Petco is shuttering Dr.'s Fosters Smith

[faislaq]

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.

Neat! I love all of these tips!

 

[lexalayne]

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.

And this is a great idea, to track their prices - long story short - I got a training collar the summer before last for one of my dogs and decided it was overkill for what I needed. I bought it for 199.00 and when I checked the price on amaZon before I sold it on eBay it had gone up almost $75.00 with the same seller.

 

[lexalayne]

@faislaq

Amazon does have this with a 40% off coupon with a subscribe & save but u can subscribe for 1 month only - which I didn’t know.

 

[taxidermynerd]

How sad. I used to buy lots from Foster's & Smith.

I used to hate my local petco, I guess I'm lucky because the people there really care. That's also where Roxie's trainer is, although he's not corporate, he's his own deal. But I can't say the same for the other petcos in my area.

 

[Budgiebonkers]

I dont order from either petco or dr fs but seems all the old time companies are disapearing I use to order allot from petsolutions to find out thats no longer there either

 

[Love My Zons]

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.

It all depends on the amount of shipping you do with your carrier. UPS for me is a true business account and many times it's cheaper to send via UPS due to my discount. Some businesses do charge a % on their boxes to make up alittle bit more. I DO NOT do this and never will charge a mark up. One of my distributors charges a handling fee for any bag over 10 lbs. I find this ridiculous so in turn, I will buy from another distributor. I was told it helps them buy packing material. REALLY?! Me too! There are costs, down to the new box I might use, I don't charge for this. I re-use boxes as I can get them mostly FED EX boxes that had products in them at my job - new phones, accessories, never any pet food or food.

I have not had any boxes lately cost over $20 most are within the $11 to $15 range. As for free shipping on $19? There isn't enough markup on anything to make a profit even on $25 to $30 after factoring shipping out of it. F&S was able to due to high volume and their pricing with their carrier also negates a good discount. Where you lose one place on cost, you gain on other things.

When I used to buy products before my store, I always ordered mostly with a sale if possible and always hit the minimum to get free shipping. I was never one to order just one or two things. I always ordered enough to make it worth while. I know others don't shop like that, some do. I still go to stores for my dog and cat products. I can do this so I can see date codes on food- and know my bags are not compensated or damaged with shipping.

I feel you on this and I have often mentioned that I would gladly send anything that was small flat rate. If it can fit in a padded flat rate envelope such as 2 Nutriberries for example or one supplement such as liquid Avitech- then by all means I will work with someone to make that happen, no biggie it's $7.20 and I have done this many times for People who didn't want a UPS box sent for $10 or $12

You won't get this with some online retailers and I will go the xtra mile if I can for anyone, especially you guys here.

 

[Love My Zons]

@faislaq

Amazon does have this with a 40% off coupon with a subscribe & save but u can subscribe for 1 month only - which I didn’t know. View attachment 294074

As an example; the Beakasaurus is a great toy and I have that priced at $39.99 after a sale discount of 15% you are looking at $33.99 Just showing you that even with free shipping on Amazon, it's still about that same if you factored in shipping on a lower price. Spreading a discount amongst numerous ie

 

[faislaq]

I will go the xtra mile if I can for anyone, especially you guys here.

 

[painesgrey]

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.

I worked at a petstore that had an awful mouse infestation. I know exactly what kind of sticky you're talking about - it's beyond gross.

It all depends on the amount of shipping you do with your carrier. UPS for me is a true business account and many times it's cheaper to send via UPS due to my discount. Some businesses do charge a % on their boxes to make up alittle bit more. I DO NOT do this and never will charge a mark up. One of my distributors charges a handling fee for any bag over 10 lbs. I find this ridiculous so in turn, I will buy from another distributor. I was told it helps them buy packing material. REALLY?! Me too! There are costs, down to the new box I might use, I don't charge for this. I re-use boxes as I can get them mostly FED EX boxes that had products in them at my job - new phones, accessories, never any pet food or food.

I have not had any boxes lately cost over $20 most are within the $11 to $15 range. As for free shipping on $19? There isn't enough markup on anything to make a profit even on $25 to $30 after factoring shipping out of it. F&S was able to due to high volume and their pricing with their carrier also negates a good discount. Where you lose one place on cost, you gain on other things.

When I used to buy products before my store, I always ordered mostly with a sale if possible and always hit the minimum to get free shipping. I was never one to order just one or two things. I always ordered enough to make it worth while. I know others don't shop like that, some do. I still go to stores for my dog and cat products. I can do this so I can see date codes on food- and know my bags are not compensated or damaged with shipping.

I feel you on this and I have often mentioned that I would gladly send anything that was small flat rate. If it can fit in a padded flat rate envelope such as 2 Nutriberries for example or one supplement such as liquid Avitech- then by all means I will work with someone to make that happen, no biggie it's $7.20 and I have done this many times for People who didn't want a UPS box sent for $10 or $12

You won't get this with some online retailers and I will go the xtra mile if I can for anyone, especially you guys here.

I appreciate the effort vendors here will go to for the benefit of their customers. I'm in the far Northwest and most sites are quoting me at $18-22 for shipping. I suppose it's something I'm going to have to get used to, since I just moved to the area and am used to being in the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South and shipping rates seem somewhat cheaper there. In the vast majority of shipping cases, it probably is cheaper to ship via UPS. I'm just not finding that to be true in my particular situation.

