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This article has been modified to note that there is no agreement between Petco and the Gastineau Humane Society for pet adoptions.
Juneau’s new Petco pet supply store will open with General Manager Barry Goodson at the helm. A barrel-chested man with a bristly salt and pepper beard, Goodson has worked his way up through the Petco ranks.
“I’ve had every job,” Goodsons said. “I started out as a part-time freight guy. I’ve worked my way through the stores, through the management jobs. I’d like to think I’m bringing something special to my people.”
Goodson comes to Juneau from Spokane, Wash. He was a Petco General Manager there, too. He’s been in Alaska for three weeks.
“I have been so impressed with the giving of the Alaskan people. You get great help from people just from asking directions, they want to give you their… ‘hey this is a great restaurant.’ They share so openly, and I love that.”
Juneau was a good fit for a new Petco, Goodson said.
“We know that Alaskans and Juneau people care about their animals.”
Petco will open on Jan. 2, 2012 with a grand opening on Jan. 5.
Goodson’s employees were setting up shelves on Dec. 15.
Most of the opening celebrations will take place over the weekend of Jan. 6-7. Goodson is still putting together all of the particulars.
“I have like seven lists of what is important today,” Goodson said.
Though Petco will miss the holiday shopping season this year, Goodson said he appreciated Petco’s willingness to wait and not force the opening.
“Maybe the community would not of gotten the store that we’re going to present, they might have got short-changed. Let’s give them the store that they deserve and lets push it back,” Goodson said.
Petco will carry Alaskan fish food and other pet treats.
According to the state Office of Fisheries Development, in 2009 there were an “estimated 172 million companion animals living in 62 percent of United States households, where pet owners spend on average, $30 billion annually to feed their companions.”
“Adding Alaska seafood to pet foods and snacks targeting this high-end demographic satisfies customer buying preference for pet foods that must be a source of high nutrition, taste, and means of maintaining excellent animal health,” the Fisheries Development website says.
Petco hopes to partner with Gastineau Humane Society to offer pet adoptions to its customers.
“It’s a great shelter, it’s clean, its really well taken care of,” Goodson said.
Chava Lee of the Gastineau Humane Society said that is not an option. "We have no partnering agreement with them and we would not adopt out our animals through them."
Petco doesn’t sell any cats or dogs.
“Petco has a forever home mantra,” Goodson said. “We want to help these organizations find forever homes for these animals.”
Goodson said Petco will sponsor events throughout the year, including a hamster derby.
“We set up a racetrack for hamsters in balls,” he said. “People bring their hamsters in to race them and we give out prizes.”
The pet supply store will offer smaller creatures for sale, including fish, saltwater invertebrates, aquatic turtles, goldfish and small animals like hamsters, gerbils, chinchillas and ferrets.
“Which a lot of people find very interesting,” Goodson said.
The reptiles department will have non-poisonous ball pythons, red tail central boas and corn snakes for snake enthusiasts just getting started. Lizard lovers will find bearded dragons, Chinese water dragons, leopard geckos, a good starter lizard, “it’s the easy one for kids,” Goodson said.
Goodson said he is excited to offer natural and organic foods to pet lovers. People are themselves eating more organic and natural food and are feeding it more to their pets, he said.
“We’re all about extending our lives, we’re all about extending out pets’ lives. They truly have become our family members so we want to extend their lives as well as we can,” Goodson said.
Petco is located in the west end of Nugget Mall. Petco will not open into the mall, as a new OfficeMax will open in between. Petco’s competitor, Wee Fishie, is located across the parking lot, but is also considered part of the mall. Wee Fishie sells birds, fish, small pets and reptiles, food and supplies. It has been in operation since as early as 1991. Wee Fishie is owned by Wee Fishie LLC, Andrew Nelson and Emiliano Ruiz, according to the state’s Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing website.
Wee Fishie declined to comment.
Goodson said Petco did not plan to locate near its competitor.
“We are very happy to have Wee Fishie as our neighbor,” Goodson said. “It was not a planned thing. We are like any other business, we do a lot of research, we talked a lot with the mall people about space. We are hoping we have a great relationship with Wee Fishie.”
The store is a bit less than 12,000 square feet.
Out of about 25 employees, only two were hired from Outside.
“Everybody else, all of my management team and all my staff, is from here locally,” Goodson said.
Depending on the volume of the store, Goodson said he may hire more.
Employees will get a lot of training, Goodson said.
“We teach them about fish, we teach them about small animals… not just that the furry ones go in the box,” he said.
“We are really into the education department, we want to make sure that when a person leaves here with an animal, they are 100 percent sure that that is the animal they want and that they can take care of it,” Goodson said.
“It is important to me that my employees are happy, because it all transfers. If they are happy, my customers are happy.”
Goodson said he is looking forward to all the new faces coming through the door.
