Have you ever wondered what it’s like to own a pet store? Well our next interview is for you!
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In this week’s upcoming interview with Tom Fitzgerald of Global Pet Foods Victoria & Grange, we’ll chat about the benefits and challenges of operating a small business and how rewarding it is to serve local pets.
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Find Tom and his amazing team here –
Web: https://guelphvictoria.
Facebook: https://www.
Instagram: https://www.
Now, let’s get to the interview!
Transcription:
Laura Wombwell
Hi there, it’s Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography. And joining me today is Tom Fitzgerald. And he is the owner of Global Pet Foods at Victoria and Grange. Hi, Tom, I’m so excited to be chatting with you today.
Tom Fitzgerald
Hey, my pleasure to be here.
Laura Wombwell
So, operating and owning a pet store, that must be a huge challenge. What got you interested in doing this?
Tom Fitzgerald
I’ve always had a love of pets ever since I was a kid. I’ve owned dogs and cats, we had a turtle for a brief time, which didn’t work out too well. But it’s just a love of animals. And to be honest with you, the welfare of them, not just having them, but making sure that they’re they’re getting the best that they can get and best treatment and whatnot.
Laura Wombwell
Nice. So within Global Pet Foods, I believe it’s a franchise correct?
Tom Fitzgerald
It is a franchise. Yes.
Laura Wombwell
So how does that work? Are all the Global Pet Foods the same? Or do you get to customize your store?
Tom Fitzgerald
We’re probably about 75 to 80%, the same. You’ll find that each, it’s kind of a neat opportunity, because each markets a little bit unique, say downtown Toronto, where there’s condos, you’ll find a lot more cats and smaller dogs versus say, here where I am, I happen to be a little bit of a larger dog store. So Global allows you to kind of tailor the store to your market, which is great. So we probably carry about 75 to 80% of the same products. But after that, we can pretty well tailor to what the market wants, and especially on accessories and whatnot. So you also find, as I said, about 35% of the food and major items are the same, that 25 percent really targeted towards what the market dictates.
Laura Wombwell
Nice. So would you say there’s anything in particular that your store really specializes in?
Tom Fitzgerald
We try, and I hate to say, we try and be a little bit of everything to everybody. You know, we don’t do a lot of fish and reptiles, we do concentrate mostly on our four legged friends, cats and dogs. We’ve expanded into raw the last couple years. And that, again is being a market segment that we’ve seen growth in demand. So we’ve doubled our number of freezers. But we’re very heavy cat and dog. But as I said, we have a little bit of everything at the end of the day for everybody.
Laura Wombwell
Perfect. What is your favorite thing to help people with inside your business?
Tom Fitzgerald
Just to see a bad situation and make it better. We get a lot of people that come in with some pretty funny situations that are pretty basic, where they’re totally at a loss for what to do, or what’s the next step. And some of them are so basic and so easy to fix. And they just don’t know how. So there’s nothing better than kind of having somebody come in with a problem and having them and their pet leave knowing that you’ve improved the situation, or fixed a pretty easy problem.
Laura Wombwell
Nice. I know a lot of pet stores will contribute to the community. And I know for a fact that you at your store have been involved in a number of charitable ventures over the years. So I would love to hear about some some things that you’ve been involved with giving back to – I know there have been some rescues that you’ve helped out.
Tom Fitzgerald
Yeah, we’re actually huge into that. And I’m a firm believer of where you live, work and play you give back. You don’t just take from a community. So we’re very involved with the sponsorship of hockey teams, across teams, soccer teams, baseball teams, at the community level, where they’re often looking for things. We’re also involved in some of the churches around town in advertising and helping them out. But when it comes to the absolute charities, you’re right, we do a ton for rescues. We’ve got our Show Us Your Heart, with all that money going to local shelters also. And I would say at the end of the year, there’s probably about five or six charities that we contribute to each year. It’s very important for us. As I said, our belief is, you know, if we feel the money is going to a good use in our community it’s really important that we back our community and and put something back into it to make sure that the welfare of everybody and the pets especially is improved.
