Petco is shuttering Dr.'s Fosters Smith

[Greencheek Lee]

I'll miss Fosters & Smith too. Though I did get impatient waiting for the small Caitec Oven Fresh Bites, so I went to Caitec and ordered straight from them, no shipping discounts but I figure it should be fresh. Hate Petco - just had such issues just buying a cage from them...nope, nothing ever again.

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

I've only ever been to our Petco one time. I didn't like the layout of the store and the bird section was really lacking supplies I would consider purchasing. Petsmart is expensive for the pellets I would buy. The last time I went there to get a couple of different sizes of Roudybush because I had forgotten to add it to my orders I said something to the cashier about the price and he used his ipad and checked the prices on Chewy and matched those prices ( even though they were on sale). So from now on if I really need something pronto and have to go to Petsmart I'll ask about price matching.

 

[Love My Zons]

Some of those don't have the excellent shipping offer that F & S has and some don't sell some of the products. For example 6 bags of Caitec Oven Fresh Bites will cost $24 to ship at The Bird Safe Store. Pricier at My Safe Bird Store. @$103 although shipping is free but at Drs. F & S ....78 with free shipping or even less when they have sales. I just purchased 8 bags for $53 with free shipping. Great Companions offers free shipping but have to purchase over $89 although I can easily do that if I purchase a 15 lb. box of OFBs. Their 15 lb. box is about $96 whereas MSBS is selling that for $140. Windy City doesn't sell OFBs. Sometimes the stores you listed do have coupon codes and that can be helpful.

It's going to be a matter of doing a lot of comparison shopping.

I have Amazon Prime so I can use Amazon has a resource for some items.

Still it's a sad thing and Mizzely's post makes things even sadder if that information is true.

Maybe Chewy will start adding more products for birds. I can easily do $49 for free shipping from them since I order dog food from them. Interesting that when I do a search for OFBs I saw some listings from Chewy but when I click on the link it states that the product is currently unavailable. I spoke with a rep from Chewy and she did a search and found the links and said that it's strange but maybe they discontinued the items. I told her they never stocked them so maybe they are planning on adding them. Never saw any links for OFBs at Chewy before.
https://www.chewy.com/caitec-oven-fresh-bites-small-parrot/dp/122460

As an independent small guy here, I can tell you firsthand the cost to do business is just that a COST.

How they can ship on $19 orders for free they can because of high volume. Most of the stores online cannot beat this without losing money. Just s waste of time truly. I don't pull a salary, my volume just isn't there yet. These big box stores online have really created a big mess for anyone trying to compete. I get it, everyone likes a good deal. Sometimes you have a price to pay. Is it lower pricing or free shipping?

I have and will continue to offer best pricing as I have. Even free shipping on $89 costs the business with sales discounts to be honest it's great to make a few dollars. Being an online retailer of pet products certainly isn't a high profit margin.

I feel bad for those losing their jobs, and I feel bad that the deals most are used to getting are going away.

Maybe with this loss it may help realign the best business practice for all as in the small companies trying to compete against these retail giants who have created tough competition across the marketplace.

 

[lexalayne]

<%!&@/ S.O.B.(ird) did depend on the fall sale for tons of pellets %**!€

 

[Appolosmom]

I buy my food there always fresh

 

[Appolosmom]

I don't understand why they bought them out if they were going to close makes no sense to me

 

[lexalayne]

ASS

I don't understand why they bought them out if they were going to close makes no sense to me

Sell off their assets and eliminate some competition

 

[painesgrey]

As an independent small guy here, I can tell you firsthand the cost to do business is just that a COST.

How they can ship on $19 orders for free they can because of high volume. Most of the stores online cannot beat this without losing money. Just s waste of time truly. I don't pull a salary, my volume just isn't there yet. These big box stores online have really created a big mess for anyone trying to compete. I get it, everyone likes a good deal. Sometimes you have a price to pay. Is it lower pricing or free shipping?

I have and will continue to offer best pricing as I have. Even free shipping on $89 costs the business with sales discounts to be honest it's great to make a few dollars. Being an online retailer of pet products certainly isn't a high profit margin.