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

I worked at a petstore that had an awful mouse infestation. I know exactly what kind of sticky you're talking about - it's beyond gross.


I appreciate the effort vendors here will go to for the benefit of their customers. I'm in the far Northwest and most sites are quoting me at $18-22 for shipping. I suppose it's something I'm going to have to get used to, since I just moved to the area and am used to being in the Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South and shipping rates seem somewhat cheaper there. In the vast majority of shipping cases, it probably is cheaper to ship via UPS. I'm just not finding that to be true in my particular situation.

Yeah... everything in this store could've been cleaner. Lazy employees and the owner was always there too. He also earns money by renting UHaul trucks. Those take up part of his parking lot. The bird room was never really that clean either. The one worker I always talked to would take birds no one wanted anymore. She kept a nice male tiel at the store instead of taking it home. His cage was always caked with poop. I was pretty disgusted about it too. So much so I told my husband about it and he agreed ( shockingly.. because I have enough birds) that if she would let me have the bird I could bring it home. My home has been closed to any kind of new addition for years but I was willing to make this exception. I asked her about him and told her I would love to take him home and she said "no, the customers would miss him and he was happy there". I don't think so. Such a shame, he was a very sweet bird.

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

I heard on the news yesterday the cost of a postage stamp is going up.. I think now it will be 55 cents to mail a letter. I guess shipping costs will increase too? I don't order much of anything other than items for the birds and my jewelry supplies. Most companies require a 25.00 minimum for free shipping, one is a 15.00 minimum but they always charge a 2.50 handling fee, and the one I order from the most has a 40.00 minimum. If they are having a great sale on jewelry supplies I can meet that easy.

 

[Mizzely]

Yes shipping rates are going up too. First class packages are going up by 10% in some cases and then its turning into a zone based pricing structure vs flat rate per oz. I'll be interested to see how that affects me as most of my packages go first class

 

[CeciliaZ]

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...….

I have shopped from 2 of these. Liked Drs. F/S because of the free shipping. Great Companions is new to me. Looked over their site and I did see some cockatiel food I would like to try! Thank you!

 

[iamwhoiam]

Nothing on their Twitter page and nothing on their Facebook page either (although I am limited to what I can read because I don't have an account).

I used to shop at My Safe Bird Store but after getting repackaged Herb Salad when I paid for the original packaging which cost a bit more and then never getting a refund of any kind and then having to deal with another issue I stopped shopping there. Plus when I only needed a few items it wasn't worth the shipping cost. Ordered from Great Companions once, bug spray which leaked a bit. Gave them a call and they gave me a partial refund.

My Bird Store - Discount Exotic Bird Supplies - mybirdstore.com is another place to shop but I generally only shop there when they have a great sale and I need a bunch of items. You get free shipping for purchases over $89.99 after discounts are applied so shipping can be high if your total is lower than that. Sometimes they offer flat rate shipping if the purchase total is over $59.99. I've gotten some excellent deals from them and when there have been issues they have been very good about giving me a credit or sending replacement items/parts.

 

[Jan]

Yes shipping rates are going up too. First class packages are going up by 10% in some cases and then its turning into a zone based pricing structure vs flat rate per oz. I'll be interested to see how that affects me as most of my packages go first class

Postage and Shipping costs suck but it's part of the whole ordering thing. I often get people telling my my shipping cost is high but hey, it is the rates they charge. I refund any overage and it is usually fairly accurate for many orders.

Oh yah, Great Companions site has been around for many years. Never bought from them myself.

 

[Appolosmom]

I just read that pet smart is going to be purchasing chewy I don't know if that's good or bad

 

[faislaq]

They already have.

Petco owned Drs since 2015
PetSmart purchased Chewy in 2017

 

[Appolosmom]

oh for crying outlould

 

[iamwhoiam]

Chewy still has excellent customer service and, hopefully, Petsmart won't decide to close them but two different Chewy reps told me that Petsmart only bought 30% of Chewy. They are affiliated with Petsmart but supposedly not 100% under their control. A few pet food companies pulled out of Chewy after Petsmart made the purchase because they prefer to deal with smaller retailers.

Drs. Foster and Smith closure, 289 layoffs feel like broken promise to some; state and local groups mobilize to provide support, options // WJFW TV-12, WJFWDT 12.1 and Newswatch 12 - Your Northwoods News Leader and NBC Affiliate

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

Chewy still has excellent customer service and, hopefully, Petsmart won't decide to close them but two different Chewy reps told me that Petsmart only bought 30% of Chewy. They are affiliated with Petsmart but supposedly not 100% under their control. A few pet food companies pulled out of Chewy after Petsmart made the purchase because they prefer to deal with smaller retailers.

Drs. Foster and Smith closure, 289 layoffs feel like broken promise to some; state and local groups mobilize to provide support, options // WJFW TV-12, WJFWDT 12.1 and Newswatch 12 - Your Northwoods News Leader and NBC Affiliate

This is true. I have a friend that worked for Chewy and this is what she told me a while back. She lives in Indiana. I don't know if they have any other locations without googling.