian Services
for Pet Supplies Plus, one of the largest pet store
chains in the US. Join us as Jay discusses his
professional journey, dedication to quality service, industry challenges in the future.
Speaker 3: Of the hobby. We'll be right back after these messages.
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Speaker 6: Let's talk Pets on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Aquariumania on pet Life Radio. My guest
today is Jay Springer, director of Live Animals and Veterinarian
Services at Pet Supplies Plus.
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 7: Jay, No, thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
Speaker 2: So, as you probably know, I kind of like to
get a little personal before we talk more shop before
we get into your current work. Let's talk a little
bit of history and how you got into the pet
and aquarium hobby. Do you remember how old you were
when you first set up or enjoyed your first aquarium
or your first pet or both.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, absolutely, that's absolute where the fun started.
Speaker 9: You know, I was probably five years old.
Speaker 8: My mom was very big into not only fish, but
into pretty much every critter we could get our hands on.
So we definitely started setting up tanks at about five
years old, and that definitely went in through my teenage
years with her. So we definitely enjoyed that and really
got to play with a couple of different species back then.
And you know, we started with goldfish, went into guppies,
went into tetras, and played a little bit with cichlids,
But her and I really liked you know, guppies and
tetras and pretty much community type tank. But been going
since I was a little boy.
Speaker 2: So for you, that was what maybe six seven years ago,
I guess, yeah, I'm just kidding eight. So what do
you remember about the aucuarium hobby back when you were
growing up? You know, maybe maybe not necessarily talking about
relative today, but just in general, do you remember anything
specific and maybe some things that were a little different
back then.
Speaker 8: So if I really think back, it's lfs, local fish stores.
Speaker 9: They were everywhere.
Speaker 8: My mom and I were able to go into local
fish stores, you'd see racks upon racks of fish tanks
and people that were soon super passionate about the industry,
you know. And over the last twenty years or so,
you kind of see some of that move to some
of the big box and some of the different stuff.
But there's you know, unfortunately, there's less and less local
fish stores.
Speaker 9: Out there to really enjoy just fish.
Speaker 8: But back then it was really you know, the wide
array of different fish and species that were available, and
really just you know, since then, seeing the change of
filtration and water quality and some of the different things
that have come, you know, over the last twenty years,
because that back then wasn't as prominent or there definitely
wasn't the technology.
Speaker 2: So I guess maybe we can talk now that you're
you know, kind of a grown up. I guess what
would you say are your favorite fish species and tank
setups today?
Speaker 9: Well, you know, I'm very partial.
Speaker 8: My daughter and I are very partial to her community tank,
which has a lot of glowfish in it has some
some normal tetras and stuff like that. We like to
keep it, you know, very easy. But I am a
saltwater guy. I do have a saltwater fish tank at home,
so I do. I do enjoy that something as.
Speaker 9: Little harder, a little more difficult.
Speaker 8: But you know, I spent most of my years and
especially with my kids, really just focused on the community fish.
I absolutely love guppies, Molly's plattys tetras to this day.
They're still a fun industry fish.
Speaker 2: Great to hear, and obviously I'm always happy to hear
when you know kids are involved, So I'm glad you're
hopefully making them addicted to fish. That's kind of what
we sort of need. So but so kind of been
doing a little bit of research for this. In one
of your profiles, I saw that you double majored in
marketing and also management with organizational behavior. Those are kind
of heady, you know, business type things. Were you working
in the pen industry by then and or what made
you kind of decide on these areas to study?
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, absolutely. When I was a kid, I of
course thought I was going to be a veterinarian. I
thought I was going to be, you know, working in
a zoo and then real life hit and I didn't
get the luxury of that. But no, I got my
degrees midway through my career in my thirties. I was,
you know, well deep into my career with pet Smart
at the time, so I was I was doing you know,
triple duty between work, the kids, and school.
Speaker 9: But yeah, I got it later in life.
Speaker 8: And I picked those majors because it applied very well
to what I had learned so far in my career,
and the marketing side of it really played to what
I didn't get to do much in my daily life
and career and something I was passionate about and really
liked and you know, to have on the resume if
I get that chance in the future.
Speaker 2: So I guess maybe, let's say pre pet Supplies plus,
what were maybe some of the lessons you learned kind
of during that process when you were working and going
through anything specific that you think kind of helped you
as you started pet supplies Plus.
