Still standing

Supreme Animal Foods is the last remaining pet shop in South East London still selling live animals, and the store retains its focus on customer service, expert advice and high welfare standards.

Back in the days when high streets used to be busy, every one of them had an independent pet shop filled to the brim with live animals ready to find new homes. But while busy high streets and stores selling livestock may be fewer in number today, an exception to both can be found in South East London where Supreme Animal Foods sits proudly at the end of the lively Lewisham High Street.

Inside the deceptively large store, food and accessories for every household pet can be found among the high shelves and narrow aisles, while separate rooms house the fish and reptiles, with another zone for live birds at the back of the shop. Here you can find canaries, zebra finches, lovebirds, cockatiels and budgies of various colours, before stepping back inside the main body of the shop to find a small selection of guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits and rats.

Up to 150 reptile enclosures house an array of tortoises, leopard geckos, tarantulas, praying mantises, corn snakes and rarer examples such as a green tree python, while the largest room is dedicated to a huge variety of tanks for cichlids, tetras, parrot fish, clownfish, lionfish, koi and other delights from the aquatic world.

Supreme has experts in every field, and the helpful and friendly members of the staff know every nook and cranny while business owner Ricky Keane is having in-depth conversations with regular and potential new customers.

It will come as no surprise to retailers reading this that the store makes very little money from the sale of live animals alone, once all the feed and welfare needs of the livestock is taken into account. The shop is now the only one in South East London that sells live birds, and Ricky can reel off a list of independent pet shops in the local area which are no longer trading at all.

But while the living creatures are a loss-leader, shoppers can choose from a huge variety of aquatic plants, corals, anemones, ornaments, gravel and chemicals. Tanks of various sizes are for sale, and the store will create custom-made tanks and cabinets for customers if required. Tanks are sold at “internet price”, with the inhabitants usually sold on a deal as an extra incentive.

Many of the display tanks in store were purchased from major pet chains which either upgraded their shops or exited the live animal market altogether. As a result, some of the systems are 20 years old, but remain in perfect working order in part due to Ricky’s scrupulous approach to maintenance and good hygiene. He is particularly insistent on a regular regime of cleaning the gravel in tanks, and makes a point of teaching the method to every customer who purchases fish or equipment from the store.

Store policy is to not sell an animal without the customer being in possession of the full set-up, and documentary evidence of an appropriate cage or enclosure is required before they will sell a bird.

New tanks are usually set up in store, although store manager Gareth Williams occasionally visits customers in their own homes to ensure the set-up is done properly.

Wrapped around a corner of the high street, the store used to be two shops, subsequently knocked together and divided into various rooms, including a cellar area.