PetSmart is a privately owned American chain of pet superstores, which sells pet food, services, and small pets. The company was started by Jim and Janice Dougherty in 1986. Currently, the company owns about 1650 pet superstores in the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico, where the company offers pet food, pet products, and services like grooming, dog daycare, dog and cat boarding, veterinary care via instore third-party clinics. The company also does charity work by offering dog and cat adoption in their centers.Here we will see about PetSmart Competitors.
PetSmart’s Direct Competitors
Well broadly speaking it has Petco as its direct and major PetSmart Competitors. Petco (fully named Petco health and wellness incorporation), just like PetSmart, Petco is also an American pet retailer which sells pet foods, products, services, and small pets. It was founded in 1965 and originally worked as a mail-order veterinary supply company. Currently, it owns around 1500 pet stores in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
Let’s have a little comparison between the two competitors based on the following parameters:
- Cost of products: Well in this term PetSmart has surely an upper hand as more than 73 percent of PetSmart products are cheaper than Petco.
- Store cleanliness and attractiveness: Well in this context too PetSmart has climbed above Petco as their stores are way cleaner and more attractive than Petco’s.
- Vet offices: PetSmart has made vet offices a part of their stores to provide small animals and insects as food like mice, crickets, or feeder fish while Petco works with local shops to provide the same service.
- Grooming: PetSmart has far more experienced and better staff for grooming and their stores are far more attractive and cleaner.
From the comparison made above between PetSmart and Petco, it’s quite clear that PetSmart is the winner. But to a great extent, all fall to the services of individual stores, as many Petco stores overpower PetSmart in terms of the services provided.
Coming next, we have one more direct competitor named Pet supplies plus. Pet supplies plus was established in 1988 by harry shallop and jack berry in Redford Michigan in the United States. It is also a privately owned pet supply retailing corporation. And as of February 2021, pet supplies plus owns about 560 stores in 36 states. The company is quite much giving both PetSmart and Petco a run for money even though it has less no of stores. Just like PetSmart and Petco they also offer adoption events and grooming services.
However, there is one thing that is unique to them and sets them apart from the rest of their competitors. It’s called a self-service wash station. It’s unique in its way because unlike other stores where the employees wash the pets, here the owners are allowed to wash their pets and the rest of the mess would be cleaned up by the employees. The owners are provided with shampoo, conditioner, towels, dryer, flea and tick products at a reasonable rate. They think that it’s a great way of getting close to your pet and understanding them to a little bit more extent.
The Indirect Competitors
Amazon, Walmart, and Target are some of the indirect competitors of PetSmart, as all of these big companies sell pet foods and products too.
Amazon one of the big tech giants shares a fair fraction in pet products and because of its online hassle-free hasty deliveries and approachability, it possesses a threat to PetSmart’s business. Being a big company, the cost of pet foods and products are becoming more and more tempting, apart from the that the discounts which they offer on special festivals and seasons attract a large crowd towards them.
Walmart and Target being multinational retail corporations offer similar products and their approachability is more too than PetSmart’s.
Here we need to understand that here we are referring to them as indirect competitors because they don’t provide the services like grooming, daycare or veterinary clinics, or expert employees suggestion like PetSmart’s.
Conclusion
Right from its advent, PetSmart has faced many ups and downs. From expanding its business to multiple countries to facing a major failure in the United Kingdom. From acquiring more than half of the market to facing multiple controversies like getting a raid in one of the stores in Nashville by authorities where six injured and sick animals were found, PetSmart survived that all. Even now the multiple direct and indirect competitors like Petco, Amazon, Walmart are giving a hard time to PetSmart, but this is what allows all of them to grow even more and better their services. Even in today’s time whenever someone thinks about pet products and grooming services in the United States PetSmart is the first name in their mind.
FAQs (frequently asked questions)
1.What is the net worth of PetSmart?
Ans: currently PetSmart is worth around 8 billion USD.
2.Which is cheaper Petco or PetSmart?
Ans: according to a survey done online PetSmart sells some products which are quite cheaper than Petco
3.Does PetSmart sell cats?
Ans: well logically it doesn’t, rather it supports the adoption of pets that are rescued, through its events and some charity work.
4.Where does PetSmart get their animals from?
Ans: PetSmart gets its animals from many sources like breeding mills, rescue shelters, and from the fish vendors (for the fishes).
5.Does Petco and PetSmart treat their animals badly?
Ans: well, there have been some instances when both the companies were accused of treating the animals in some of their stores badly in the past. However, because of the public demands and after getting scolded by the authorities and being raided by PETA, the companies brought drastic changes in their policy and implemented strict rules to avoid such practices in the future.