Speaker 8: That's a period of my life that really got me
hooked into the live animal business. I started there when
I was a teenager. I left Pet Smart in the
in the mid when I was in my mid thirties,
so I spent an enormous amount of time there, you know,
and some of the things I learned, you know, was
going from any company from the nineties into the twenty
twelves twenty fifteen era, you watch so much move and
grow in the learnings that go with that, you know.
I held multiple you know, management positions there which you
really see the advancement of what the industry has, what
the pet industry was back then and what it is
now and a year after year watching it grow and
really the learnings there.
Speaker 9: Was pet retails different.
Speaker 8: It really is different than most other retails when you
look at Walmart or Target. So when you look at
pet retail, you can, you know, have a stressful day
and turn around and see a cat, a dog, a horse, fish, reptile.
So it's a great industry to be in. But really
just the learnings and leadership of what it takes to
really move a great business forward was a huge learning
I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: So you kind of gave us a little bit of
insight into your professional journey to pet supplies. Plus is
there anything you want to add to that? And also
what's your current role in a PSP?
Speaker 9: Oh?
Speaker 8: Absolutely, so, yeah, I started in this industry at pet
Land back in the very early nineties. Then I went
over to Pet Smart when I realized who they were,
because I didn't at the time they were that small.
But then I spent eighteen years with those guys and
that more or when I transferred and moved up to
North Ohio, there was, you know, this position open up
here and Pet Supplies Plus was a very unique retailer
and that's why I ended up moving over here because
it's franchise based, and in my Pet Smart world for
eighteen years, it was all corporate based and really didn't
get to understand or realize, you know, what the franchise.
Speaker 7: Model was all about.
Speaker 8: I had a little bit of taste of it when
I was at Petland at a very young age. But
that's really where and why I kind of morphed over
to Pet Supplies Plus.
Speaker 9: And in Northeast Ohio.
Speaker 8: There's thirty locations just in the greater you know, Cleveland, DMA,
so very prominent up here, well known. My current position
as director of Live Animals and it focuses twenty four
hours a day on live animals for Pet Supplies Plus.
My job and my very small team, you know, We
are in charge of not only standard operating procedures, but
the health and wellness the field operations, along with the
vendor network and getting all.
Speaker 9: Of the animals to the stores and to the franchise owners.
Speaker 8: So it's a very fun job, but it is one
percent focused on live animals and protecting the live animal
business and making sure it's done well and across the
entire chain.
Speaker 2: So about how many stores are there? And you guys
are primarily US based, right, we are one hundred percent
US based. We are over six hundred and fifty stores
and growing. We are growing on a franchise model. We
open a couple of corporate stores a year, but for.
Speaker 8: The most part we have franchisees that are opening stores.
We're roughly opening eighty a year for the next couple
of years. So it's a it's a very big growth
phase and fun time for pet supplies.
Speaker 3: Plus.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's yeah, that's that's that's pretty major. So what
are some of the major challenges with running you know,
this large chain that you are you know PSP, and
how do you handle the franchises? How do you manage
you know, and I guess with such variety, I'm assuming
amongst the franchises.
Speaker 3: How do you handle all that as well?
Speaker 8: I guess, yeah, so that's a that's a great question,
and really it comes down to one people in consistency.
Speaker 9: So in the.
Speaker 8: Live animal world, what I've realized over the last twenty
five years, the more consistent you can be, the easier
and more simple it can be to take care of
these animals and really do it really well, the better
you're going to be, and not only better for the
pet but for the customers, for the franchise owners, et cetera.
Because really, when it comes to consistency, the easier it
is for us as retailers to execute and set very
high standards is absolutely paramount and key, you know, and
people play that big part of it, as you know
that without great people that really, you know, care and
have the passion for pets, it can be a struggle.
But again, when you find and help develop some of
those passionate people that are enthusiasts, it makes taking care
of live animals, selling live animals, and really growing that
industry much easier. But that's usually, you know, the greatest
challenge is can we get consistent execution for the health
of the animals and start developing passionate enthusiasts along the way.