Laura Wombwell
That’s a wonderful and I’m sure the community really appreciates all of those efforts to to give back and to help support the pets that are here locally. What’s something that you wish that the general public knew about? Whether it’s operating a pet food store or or running a pet food store? What’s some little tidbits behind the scenes that we don’t know about?
Tom Fitzgerald
I think probably just how difficult it is to be very honest with you. When I first got into it, I was talking to somebody and they basically said, You’re like a 6000, item hardware store. And yeah, we do literally carry items in the 1000s. It’s constantly moving, you’ve got, you know, in times of COVID, supply issues from vendors that are kind of out of your control. So we try and keep the wheels on as best we can. And that takes a ton of behind the scenes action, where I think sometimes the consumer kind of comes in and thinks I’m just going to go to the spot in the shelf, and it’s going to be there. And not realizing the fact that we might have driven 100 miles to meet a vendor somewhere to get a special order. Because we were short shipped for two weeks. There’s a lot of moving parts to it. It’s a great, great business, though, having said that.
Laura Wombwell
Wow. So I know you mentioned some challenges with suppliers due to COVID. Are there any other changes that this past year has forced you to make in your business?
Tom Fitzgerald
Yeah, so well, COVID, obviously, with even something as simple as pictures with Santa had to be cancelled, our customer appreciation day was cancelled. Nail trimming, can’t be done. So it’s a constantly evolving process, we do offer, which a year ago, to this day, we didn’t have, we do offer curbside pickup. We also have a e-commerce site now, which came out, unfortunately, after the first lockdown. So you know, you’re ever evolving and ever changing your business, just to you know, adapt, improvise and overcome with the challenges that are being thrown at you. I think every small business in Guelph is kind of going through that where you’ve just got to be flexible and, and learn how to do things better?
Laura Wombwell
Absolutely. Are there some things that you’ve implemented during COVID that you think you’ll keep?
Tom Fitzgerald
Actually, we were talking about this the other day, yes, we are going to keep curbside. So anybody who doesn’t want to come down into the store, even after COVID is over, we will continue to do that our e-commerce site is here to stay. And we’re finding tremendous success with that, you know, it’s been a couple of little bugs in it, but those have been quickly worked out. But I think it’s gonna change kind of the way we we look at business. And without trying to get too deep, maybe certain things we took for granted, we might not take for granted coming up. We’re a little more appreciative of the things that before you might not have been appreciative of. But I see those from a business point of view. Those will definitely be staying. And hopefully the things like the masks and everything else will one day go away, we’ll get back to a little bit of normalcy.
Laura Wombwell
Here’s hoping. So I know we’ve talked a bit about the store. But I’d love to talk a little bit about you and your pet as well. So I know you have a cat who lives with you. So tell me a little bit about about your cat and how he came to be with you.
Tom Fitzgerald
Well, Bruce, I obtained probably about 14 months ago, just prior to COVID. And he was actually a from the Humane Society here in Guelph. And quite a little guy to the fact where nobody wants him. And he came from a very difficult background that made the press here in Guelph and it was not a good situation. And so he was socially inept, required it surgery, required a lot of TLC. And in talking with the Humane Society, nobody wanted him. And I kind of kept my eye on him. So I was talking with June one day I said, Is he still there? She said, Yeah, I said, I’m going to take them. And so it’s been a lot of work in progress. The first six, seven weeks, I could not be in the same room with him, left water and food and he would be under a bed and slowly after the sixth week started venturing out and it probably took me another two three weeks before I actually got to touch him. Right now. We’re inseparable. It’s been great. It’s been a great journey for him and I think he’s enjoying his life a lot more. I’ve got a very quiet household. He is the king of the castle there and obviously owning a pet store, he’s got a lot of toys and neat things to play with.
Laura Wombwell
Are there any particular favorite things that you do together?
