Newshound, April 2022
Growing trade
Being in a tourist area, we have always benefited from the influx of visitors from Easter to October. Families come for a few days to tour the area or walk the famous Fife Coastal Footpath, considered by many to be one of the best walks in the country. Many bring their dog and are looking for treats or toys, and those who stay in a caravan often forget to bring the lead or dog bowl with them.
To accommodate this welcome trade we make sure the shop is well signposted – we’re not in the main shopping street so people have to find us, and we take a small advert in two of the larger caravan sites magazines. However, as the caravan sites all open on March 1, we see very little visitor trade in January and February, and traditionally see a slow start to each year with a gradual build up from March through Easter to the summer months.
But not this year. From early January we were seeing visitors and, while their trade was most welcome, we did wonder what was so different to other years. It cannot be Brexit because I just do not see how that would make a difference, so it was possibly Covid, as people want to get out of the house and go somewhere. But where are they staying, as the caravan sites were still closed? So it was time to ask every person who looked like a visitor a few questions!
Very soon, a pattern emerged: people were desperate to get out of the house, go somewhere and have some normality as they were going stir crazy. Furthermore, they were staying in the ever-increasing number of Airbnbs that have mushroomed in the area, many of which allow pets. For us, that means a welcome boost to January and February trade but just as importantly it means that local Airbnb operators are making money, as well as pubs and restaurants, which is putting money into the local economy, which helps everyone.
A new cat
For the past two years one of my neighbours has been feeding what we thought was a street cat. It wanted feeding but would strongly object to be handled and had no desire to come indoors. Now all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, it’s decided to come and live with us. Not only does it still want feeding, but it has now decided to sit on the counter and greet customers. Even more strangely, we have now found out it does in fact have an owner, a girl who works in one of the cafes in the town. We did tell her where it had taken up residence and all she said was that it would come home when it’s ready. Well, it’s been with us three weeks now so it is not ready to go home just yet!
Livestock
It’s now been over 18 months since we took the decision to stop selling livestock and we have now been a year without any pets. We sometimes get asked if we regret our decision, mainly by people who think selling pets is profitable or just want to use us as a free zoo. In all honesty, no, we do not regret our decision.
Yes, it’s strange not having animals about the place but when you add up the costs it’s a no-brainer really. We’ve saved over £1,000 a year in waste disposal plus £250 in the licence fees. Our bulk purchase of hay and shavings has reduced considerably, but the real saving has been on time. We spent, on average, 22 hours a week feeding, cleaning and maintaining the pets. That time is now spent concentrating on the dry stock, making sure the shelves are at their best and prices are accurate. Yes, our sale of hutches and cages has gone but it was shrinking anyway due to cheaper internet sales.
The space allocated to pets is now taken up by more freezers for dog food and a wider range of beds, and we have been able to spread out some of the other lines to create better displays. We have even got a new products area and a bargain end-of-line area. More importantly, after a year without pets we have increased our overall gross margin by 2%.