Speaker 2: So definitely, you know, I kind of know what you
mean by consistency. Can you maybe explain to some of
the listeners, you know, like, what, what are some of
the things you guys do to try to maintain and
you know, elevate that consistency.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no, absolutely, And you know we've learned a lot
from professionals like yourself. You know that when when we
set consistent processes in place, that when the fish get
fed at a certain time, when the tanks get cleaned
at a certain time, if they're cleaned a certain way
each and every day, each and every week. Small mammals, birds,
reptiles are the same way. The more consistent you can keep,
you know, their diet or their process or their stress
level mainly is very good for them. And really the
biggest thing we look at across all species is in
what I try and train you know, everybody in my
company when I do my trainings, is to reduce stress,
especially on fish. Sometimes fish are the forgotten ones because
they're not warm and fuzzy. But again it's it's really
looking at how do you reduce stress? And you do
that with consistent water quality testing or water taking care of,
you know, of cleaning procedures and feeding them correctly, et cetera.
Speaker 9: So it's really just folks.
Speaker 8: On can we do the least amount of things the
best we possibly can.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely makes sense.
Speaker 2: Now we've kind of talked about your past history with
an aquarium hobby, how would you describe the current demographics
of the fish keepers now versus maybe the past ten, fifteen,
twenty five years.
Speaker 8: I would say younger, and they're becoming more and more educated.
So the great thing is, I think what I've seen
over the last twenty twenty five years, the industry has
gotten smarter. So not only have you know, veterinary professionals
explored and learned more, product manufacturers have explored and done
more research our live you know, breeders or distributors have
done more work in research. So ultimately that makes it
down to the retail side or my level, to where
we are seeing much more educated not only consumers, but
you know, people that are wanting to work for us,
to where when I started in the nineties, I was
one of the guys that potentially had the most information
or most knowledge in my store. When ultimately I probably
wasn't that knowledgeable. I was learning as I went, But
it seems like nowadays we are getting more and more
not only advanced with technology, but with people and what
the industry knows and expects.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get Yeah, it definitely makes sense. You know,
there's a lot more access to infro, you know, good
or bad. And I'm guessing you you probably deal with
people that maybe have some bad information, but yeah, you're
right there. There definitely seems to be a lot more
education out there, so I guess you know, you obviously
are working with a really large number of franchises, a
lot of stores. Do you see differences kind of across
the US, you know, with regard to demographics aquariums, you know,
what type of fish people like. I'm just you know, curious,
you know, West versus East, you know South, any anything
kind of that strikes you.
Speaker 8: Yeah, So it's it's it's funny that that's you know,
one of the things my team and I we do
each year and throughout the year, to be honest, is
really look at some of those trends or see what
we could provide to customers in certain demographics, and really,
you know, there is a difference between the California West
Coast versus Texas versus Florida versus call it the New
England area. Midwest is very unique, you know, and really
some of the pockets that you look at, the Midwest
is probably one of the most consistent. When you get
that big giant pocket at the mind of the middle
of the United States. We all deal with the same weather,
the same seasons and all that. So fish cells or
fish types you know, are very similar in that area.
You get down to Florida, Texas, California, sometimes the species
might get a little bit more unique, or customers consumers
down there a little bit more hip to different kuoi
or different cichlids or different species that may not be
as prevalent up in the Midwest.
Speaker 9: But salt water always varies, you know.
Speaker 8: Sometimes there's a myth that when you get to the
coast or more, you know, affluid areas, that saltwater's big.
I've got just a handful of salt water stores, not many,
but the couple I do, we've put in locations that
do extremely well and they're not high income or affluent.
It is a great business than the fish businesses is
wonderful and it's just a matter of getting it in
the right area. But when you look at she's a fish.
The normal fish in the market, the Molly's Platts, tetras, guppies,
all of those great fish are still the most consistent
sellers across the United States and almost every store. And
it's that very unique small piece of the pie of
sick Let's sell really well over here, cooy and goldfish
so really will over here, you know, and stuff like that.
But you know, it's over time, it's still that sixty
seventy eighty percenter still the bread and butters and the
consistent fish across the United States.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a short break in a sect,
but I had one more quick question before we do that.
I was kind of thinking about, you know, the breadth
of the differences around the US and interest that sort
of thing. And you know, with all the growth you
guys are going to be experiencing or are experiencing, now,
how do you sort of determine where the next franchise
should go? You know, whether the you know, the people
that are going to be working at are the right people.
What are some kind of the processes you all do
to look at that?
Speaker 8: So We've got a phenomenal franchise recruitment team at the
office that that does just that.
Speaker 9: That's what they work on.