Tom Fitzgerald
What don’t we do together? He’s not to go outside. He’s got some challenges there. But we play a ton. One of the things that’s been occurring lately at night though, is he will jump up on my bed. And as I roll over, I will roll over about 10 to 15 objects that he’s brought into bed. Kind of cool and neat. But the neat thing is, we we’ve grown to a point now where there’s a lot of trust between the two of us, he trusts me, which I never thought would happen. So you know, from the timing, he can be sassy, like any cat. But we do have a really, really great relationship. And there’s very few times I’m a sports nut, where if I’m watching the hockey game, or the baseball game, that he’s not lying in my lap, or somewhere touching me or up over my head getting ready to jump on me.
Laura Wombwell
Oh, nice. It’s so incredible to see when you’ve adopted a pet and you’re not sure if they’re gonna settle in once they’re like, yep, you’re my human. There’s nothing like that in the whole world.
Tom Fitzgerald
It’s really weird because I’ve got a house that is narrow and goes up. So I decided to approach him from below. He was on a landing. And earlier in that day, he kind of came into the living room and just sat down about 10 feet from me and just stared up. Oh, that’s interesting. It’s kind of new. So later on that night, he was on the landing. And I approached from down below so he was above me. I had a treat. There is a need for a treat. So we started doing this for about 10 minutes, I probably put one on his foot and he ate it. Put another on his foot and next I’ll put one on his paw and I started petting his paw and he didn’t move away. And that was the beginning and 24 hours later he’s literally rolling and winning the pattern. Now any quick movements and he would freak but that’s, well like I can’t believe the trust he’s given me, like for a cat. Yeah, he will just come and I’m not a big one of having cats on the bed. Guess what? I have a cat in the bed.
It’s a great feeling. That’s for sure. And I, to be honest with you, there were times in those first two months where I honestly wondered if we would ever get there.
Laura Wombwell
Amazing. Well, it looks like you’re getting there. So I would love to know, do you and Bruce have any favorite local, whether it’s pet care providers, or even favorite, you know, treat providers that that he particularly likes.
Tom Fitzgerald
He’s been a very difficult cat in terms of, we’re still trying to get to a vet. And we kind of lapsed on that. But it’s, you know, it is ongoing work in progress. They give one of the pills that kind of knocks him down and sedate some a little bit. Nope, he won that battle. And in terms of food, thank God, I own a pet store. Because we’re finally at a point now where we’ve settled on a couple things. It’s been a very picky eater. And that’s probably been my main concern with him and he has had trouble with certain foods. But when it comes to treats, he’s pretty good. He, he’ll eat anything. And so what we hopefully we can keep him on one or two foods. We do the kibbles. We do the reds, he gets his treats. And, you know, as I said, the treats we can rotate around and he’s really happy with those.
Laura Wombwell
Excellent. So I have a couple of quickfire questions for you before we end off. Are you ready?
Tom Fitzgerald
Yep.
Laura Wombwell
All right. cat or dog.
Tom Fitzgerald
Believe it or not – dog. But that’s changing.
Laura Wombwell
Favorite breed?
Tom Fitzgerald
Labrador Retriever.
Laura Wombwell
What is Bruce’s favorite toy?
Tom Fitzgerald
He’s got a little mouse did stuffed that literally you will find anywhere in everywhere in the house and follows him around.
Laura Wombwell
Is Bruce full of beans, full of dreams, or full of something entirely different?
Tom Fitzgerald
Completely sassy. He is a sassy cat to the extreme. He is fantastic. He can have his attitude.
Laura Wombwell
If Bruce were to be played by a human actor in a movie, who would play Bruce?
Tom Fitzgerald
Wow. Who’s the guy from the Bourne Identity?
Laura Wombwell
Matt Damon?
Tom Fitzgerald
Matt Damon. He just doesn’t care what’s in his way. He’s coming through and look out. So I would say he’d be a Matt Damon.
