Nature’s Own Animal House

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Pet supply store Animal House is built on Solid Gold

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By Celene Adams

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It was while researching dog food for her three fussy former strays that owner Patricia Laurenzano, a former office administrator for an Albuquerque psychiatrist, says she came across the all-natural line of lamb, beef, turkey and tripe canine fare.

Her own dogs had turned up their noses at other vittels she'd offered, Laurenzano says, so she started distributing it. But delivery alone proved a difficult way to make a living so last March, she opened Animal House, a store that carries more extensive specialty pet products and services for dogs and cats, plus toys and seeds for birds.

Laurenzano’s strategy is to stock only natural or organic goodies. While most pet food contains numerous preservatives, she says, the food she sells is made from livestock raised on organic feed, contains no corn, soybeans, wheat or sunflower oil and uses only pesticide-free grains.

To accompany this healthy fare, Laurenzano also sells a product called SeaMeal.

"SeaMeal is a bunch of [19] sea greens. It's yeast free. It has flax-seed meal. It's an excellent source of Omega 3 and six essential fatty acids," she says, adding that supplementing a dog's diet with the product ensures that it will absorb 90 percent of the nutrients in its food.

Also, for persnickety cats and doggies in the doldrums, she offers natural herbal essences: tinctures to alleviate loneliness, ease adjustment to a new home, calm show-time nerves, or improve communication between animal and trainer, for instance. According to Laurenzano, added to water or taken alone, the remedies soothe overly possessive, destructive and emotionally imbalanced pets.

Even her treats -- bones, and beef, lamb and turkey jerky, for example, are natural.

"You can go and buy those pepperoni sticks. Read what's in them. Not good stuff. A lot of by-products. I try to stay away from that," she says.

The treats, or "impulse" items, as Laurenzano calls them -- because she keeps them on the counter by the cash register, ready to tempt the susceptible and soft-hearted (headed?) -- are one of her best-selling and most-profitable items. The average price is about $2, and she sells $50-worth a week.

Specializing in natural foods means Laurenzano eliminates any competition she might otherwise have from larger retailers.

"I want to be able to offer something you can't get [elsewhere]," she says, adding that before she opened the business, she specifically defined a potential client base by estimating the number of houses and dogs in the upscale Albuquerque Country Club area where she's located.

"I would say about 90 percent [of the residents there] have dogs," she says, and "I have approximately 200 customers."

However, while 75 percent of her customers buy pet supplies, she makes only about $10 on a bag of premium dog food and sells an average of 10 bags a week. Consequently, the profit margin on food alone isn't enough to sustain and grow her business.

Consequently, she also offers a self-service dog wash, as well as grooming services to boost her bottom line.

"If I didn't have the grooming [or] the dog wash, it would be very difficult," she says.

Fifteen percent of her customers come in for the grooming services and 10 percent come for the self-service wash, she says.

"Self-service" is something of a misnomer -- at least for the first visit -- because Laurenzano shows clients how to wash their dogs and helps owners lift their pets into the bath.

Then, for $15, the client receives shampoo, towels, brushes and all the water a dog can splash around the room in half an hour. "And they don't have to clean up," Laurenzano laughs.

Along with standard grooming services, Laurenzano includes a complimentary nail clipping, ear cleaning and anal gland expulsion service.

"A lot of people don't know about the two glands on the sides of the anus that need to be expelled. It should be done on a monthly basis so that the dog doesn't get an infection," she says.

Her costs to offer such services are relatively inexpensive. Insurance is about $500 a year.

The only other costs she's incurred, besides her equipment, include having to replace all the carpeting in the 600-square-foot store with linoleum, having to re-do the plumbing to accommodate the dog baths, and having four large signs made.

However, shipping costs for the products she orders are expensive -- $35 to ship four dog beds, for instance.

Consequently, Laurenzo turns to going-out-of business sales and ordering directly from the manufacturer to keep prices down.

One sale enabled her to purchase numerous specialty items -- a no-smell pet waste contraption and a dog's toy chest with a drawer for brushes and leashes, for instance -- at 80 percent off.

She also orders pet urns directly from the manufacturer. Aside from a pet crematory that also sells the urns, Laurenzano says she is the only supplier in Albuquerque. The marble and brass urns cost her anywhere from $4.50 to $16 and sell for about $65 each.

Then there are her novelty items, such as the "feather pole," a feathered stick with a toy mouse dangling from the end to torment cats, and miniature dog T-shirts and skirts with "Mama's Boy" and "Daddy's Girl" logos.

Laurenzano is the exclusive Albuquerque carrier of the handmade apparel, she says, and because she orders the shirts herself, rather than going through a middleman, a shirt priced at $14.99 costs her only $4.99. She sells it for $8.99.

Such tactics enabled Laurenzano to equip her entire store for $14,000 -- an amount that included, among other things, a cash register, two glass display cabinets, dog dryers, a collection of grooming tools, and high quality, specialty shampoos, such as a medicated flea bath and a brightening rinse for white dogs.

She also obtained two wash tubs for the dogs. The tubs, about the size of a regular bathtub and mounted on the wall, are Laurenzano's one regret.

The wall mount is the main problem, as the tubs sit approximately three feet above the ground and some dogs refuse to use a ramp to climb into them.

"I didn't realize I could buy a fiberglass tub and cut out an insert. But then again, I didn't have the expertise on that. How do you seal that? Then you have to build a wooden box for it and wooden steps and maybe the dog would go up the steps. At least this way, they're contained; they can't get out."

Her initial $14,000 investment, financed with a loan from her father and credit cards, also covered a $3,500 "dog tag" machine that engraves information on both sides of the tag.

"No other store in Albuquerque has one [that etches on both sides of the tag]. A lot of people came in and asked me [for this]," she says. "It hasn't paid off yet, but I think in the long run it will, 'cause I also plan to do dog shows at the [State Fair]. I'll get a booth, take some of my products, show some of my samples ..."

Those samples will include some new items: miniscule dresses, trench costs, booties and sweaters that could fetch as much as $50 apiece.

And this fall, she'll add Halloween costumes to her collection of doggie Santa suits, hats and reindeer ears.

"I sold out of [those] last Christmas," she says.