Speaker 8: You know, they work very close with the real estate
team because again a couple factors come in of where
do the franchise owners live, because most of our franchise owners,
you know, want to be part of the operations and
want it close to where they live. So sometimes the
sites are looked at close to them and in their
general city or area. But you know a lot of
times it's looking at we're a smaller footprint neighborhood pet store,
so we can go in some different shopping centers or
different locations that some of the big stores cannot. So
we're always looking for those a little bit smaller areas,
those smaller trade markets to where one of our stores
will fit well.
Speaker 9: And then from there.
Speaker 8: It is absolutely just a vetting process to ask a
lot of great questions of a perspective owner and see
what their interest is and why they want to own
a pet store. And normally when you ask a couple
questions of why you want to own a pet store,
it's pretty obvious why they.
Speaker 7: Want to own a pet store, and it's to have
fish and pets.
Speaker 2: Well, it sounds good and yeah, definitely sounds like you
have a great team. Let's take a short break and
continue our discussion with my guest, Jay Springer, director of
Live Animals and burn air Services at Pet Supplies Plus.
Speaker 3: After these messages, take.
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Speaker 6: Let's talk fast, Let's done, PETO Radio, Petline Radio, pet
Live Radio dot.
Speaker 2: We're back and continuing our conversation with my guest, Chase Springer,
director of Live Animals and Veterinary Services at Pet Supplies Plus. So, Jay, Yeah,
we're kind of going into some of the kind of
challenges and some of the cool things about you know,
working with so many different stores and so many different
parts of the US. I guess a few more things
that that kind of are coming to mind. Question wise,
Are you seeing anything interesting with regard to new trends
in aquatic related areas, any kind of new items or
you know, pieces of filtration or you know that sort
of thing, or even maybe new species that are are
of interest.
Speaker 7: Yeah, a couple things there, you know.
Speaker 8: And the great thing is is through the last couple
of years, you know, especially through you know, some of
the COVID times, it really I think helps some of
the companies and manufacturers out there kind of ramp up
and really come out with some new innovations. You know,
when we talk about some of the new glowfish that
are coming out the corridors and some of the different,
you know, really cool ones out there. When we start
looking at the amount of different betas that are being offered,
the amount of different guppies that come in and out
are absolutely phenomenal, you know, And and when we look
at it, the great thing about the fish industry is
plants and ornaments are are similar to you know, what
I would consider sweaters and apparel for dogs and cats.
Speaker 7: They coming in and out.
Speaker 8: There's always cool stuff coming, new colors, new caves and
stuff like that. But where I really think, you know,
the fun part of the industry over the last you know,
a couple of years, mainly has really been the advancements
in filtration, the bioballs into the industry now to help
with the cycling of the water and to really help
you know, protect some of the breakdowns that people have,
you know, have been a great advancement because you know, honestly,
that's the biggest issue that we deal with out there
as retailer, is you know, people struggling to keep their
fish alive or to keep the water right, and that's
our job to help them with. And I think some
of the advancements there are significantly helping not only the
retail but the end consumer do it better.
Speaker 2: So kind of a great lead into my next question,
what are some of the important things that beginning hobbyists
should know and what are some of the things that
you and PSP are doing to help educate the.
Speaker 8: Hobbyists absolutely, you know, and I think the biggest thing
is we always look in what are the frustration levels
and fish being one of the most abandoned pets you know,
in the United States.
Speaker 9: We're here to help that. We're here to stop that.
Speaker 8: If we can get people not frustrated or successful or
more successful fish, then we're succeeding. And that's really what
we work on trying to train our teams on and
really work with them on, is you know, how do
you get a fish into a new tank or a
new environment and acclimate them correctly? And really what we
try and educate them on is do they have the
right setup? Are they mixing with the right fish? We
have great care guides that we help use and train
our team members with to help educate the customers we
call them neighbors, but help educate the neighbors on what
they should be picking or buying to really do it correctly.
But some of the biggest things we work on or
try and prevent is water quality issues. A lot of
our fish we sell, I firmly believe a lot of
the industry sells really great, high quality fish and when
there's issues or struggles, it comes down to inconsistent water
quality kind of like we talked about with our tanks
of you know, are they changing the filter correctly, do
they have the right filters that's big enough, And really
they don't understand the water and for us to help understand,
you don't have to be a water chemist. You just
have to be able to test a couple parameters and
know how to react to those. If you do those
couple of little things, you'll be in good shape.
Speaker 2: All it makes sense and definitely yeah important, And you
mentioned both this and the previous question. There are a
lot of advancements. There's a lot more information. You all
are doing a great job trying to educate the hobbyists.