“I hope we have something that provides for them and if not, we’re going to help them find it. Whether it is from us, whether it is from Wee Fishie, whether it is from Swampy Acres, we want to be part of the community and we want to be helpful in that respect,” Goodson said.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (76)
Add commentkiki...
"But Im not wasting my time responding to your nonsense any longer."
What you call nonsense, GHS calls their financial disclosures to the Internal Revenue Service. I'm not sure how posting their own information constitutes twisting words, but I do applaud that you have finally elected to leave the hard working GHS staff out of your personal attacks.
Adoption Events
What a great idea! I do hope that Petco finds some way to partner with our other local communities that have problems with strays and abandoned pets. I (for one, anyway) would be willing to donate toward the extra expenses and logistics involved....
Kiki --- a raspberry for you. phfft. I dislike it intensely when people twist other people's intentions in an attempt to obscure the message. My opinion of your commentary in general has been damaged.
hmmm
Peyton, perhaps you need to re-read who is twisting whose words.
I think what bothers me is people like you, who have a love of animals, but choose to stay mum when someone like Git spouts their lies and rhetoric about our local shelter that does alot of good in this community. I guess its OK with you though, that according to him, our shelter should only worry about dogs and let the stray cats fend for themselves. If you choose to not stand up to someone like him, I dont much care about your opinion of my posts.
kiki...
I never once made a statement with one iota of negatively about GHS or employees. I did state that I didn't want my tax dollars used to permanently incarcerate some poor feral animal. And for that you called me "slanderous", "disgusting", as well as a "liar" spouting out "rhetoric". Before you continue your anthropomorphisizing, you need to consider whether or not some horrified scared creature living every second of its waking hours in ever escalating fear of its human captors is really the "humane" thing to do. I don't. And I don't want my tax dollars used to torture these animals. And *I'm* the "disgusting" one...
But, to steer the dialog back towards this article, one has to ask themselves, is denying help of any kind from Petco in the best interest of the animals? Why then, is GHS purposely doing something that is not in the best interest of the animals? Who's best interest is it?
You know
You wonder why people like to move out of town. Fact is this little thing called The Internet has brought the competition to market without the traditional brick and morter concept. Everyone said the same thing about Home Depot and guess what...all the other hardware stores are still here. No one groused when Costco got their pet section. Andy and E are savvy enough to make the new market conditions work. If anything, Petco is helping out Nugget Hall (yes I know I said Hall and not Mall) with a face lift and could encourage other chains like Say Old Navy or JC Penny to try business in Juneau. The new GM is also a new resident in town and made a choice to come here, how about showing him some community spirit? Not like he's dumping toxic waste in the channel.
not one iota of negativity about GHS?
Comments by @Git, at least until he changes his posts:
"They have elected to use our tax dollars to lock up stray and feral cats for the rest of their lives"
Something that isnt true but the way. Many cats brought to the shelter arent strays and arent ferals, they are pets people gave up for various reasons. GHS provides medical attention, food, a warm place to sleep, safety, and human attention such as brushing, interaction, etc and they try to adopt them out. Your statement is made out of pure ignorance, period. Oh and by the way, right now they have 24 cats, 4 dogs, 1 rabbit and 4 rats for adoption.
No negativity? Your statements continue:
"If GHS wants to continue along their path, then they should immediately stop accepting all monies from CBJ. Then they will no longer be getting a portion of the money I spend on food, heating fuel, and medicine. Then they can lock up as many cats as they would like without people like me complaining about it."
"Gone are the days of full dog pens. Often times there are no dogs at all for adoption. GHS has become a bloated beaurocratic boondoggle with more employees than adoption animals."
"GHS hides behind it's "animal shelter" facade when it's true existance is employing the dog catchers and employing a bunch of animal lovers who should probably be working at Petco rather than suckling from our citizen's tax coffers."
"They have elected to use our tax dollars to lock up stray and feral cats for the rest of their lives- not something that is in their animal control contract with the city, and not something that I want MY money being spent on."
Do I think its better for a stray to be in a warm cage at the shelter where it gets food, medicine, caring, than being out on its own trying to fend for itself? You bet I do, and if you think seeing a cat out on its own, skinny because its sick, hungry because no one cares about it, or in danger from cars, wayward dogs, etc is more humane, you are worse off than I thought. Apparently you think stray dogs are entitled to care at a shelter but for some reason you have issues with cats being provided that same type of care. I do see you just now changed your wording to say "feral animal" when in prior posts, your rant is nothing but about cats. In case you are confused as to the exact reason I called you disgusting, which judging by your prior post you are, this should make it pretty clear. I dont know, maybe you have issues about the fact that cats are much smarter than you appear to be because its very clear you know very little about the shelter, other than they care for cats you dont like and use a small amount of your tax dollars for that care. After reading your posts, I would much prefer my CBJ tax dollars go to them rather than to anything that benefits you. Gits, go play your game with someone else, Im not interested.
reality check
@Git, seriously I cant help but wonder if you are the hoarder lady who had the cats seized from, the same lady who called those cats strays and ferals when in fact, many of them were people's pets. The same lady who kept the cats in a van frozen to their own feces and urine, sick, cold and hungry. Because anyone knows GHS doesnt lock cats up for the rest of their lives and in fact, they were able to adopt most of those out. Anyone can also go back and look at all your negative, yes negative, comments about GHS and its staff. Your statements make no sense.
kiki...
