Hasta La Vista S-Dub

Why we are getting rid of Saltwater (Why we decided to be businessmen and not hobbyists):

It's a bittersweet topic, really. We've had a great run. We've built aquariums, and relationships to go with them. We've made a lot of mistakes, but I'd say that we learned more from them than we lost. The economy is bad - yes - but truth be told the bad economy has had no negative impact on our business as far as we can tell. On top of that, it's never been about the money for us in this department, but if it's not... then why does it have to go?

We've always gotten flattering compliments from strangers who have been in (or around) the pet industry years. Something to the extent of "Most pet store owners are one of two things: 1. Hobbyists who love animals but have no business sense, and run their stores into the ground from poor planning and management or 2. Businessmen who want to make money, and don't care about the animals at all, and fail to meet one of the most basic needs for a successful business: passion for the product. I can tell that this store falls into neither of those categories, it seems like you have something really great going on here."

Like I said, pretty flattering. But in many regards also quite true. Being one of four functional owners - we had a fair likelyhood of meeting this description just by nature. We have our faithful financer (Dear Old Dad) who has virtually no interest in pets at all (don't worry, he doesn't hate them, he just wants his money back). We have Matt, who is well schooled in the art of Business, and could really never abandon his days of catching snakes and spiders in our back yard, or his inspiringly deep love for nature. We have Britt, who is driven by nothing if not her passion for people and animals. And we have myself - perfectly balanced in love for animals and my love for profits (I'm half dryad, half Ferengi). No but seriously, I'd say in all humility I'm well fit for the job.

When we started this out, we told ourselves that we were going to be the best. We set specific goals including all the obvious ... have the best customer service, best animal care, coolest store, yada-yada. An though becoming the best has been a much more long and difficult journey than we ever envisioned - at the end of the day I think that we are just that. We're the best - with so much better still to come.

And I think that's what it all really boils down to. There's so much better still to come... There is much that we do well, tons that we do better, and many areas that we are the best. Truth be told however, our S-dub department has never fit into any of those categories. Harsher truth be told, our S-dub department is a HUGE distraction from achieving those goals from both a monetary and emotional standpoint.

So that's why the saltwater department has to go. Someday, we'll have our dream come true: the best pet store in the Northwest, and when that day comes it will include the best saltwater department in the Northwest. It's a temporary sacrifice, and a good one for our business. We're getting rid of something pretty mediocre to have the best someday down the road.

Wine Country

I had my first anniversary two days ago, and it was awesome. My wife and I "went to the coast". Reality is, we spent six hours driving 60 miles stopping at every place we could hit the brakes fast enough to stop at as we drove along. We had originally planned on wine tasting, but somehow out of 9 stops none of them ended up being a winery. It was beautiful and relaxing.

Great thing is, that was just a little preamble. Tomorrow and Thursday we're heading to Desert Wind (Duck Pond's (my wifes employer)) very nice sister winery in Washington. While it's true that Amanda has to work some while we're there, we're both still thrilled.

While this is not really particularly inciteful or even pet related blog... I'd just like to say that life is good. First year of marriage was easily the best year of my life. I'm looking forward to many more. I love that it's getting warmer. I love Oregon. I love my wife.

So I'll be gone this week until Friday.

Our reptile order last week was awesome, by the way. It was HUGE, and everything looks amazing. A particular favorite of mine was the Red Tail Green Ratsnake, which is on hold but still in the store until June. Another little gem was the Asian Greenback Frogs. Legal, inexpensive, and attractive tree frogs are relatively difficult to come by. These fit the cut and appear to be quite healthy.

The baby Bearded Dragons are decent sized, and quite spunky. The baby Veiled Chameleons are gorgeous, and the perfect size. Not so small that they're still fragile, but not so big that they're not incredibly cute. It was just a solid order.

If anybody wants to see a veritable mountain of Bettas, come on in Thursday. There are two carnivals this weekend, and somehow I convinced both of them to do Bettas instead of classic feeder comets. 700 Bettas coming in on Thursday... each in their own cup. That's a lot of Betta.

Week of April 28th

Exciting week coming up!

We've got Reptile Industries coming in this week. I have been holding off doing a reptile order for almost a month now because I have had a steady stream of trade-ins and give-aways coming in, which has been fun. We got a new Black-Throat Monitor, a pretty good sized Savannah, a 8' Albino Burmese Python, a Dumeril's Boa, a SWEET Baird's Ratsnake (sold already), a couple young adult Corn Snakes... and more I think. Meanwhile stock has dwindled on all the necessities.

Likely at the end of this week we'll be getting at least 8 different baby/juvenile Colubrids. Baby Bearded Dragons, baby Veiled Chameleons, baby Ball Pythons, baby Herman's Tortoises, a couple baby Leopard Geckos...all the great bread n' butter stuff we've been out of for way too long.

We'll also be bringing into one month QT (gotta let the wild stuff settle!) Chinese (Green) Water Dragon babies, Green and Brown Anoles (our last batch did awesome), White's Tree Frogs, and anything else I catch a wild hair for.

Also coming in will be some a medium-size FW order. I'll be restocking Africans, which is always fun and getting in some great special orders for a customers. I'm getting Tanganyikan Cyps which I almost never see, and some other fun odd balls.

No Saltwater order this week BUT... I did a massive fragging last weekend and there are some really nice Torch, Candycane and Frogspawn frags that I wouldn't pass up if I was set up for LPS. We also had someone break down their very well established reef tank and bring in some AWESOME live rock. It's all covered with Coraline, striped mushrooms and mini tubeworms. $6.00/lb, it's hard to go wrong for such premium rock.

I really love work. It's like Christmas day... half the days of the week. And when it's not Christmas, it's reveling in the things we just got for Christmas, and sharing that pleasure with everyone in Newberg (and beyond).

A Revolution

I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley for the first time about a week ago. For those of you who unfamiliar with the flik, it's a Hollywood depiction of the early years of Steve Jobs (of Apple) and Bill Gates (of Microsoft). It was "educational movie night" for the fam, and it was one we all enjoyed thoroughly.

Now changing the world is not something I think about all the time, but it was a hefty part of my initial inspiration in getting the gears rolling on Critter Cabana, and really been stuck in my head since I watched that movie.

In the 80's nobody knew that they wanted a personal computer. They didn't know how it could change their homes, their work, and virtually every other facet of their lives. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates simply showed people what they didn't know they wanted, and what they didn't know was possible. I can't imgaine my life without a computer. I can't even imagine my life without a phone that has an operating system on it. Most people can't, because the way we think and act has been changed forever.

I feel like the pet industry (much like the tech industry in the 80's) is at the brink of exploding into something that people can hardly imagine right now. I want animals (exotic, scaled, finned, feathered, furry and otherwise) to be such a normal, solid integrated part of our lives that people are surprised when they don't see a Wallaroo jumping around your back yard wrestling with your dog or see the family Chameleon climbing around your home office. While this may not seem so far fetched or unimagineable (especially to you animals nuts), I could (and likely will) write an entire blog (or small novel) describing the wild dreams I have about the places people and pets will go together in the next 30 years.

I know Critter Cabana has the potential to be the catalyst for the aforementioned explosion, that I believe will affect virtually every person in America (and perhaps beyond). We haven't figured it all out yet, but we want to more than anything and we're gunning for the future as hard as possible. Every day we think of something new we'll add to our dream Critter Cabana: Portland that is brilliant (of course) and has just never been done before simply because the pet industry is stuck in the stone age.

Cross your fingers animals lovers - all we need is like 2 million bucks and the perfect location (and maybe a little more experience :) ) and we'll change the world - including yours.