So hopefully, yeah, that's definitely changing kind of the way
fish are approached and they're being kept a lot better.
So I guess you talked a little bit about some
of your top sellers. Which fish would you recommend to
beginning hobbyists and maybe which ones might be a little
more advanced but still you know, doable for the next
kind of level.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so we you know.
Speaker 8: The the good thing is is a lot of our
customers in neighbor Base is the beginner, you know, and
potentially slightly intermediate, and really where we find the most success,
especially setting up new tanks, is neon tetris, some guppies.
Guppies we do really well with. We've got great guppies
coming in now the stores. Goldfish, We've definitely got some
great goldfish to come in down the stores. You know,
really where we try and urge. You know, some caution
is your angel fish can be a little bit more delicate.
Some of your cichlids we try, and especially South American
cichlids and some of those guys that they're actually really
hearty fish and they're great, but they can have a
lot of uniqueness to them, whether they're aggressive, whether they
get too big, or different foods to where it doesn't
make a great starter pet. Doesn't mean it's not easy
and a great pet for the industry, it's just sometimes
not the best one to start with.
Speaker 2: Now, I guess obviously, working with all of your team
and all of these different stores all over the place,
you must have a lot of FAQs frequently asked questions
you know, potentially from your team, but also you know,
more specifically from a lot of the your neighbors, your clients,
or customers. What would be maybe some of the top three,
four or five ten questions that you get asked that
you know, are really important.
Speaker 8: You know, usually you know, the first thing that comes
comes to my teams are what fish can I put with?
What what the compatibilities are? You know, how do I
start a new tank, how do I cycle my water?
What is cycling my water? What ornaments and decorations do
I need? And you know, what's the best filter? You know,
really where do your fish come from? Some of those
kind of things out there, I think are probably some
of the top five that we work on, you know.
And you know, the great thing is is some of
the advancements in the industry has really helped it. Is
you know, the number one question our stores get is compatibility.
And we've worked with with the industry over over the
years to really work on how do we provide that.
And we've got different charts and different colors and stuff
to say you've got a top, middle feeder and a
bottom feeder, and kind of how to mix it up
in the tank, and you know, really just look at
where they come from and really understanding what kind of
temperament they have. But that's that's probably the biggest thing
outside of water quality issues or asking questions about water.
Speaker 3: And you had mentioned, you know, and I've been in
and out.
Speaker 2: I haven't like maybe looked at some of the new
things really closely kind of related to this question. You
mentioned the bileballs. They've got the bacteria in them. Can
you talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 8: Yeah, they're they're a great design right now they're being
put out by Aquayan. I know Casco pet was a
big driver, if not the number one driver, and the
technology around these and it is basically a bacteria ball.
It has, you know, what you need to basically cycle
a tank almost immediately. The main goal is and I'm
not going to get into too much water quality when
I'm talking to the expert, but you know, really trying
to get that bacteria to reduce or eliminate your ammonia
so that the good bacteria can really grow and help
the water and healthier fish. And the ball doesn't solve
all the problems, but it solves a significant amount of them,
really helps people be successful almost immediately versus trying to
take that couple of days to seven days to kind
of figure out on their own.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was great, and yeah, definitely water has always
been kind of an issue, and it looks like there's
a lot more ways that people can get ahead of
that problem. So we're kind of out of it to
a degree. Obviously there's still things popping up here and there.
But you know, I think we've talked about it over
the past, you know, or I by email or text
over the past year or two. How would you say,
and you alluded it to it a little bit, how
did COVID nineteen affect you, you all, your company, the industry,
you know, from twenty twenty to maybe the year after,
and you know even up till today, what would you
say are some of the major things that happened?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 8: So I think some of the big things that happened
was again it revolves around people, you know, really changed,
not only people and team members in the stores and
kind of you know, how it was to take care
of the animals, whether you had more animals or less
animals coming in depending on locations, you know, but really
the you know, consumers, you know, as they were somewhat stockpiling,
staying home, you know, kind of changing the mentality of okay, well,
you know, normally we'll want to add the extra guinea
pig or two, or add another fish tank, but you
know what we're going to be home, so why don't we.
So at the beginning there was a lot of fear
factor there of what it was. We were able to
stay very well staffed. We were able to continue to
bring in fish and provide the fish and pets that
the did our neighbors and consumers wanted. So we we
had a great you know, entry level into the start
of COVID and understanding what some of those needs.