I feel bad for those losing their jobs, and I feel bad that the deals most are used to getting are going away.

Maybe with this loss it may help realign the best business practice for all as in the small companies trying to compete against these retail giants who have created tough competition across the marketplace.

I think a lot of the smaller shops suffer from a lack of shipping options. On an order of $27 - 44oz of Roudybush, 2.5# Zupreem - I'm paying $20-25 additional in shipping alone because my only shipping option is UPS. 2-day UPS Air costs upwards of $65! Whereas if they used a 2-day USPS flat-rate box, I'd only be paying about $15. I would love to support smaller businesses, but I can't justify their practices of charging that much for shipping when I know that there are cheaper options available.

 

[iamwhoiam]

I've only ever been to our Petco one time. I didn't like the layout of the store and the bird section was really lacking supplies I would consider purchasing. Petsmart is expensive for the pellets I would buy. The last time I went there to get a couple of different sizes of Roudybush because I had forgotten to add it to my orders I said something to the cashier about the price and he used his ipad and checked the prices on Chewy and matched those prices ( even though they were on sale). So from now on if I really need something pronto and have to go to Petsmart I'll ask about price matching.

Both Petco and Petsmart will do price matching and sometimes they will check for you but sometimes you need to bring the information to them, printed or on your cell phone. I've noticed that their online prices are sometimes cheaper than their brick and mortar store prices so you can price match those, too, as well as prices from other stores.

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

I like to support local businesses but I've chosen to order the bulk of my food online. Reason? The one local pet store I used to buy from didn't sell cats or dogs but did carry rodents for either snake food or pet, rabbits and ferrets and maybe other reptiles and definitely birds. At one time they had quite a few birds including young and rehomes but that was years ago. They do still have occasional birds that people bring in to rehome and some smaller species. But, my main reason and only reason I quit buying from them was the last time I went in to get supplies and there were only three bags of the Volkman I like for my conures ( I also bought my pellets for the biggies and littles there) the bags were pretty dirty on the shelf so I went to a long time store employee and asked when a new shipment would be coming in. She offered to clean the bags up for me so I pulled the two cleanest looking bags off the shelf and my fingers were slightly sticky. I smelled my fingers and it was the obvious urine smell from a rodent. Not only was that disgusting, the bag closest to the wall on the shelf had seed scattered all around the area on the shelf and .... the back wall was thickly coated with rat pee and seeds stuck to it. I'd say there was a pretty happy rat enjoying some freedom and munchies for quite a while. How could they NOT notice that? She still offered to clean the outside of the two bags but I declined and said I'd wait for another new shipment to come in. Never went back. We bought our dog food there too. Now I get it all from Chewy and what they don't offer I've bought from Drs F &S and Mysafebirdstore...and a couple of others.

 

[faislaq]

So sad to see them go! Dr. F & S was a godsend when buying toys for Yuri the 'zon last year.

Oh yeah, that was you! You're still awesome for that.

I really think Petco just wanted to get rid of the competition so they swallowed them up and spit them out.

If they were smart, they'd've kept Drs and liquidated Petco. The PetSmarts around here have always been cleaner, friendlier and the animals' conditions healthier. Not to mention PS seems to have better customer service policies, thought they may have changed over the years; I quit going years ago.

I have to agree with @Mizzely They honestly are doing better than PetSmart right now from what I've heard.

That really surprises me. I don't know may people who prefer Petco.

Saw this on Facebook:


As a resident of Rhinelander, Wisconsin and a former employee of Drs. Foster and Smith, I would like to congratulate Petco on being able to destroy a 34-year-old company in under 5 years. It was an accomplishment unlike any I have seen in business.

Second shift at our distribution center was recently laid off, so another 250 people joined our small town of under 9,000's jobless. Just a year before you took over, they were growing so fast, the owners sought loans to expand but were denied as they were the sole owners both late in life and one quite ill and no one in their families desired to take over.

I will never forget the story your executives told us when you bought us in order to teach us about warehouse cleanliness. You mismanaged a Midwest distribution center so poorly, it was infested with birds and rats and the employees were issued raincoats to get through. The FDA fined you the maximum they could for such egregious violations; $10 million, but no one was fired in senior management.