Laura Wombwell
That’s awesome. If money were no object, and all of our current restrictions were lifted, what is one amazing thing that you would do to spoil Bruce?
Tom Fitzgerald
I would love to at one point try to bring in another cat with him. And that’s gonna take you know, from a money point of view, time at the house. I’m not sure if it will be possible. But I would just love to you know, make sure he’s got every toy and gadget and a happy life and welfare and but the biggest things are things that don’t cost money and that’s love. Love and affection and just make sure he’s got a ton of that around and is surrounded in a loving household.
Laura Wombwell
That’s such a wonderful answer. So speaking of love and affection, how can this Southwestern Ontario pet community best show your business some love?
Tom Fitzgerald
If you ever have a need, obviously reach out to us. And even if it’s not something, you know, one of the things at Global Pet Foods, we try and be a little different than everybody else and that’s in terms of knowledge. It might not even be something that we sell. Reach out to us, if you’re stuck on something, if you’re banging your head against the wall, we’re here to help. One of the things that I will say that we do in the store is we don’t sell you on quota, we don’t sell you on, you know, our brand, it’s, it’s what’s best for the animal. And if it’s something that we don’t even carry, we’ll tell you where to get it. You know, at the end of the day, it’s about what’s best for the welfare of the animals. Simply put.
Laura Wombwell
Well, and I think to realizing that in your local store, you’re dealing with local people who, you know, want to help you, they love pets, that’s why they’re there. And, you know, these days, the more we can do to support local business, the better.
Tom Fitzgerald
And I will say this as a quick aside, you know, through COVID, I know, it’s been difficult for consumers and customers. You know, we’re doing this today, we expect the rules to change later on this week. Again, our customers have been phenomenal. And they’ve really helped. And, you know, they’ve been forgiving, and they’ve been helpful. And, you know, we’ve been thanked at the door. And we’ve been brought coffee and things and you know what have you. We appreciate that, not that you have to do that. But it’s just, it’s nice when people do appreciate the effort that does go in behind the scenes, especially when you are in a pandemic. You know, the store magically opens up every day, doesn’t mean that people weren’t there three, four hours before doing the curbside, and the e-commerce and putting in a lot of extra time and staying late to tear down orders to restock shelves and whatnot. But I will say we were very fortunate we have just a great customer base. They’re fantastic people and they’re pet lovers.
Laura Wombwell
So if folks want to show you some support, where can we find you both physically and on the internet?
Tom Fitzgerald
Physically, obviously, we’re located in the Victorian Grange Plaza. So you can come down pretty well, at any time our hours are on Google. On the internet, we have an e-commerce site, www.victoria.globalpetfoods.com. You can order e-commerce there, we don’t have every product in the store online. But we do have the majority. And outside of that just call us. We’d be more than happy to help you. Or tell you, you know, a way that we can help you.
Laura Wombwell
Excellent. Thank you so much for chatting with me today. Tom, it’s been a pleasure. And is there anything that you would like to say to the pet community in Southwestern Ontario,
Tom Fitzgerald
I just think this is an awesome initiative. And I know it’s been really difficult for everybody in the last year. But to be honest with you, the only way we’re gonna get through this is by everybody pulling together and helping everybody out. And if we do that, it’s gonna make it a heck of a lot easier. If we don’t, it’s gonna make it a lot more difficult. So, appreciate your initiative and doing this. And what, you know, the pet community has been fantastic so far, and just want to make sure that we keep helping each other out.
Laura Wombwell
Amazing. Well, I appreciate you chatting with me. It has been fantastic. And I wish you and your team at Global Pet Foods all the best for your continued success.
Tom Fitzgerald
Thank you so much, it’s been a pleasure joining you today.
Laura Wombwell
So this is Laura from Laura Wombwell Photography. I’m joined by Tom Fitzgerald of Global Pet Foods at Victoria and Grange and we both hope that you and your pets have an awesome day. Bye.
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