Speaker 3: Were going to be.
Speaker 8: So, you know, at the beginning of COVID, we did
have a great positive trend into the live animal world
that carried through most of the first almost twelve months
of COVID. Once we kind of started anniversaring it, you know,
we all kind of thought it would level out and
settle down a little bit in our world.
Speaker 9: It did not.
Speaker 8: Twenty twenty two was a huge year for us, which
was on top of a great year the year before.
So as we fast forward through it, I think the
benefit of the industry was that there were so many
pets that were acquired in homes, or whether they acquired
more than one of the same pet. That's where I
think a lot more of the evolution of learning and
knowledge and what people know out there grew even more
in the last two years because not only did they
add more pets, but they were home a lot with
the pets and research the more learned a little bit
more about them. And to your point, you know, would
we like them to go to professionals like yourself versus
other parts of forums on the internet. Yes, But the
good thing is is they went out and they tried
to learn, They tried to educate themselves, and that always
is going to advance the industry. And you know, that
leads us into now to where parts of twenty two
and at the tail end go and definitely where we're
at now. You know, things tapered off and we've got
back to were stronger or better than pre COVID numbers.
But again at that same time, we've definitely leveled off
because the live industry, at least on my side, is
very is predictable, it's very seasonal, and we're back to
some of those same trends so that we can really understand,
you know, what the customers and consumers want and when
at what parts of the year, which is a great
thing at least for me and my job, because for
two years we weren't able to predict anything, and we
just hoped and prayed that we had what everybody wanted
at the right time. But you know, so it was
a great run the last couple of years, and I think,
to be honest, I think it was really good for
the industry to see more and more household ad different pets,
exotic pets, unique pets. The amount of fish and tanks
that were sold and set up, I think was fantastic
for the industry.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that definitely, I can tell you from my own experience.
I definitely sat at home and did a lot more
things here and you know, over just in general. So
we talked a little bit about some of the kind
of good changes over the past twenty twenty five years.
What would maybe be some of the challenges that you
see and or things that maybe a little bit more
difficult than they were twenty twenty five years ago.
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, when I think about this question, is
a lot of the difficult things that we've been presenting
with you know, the great thing is the industry has
gotten rid of a lot of the struggles. And the
great thing about live animals is when there's living creatures involved,
there's a lot you know, for the most part, we're
taking much different approach than if we had an issue
with a bag of dog food. So a lot of
those problems, whether it be you know, health related issues
or compatibility issues, stuff like that, have really gone away.
But I would think probably the biggest struggle that we're
always going to fight with that's still a struggle and
not getting better, is you know, some of that consistency
you know, around people, or turnover in the education of water,
the education of different fish. That institutional knowledge has become
a struggle and it's something that we, at least in
my company work extremely hard with, you know, at all
times to how do we protect that and how do
we grow that because again, you know, the industry has
benefited from that, So some of the struggles there have
just been such fast moving new trends, new innovation that
sometimes you know, what worked in the past, you know,
why change something that's not broken. Sometimes things kind of
went away for new, better or thought to be better technology,
which makes it more difficult, especially when some of that
long term institutional knowledge, you know, may not believe in
some of the new technology. And I don't think it's
a bad thing as long as we're able to get
the credible sources and that's why I've come to you
and and different people in the industry because that's probably
the most negative challenge we face, is the misinformation that's
out there, and a lot of my teams and myself,
you know, on a regular daily basis have to fight
sometimes misinformation and get the right information out there.
Speaker 2: So I know we've talked about this, you know, in
the past, just you and I, but and I kind
of did some additional reading up. I know Petsuplies Plus
has a lot of great community based initiatives, you know,
with fishing with a lot of the other animals as well.
Can you maybe talk a little bit about that and
are there any maybe initiatives looking on the aquerd fish
side as well as the ones that you're going to discuss.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so it's a great question.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 8: I've been happy to you know, be on the board
of directors for the pet Agfcy Network and WPA, you know,
and a lot of that is how to grow and
protect the industry and really have fun, you know, with
programs like Pets in a Classroom and different things they're doing.
We're a huge supporter and always have been of Pets
in a Classroom and teachers can get grants to set
up fish tanks and stuff like that. But you know,
when we look at whether it be any kind of program,
whether it be theray program or any kind of different
supporting groups that we can do, it's very hard to
do with fish.
Speaker 7: You know, the small mammals.