"But Im not wasting my time responding to your nonsense any longer."
Since you are continuing to respond, should we interpret that to mean my facts are not nonsense? It pleases me that you have come around to my way of thinking.
Your way of thinking
Gits or Blake or whoever you are, rest assured I can safely and happily say I will never come around to your way of thinking. Stating that the shelter locks all strays and ferals up for the rest of their lives is a lie or some weird figment of your imagination. Seeing how we are into interpreting things, the fact that you didnt deny that you are the hoarder lady is certainly interesting.
Will not support Petco. E and
Will not support Petco. E and Andy have been very good to us, gave us no reason to turn on them and take our money else where. Keep it local!
Ak_Mom
I couldn't agree with you more! Well said on everything!
kiki...
"the fact that you didnt deny that you are the hoarder lady is certainly interesting."
I have never had a cat. It would certainly be delusional to call somebody who has never had a cat a "cat hoarder". I have petted cats in the past, but as far as I know that doesn't constitute being a hoarder.
"Stating that the shelter locks all strays and ferals up for the rest of their lives is a lie or some weird figment of your imagination. "
Again, I will simply quote GHS's own material. This is from their web site "FAQ" section: "GHS does not euthanize any animal unless they have failed a temperament test or have a serious illness or condition that diminishes the quality of their life or affects the lives of other sheltered animals."
Considering that your comments have degraded into the realm of delusion, I can only suspect that YOU are the cat hoarder. But I'm not about judging people. Hoarding is a symptom of a disease. You should seek help, and I will pray for you.
Gits, you think you are
Gits, you think you are smarter than everyone else but what you really are is a game-player. Seen plenty of them in my lifetime. How you manage to twist the info at GHS website into saying they lock up all strays and ferals for the rest of their lives is pretty amazing. As for me being a cat hoarder, thats a pretty good twist also seeing how all my posts have been defending GHS to your falsehoods and criticism. I guess another way to look at it is somehow you think the shelter locks up all stray and feral cats but yet apparently doesnt do the same with dogs. Thats some real common sense thinking you have going on. You must truly hate cats because anyone who thinks they are better off left fending for themselves is sick, in my opinion. Save your prayers for someone else such as yourself because the "god" I know wouldnt never think what you advocate is a good thing. Have fun with your game-playing.
akdebs, Alaska Zoo a pet store??
ALASKA ZOO is NOT a PET STORE its a ZOO an Alaskan ZOO on O'Malley Road in Anchorage I've been there many time as a kid with my Grandparents & have taken my kids there as a parent.
Pet Zoo IS a ALASKA PET STORE. :)
I think Juneau needs to pass a law on cat owners to have to license ALL of their CATS over the age of 6 months! Just like a dog owner. Why do you think there are so many cats at the pound unlike dogs?
I WELCOME Petco and so does our pets!
akdebs, Alaska Zoo a pet store??
ALASKA ZOO is NOT a PET STORE its a ZOO an Alaskan ZOO on O'Malley Road in Anchorage I've been there many time as a kid with my Grandparents & have taken my kids there as a parent.
Pet Zoo IS a ALASKA PET STORE. :)
I think Juneau needs to pass a law on cat owners to have to license ALL of their CATS over the age of 6 months! Just like a dog owner. Why do you think there are so many cats at the pound unlike dogs?
I WELCOME Petco and so does our pets!
I cant believe i just read
I cant believe i just read all of this.....but these thoughts come to my mind.....
1.
The nugget hall.....thats a good one!
2.
I have no doubt the staff and volunteers at ghs are top notch.....i have never heard anything but horror stories about the uniformed arm of the outfit, in fact...i believe it was an article which involved one of our beloved animal control officers which dang near got the forum on this paper shut down the last time!
3.
It sounds as though ghs has plenty of dogs to get rid of at this time.
4.
This whole petco vs. juneau thing is a moot point because they are overpriced and wont last long.....unless they sell a lot of fish.
Correction
My bad- PetZoo. Sorry. But is is Alaska owned.
Welcome to Juneau, Petco!
...and there's some more free publicity for you too!
We'll be sticking with Wee Fishie, however---Nothing personal. I'm sure the market will figure it out.
CBJ has indeed made efforts to encourage people to shop locally, and I could be wrong but as far as I know the emphasis there is on stores that are located in Juneau as opposed to elsewhere.
For the record Chava Lee and her staff do a remarkable job, and it's usually not an easy one. I've found their enforcement team to be both courteous and understanding as well. We're lucky to have them in this town and it's money well spent, as far as I'm concerned.