The only lesson you chose to impart to us from that story is that the employees of that distribution center were punished by having 3 weeks of unpaid leave so you could clean up your self-created mess, not the gross negligence of their superiors going all the way to the CEO. I use this in examples to others about how incompetent and corrupt your senior management truly is.

Your clever PR stunt of donating $100,000 to our local animal shelter was seen by many employees and citizens of the community for what it was, a gimmick for taking over one of the largest and oldest employers of our once strong city.

In their farewell address to us, Race Foster and Marty Smith, lifelong residents of the area, said they had reached an agreement to keep the business open and here in Rhinelander for at least 5 years. That 5 years is met in February of 2020. In the end, February of 2019 is all you could muster. So again, congratulations on being exceptionally bad at your job.

God help whomever you acquire next.
#Petco

Disgusting and sad.

There are many places that you can buy bird supplies other than Drs or Petco.
Great Companions
The Safe Bird Store (my favorite)
Windy City Parrots
My Safe Bird Store

on and on and on...….

Thank you!

 

[Feather]

Oh yeah, that was you! You're still awesome for that.

Hehe, thanks. I'm going to be visiting my friend who connected me next month so hopefully I will have a chance to meet the old bird! And prove to his owner than I'm real...

 

[lexalayne]

I can usually find supplies on amazon. It’s strange when u can’t find a good price searching their site but if you google what your looking for then the best amazon price shows up. Hmmm

 

[faislaq]

I can usually find supplies on amazon. It’s strange when u can’t find a good price searching their site but if you google what your looking for then the best amazon price shows up. Hmmm

The Honey app does the same thing for me. I put the best price in my cart, but it still finds lower prices sometimes. Why aren't those options in my original search??

 

[lexalayne]

The Honey app does the same thing for me. I put the best price in my cart, but it still finds lower prices sometimes. Why aren't those options in my original search??

What’s the honey app ?? I’m going to search the App Store - I spend too much time trying to find the best prices!

 

[lexalayne]

Oh I can’t wait until this is available. Thank you !!! U know the toy the “Beakasaurus” (pic) I remember being able to find it on sale for around $24-25
Now it’s really expensive...and it’s one of my favorites because I can rebuild it and it has chains so the wood doesn’t end up on the cage floor ! And I don’t think it will ever come down to that price again... guess I’ve been buying parrot toys a long time .

@faislaq - does the honey app count the shipping of an item or does it “see” free shipping ? Jw

 

[faislaq]

It's an app my sister has on her phone for finding better prices on Amazon & I think it tries coupon codes on other sites to find the best one for you. I don't like a bunch of apps on my phone, so I only have it on my computer. You go to Join Honey or something like that, set up a free account, then when you shop Amazon you'll see a price comparison on each item's page. "You can save $X.xx" if you choose this and are willing to wait for the slower shipping." Sometimes it says you've found the lowest price, which is also nice to know. I really like the Price History feature. Since Amazon's prices fluctuate so much I like being able to see what things sold for in the past 30 days.

 

[faislaq]

Oh I can’t wait until this is available. Thank you !!! U know the toy the “Beakasaurus” (pic) I remember being able to find it on sale for around $24-25 Now it’s really expensive...and it’s one of my favorites because I can rebuild it and it has chains so the wood doesn’t end up on the cage floor ! And I don’t think it will ever come down to that price again... guess I’ve been buying parrot toys a long time . View attachment 294073 View attachment 294072

Cool! How much did you get it for? Through Drs or Amazon?

 

[iamwhoiam]

You can also use camelcamelcamel for checking and tracking Amazon prices.
Amazon price tracker, Amazon price history charts, price watches, and price drop alerts. | camelcamelcamel.com You don't need to set up an account. Just type in the product and search.

 

[lexalayne]

@faislaq

It was quite a few years ago that I found the beakasaurus on sale for that low price. And I bought a ton of them. This year when I went to find them again I was shocked at how much they went up. I think the lowest this year was around 35.00 which still isn’t bad. The base lasts a long time and I’ve made many many toys over and over with the left over chains and the thick base.