Speaker 8: The birds, the reptiles, they can go home at night
or on the weekend or during the summer and stuff
like that. Fish tanks, once you set them up, you
don't move them, and it makes it much more difficult
to where when pets in a classroom I think really
started and it grew, especially at least for us, and
I can only speak for us, we had a lot,
a lot of success with teachers wanting the grants for
fish tanks and actually setting up fish tanks and doing
a great job with it. You know, I think the
last couple of years, the warm and fuzzies, the ferrets,
the hamsters, the guinea pigs, bearded dragons, you know, those
kind of things that have really been the fun, cool
things coming out. But there's still a lot of fish
tanks being set up in classrooms and a lot of
you know, not just under beliverous kids, but a lot
of classrooms that would never be you know, experiencing some
of these fish, getting to see them every day and
looking forward when they go to school. So we're we're
a huge supporter there. I love working in the communities
and doing that fun stuff. If I could find a
way to do more fun stuff with fish, I absolutely would,
And we're always looking for stuff.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like you got to work with a
company to develop a like a mobile aquarium that the
teachers can take home that's like self sustaining and they
don't have to worry about it.
Speaker 8: We've yeah, absolutely could if we could solve that problem
where it doesn't affect the health of the fish and
the water quality.
Speaker 9: Wheel it in, wheel it out all day long.
Speaker 2: So are there any long term or few your goals
for PSB that you can share anything?
Speaker 3: You know, kind of cool on the horizon.
Speaker 10: You know.
Speaker 8: Really, the biggest thing we're we're always looking at is
do we have the right locations right? Are we We're
one of the biggest things in the coolest things is
like I said, we're a much smaller footprint and really
we're just trying to get to a lot of neighborhoods
that need us that don't have a quick, easy access
to a great pet store. But at the same time,
it's what we're offering, right you know, We're we're offering
great foods, great products for dogs and cats. But we
continue to look at what specialty products do we have
and do we have the right specialty products? And my
job all day long is do we have the right
pets in the store? Are we offering the right fish,
the right mix of fish. I look at that every
couple of months to make sure are we doing the
right thing and really making sure that we're making people successful.
But you know, some of the you know, I think
that's probably the biggest thing in the horizon is with
our growth rate not changing or wavering on our standards
in our commitment to where you know, if we're going
to add eighty plus stores a year for the next
couple of years, you know, are we you know, our
goal is we're going to open them and they're going
to be just as great as the ones that are
already open, and we're not going to waiver from that.
And that's where it can be a challenge for me
when the live animal world trying to add enough live
animals for another.
Speaker 9: Eighty stores each year.
Speaker 8: But that's also the fun part of the job because
the industry, even on that side of breeding and distribution,
is amazingly advanced from where it was twenty years ago,
and it just makes my job fun.
Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately we're out of time, and I definitely appreciate
all the time and information and your expertise and knowledge, Jay,
So thanks very much for that. Thanks to our producer
Mark Winner for making the show possible. I did want
to ask Jay if you had any final thoughts, words
of wisdom, you know, maybe secret numbers for the lottery,
anything you want to share with our listeners before we close.
Speaker 8: I don't think I have any secrets that will make
anybody any money. Wish I did, I would share, but no,
you know, I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate
all the efforts and everything you do on the fish side.
You do some great things down there in Florida, and
everybody across the country knows it. I'm glad that I
got to be a part of it over the last
couple of years. And the biggest, the biggest thing I'd
like to leave people with is let's make tropical fish
fun and exciting again. Let's not let it stay stale
or stagnant. There's so many cool fish, there's so many
cool innovations out there to make fish keeping easy. We
just got to make sure people know that and get
rid of the stigma that it's boring or that it's
too hard, because it's not.
Speaker 2: We can fix this great great words of wisdom. I
love that, So thanks again for joining us. Jay, really
appreciate it. I see that you the listeners can't see
what You've got a background at the beach, so I'm
assuming you're you're actually not at the beach.
Speaker 7: I know, so I might be next week. I think
next week.
Speaker 3: Awesome.
Speaker 2: Awesome, Well, thanks again for joining us. Everyone, please be
sure to check out Jay's weblinks, which will be found
on He's Aquarium Media guest page. Until next time, visit
your local cram stores definitely petsiflies plus, and keep your
tanks clean and your animals healthy, and stay tuned for
the next podcast.
Speaker 6: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlifradio
dot com.