Selling To Pet Stores
My experience is being a one-person small business selling locally.
In my area as of 2020, about 70% of the pet stores that sell guinea pigs are willing to purchase from breeders like me (being local, and not bottom-dollar seller).
It is characteristic that they can only purchase if they don't already have their guinea pig cage space filled up by other guinea pigs or haven't reserved guinea pigs from someone else already.
Also where I live, pet store owners and managers are responsible for finding sources for the pet animals they sell. It doesn't matter if the store is a franchise or fully-owned by the operator.
In a sale situation like there is in my area, if someone is a new, small-scale breeder who is approaching pet stores that they don't have a business relationship with, it was necessary to visit each pet store to talk with each manager or owner to understand that pet store's needs, probably before having any babies available. The only time I would suggest that the first contact be a phone call would be if the store was in a different city and the breeder has prior experience in breeding and selling.
A breeder without experience is unlikely to be immediately trusted. You will need to use your people and business skills, maybe show pictures of your operation, and show some knowledge. If you are selling to other pet stores, you would also talk about that.
You should be seeking to start a long-term business relationship, and this usually does not start with the pet store manager saying "Yes I'd like to buy!" and waving their arms. Experienced breeder sometimes, but not a new breeder.
In my situation, my pet store buyers specifically prefer to buy from local breeders instead of shipping them in from another country, and are usually buying from more than one local breeder.
Baby guinea pigs brought in by the general public sometimes screw up the whole pet store with contagious diseases. Experienced pet store owners and managers are, and should be, wary of people who show up at their door claiming to be guinea pig breeders.
An experienced pet store owner who doesn't know you will not necessarily trust you immediately, being concerned about things like:
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The kinds of pet
stores that want to buy from local breeders, and
are not going for absolute bottom dollar guinea
pigs, want breeders like this:
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It is a good idea for a breeder to provide information about their sale policies for pet stores in writing and have them available when approaching pet stores for the first time. This is written as a list of the ways you provide support to the store and your sale animals. It should not stylistically read like a list of restrictions (even where some restrictions may be included in your document).
Oftentimes, buyers like having a paper that originates from the breeder that tells them a little bit about the guinea pigs they are getting. Obviously you do not need to do pedigree-looking documents (although you could if you have the time for that), but a little something you can do in that direction can help the pet store sell the guinea pigs.
Forms with a color printer may be more money than you are set to do; black and white can work for this. Ideas: 1 form per guinea pig, indicate the color and coat genetics (teddy / rex / rosettes/ etc), parents names, a description, birthdate, birth weight, how many babies were in the litter, any treatments (some pet stores might suggest an anti-parasitic if the buyers ask for this), and other comments if any. There could also be general guinea pig care information printed on the form, and maybe, your name or trade name.
You may find a pet store that wants to buy from you, and when you scope out the store, you suspect that they may be struggling business-wise.
In this situation you may see things like: no customers in the store or almost none; there's never a line at the cash register; the area around the storefront doesn't get a lot of foot traffic; really small retail area; recently changed locations.
It is not in your interest for your sale animals to sit around in a pet store's cages for a long time due to no buyer taking them, and that especially applies to low-volume pet stores. As they get older, they become progressively more difficult for the pet store to sell - younger ones have more appeal to buyers. Also, the longer they sit there, the more chance there is for health problems to develop (for whatever reason).
If you suspect that a store may have slow sales, I think your best option is to sell them 1 pair of girls (presuming in your area that girls are the hot product and the boys are the ones that sit around). Then, wait to see what sells and how quickly.
In a case like this, if you find that they sold 3 pairs of girls over 3 months, this may not mean that it is time to pass them boys. Sales flow for boy guinea pigs has been very different than for girls for me. There has been much less demand for boys; some buyers will actively seek out girls, calling stores and such to check availability. Girl guinea pigs can be practically a different product from boys which may sit in the same store forever.
If the owner owns several pet stores and the others are doing well, they can move sale animals between the stores if one is slow, and it's not the same kind of concern.
All pet stores have some amount of difficulty, at least now and then, with moving sale boys out in a timely fashion. You will find that a pet store with older boys may need to refuse taking girls from you until the boys move on.
The situation gets awkward when you have sale babies ready and stores cannot take them, then they grow a bit older while you have them, and then when a pet store is ready to take some, the babies aren't so small any more (buyers preferring the younger ones).
The situation is caused by buyers being influenced to choose girls over boys for consumer-ish reasons.
I think that what consumers are counting against the boys is: compared to girls, there is a higher rate of intended-bonded pairs ceasing to be friends and fighting; a few males may develop a problem with impacted feces; males seem to be more likely to experience pain during urination as a result of body PH problems or bladder health problems; groups of 3+ in a home environment often do not work out (so, less flexibility); young males may demonstrate sexual behavior.
Some things they are probably missing about girls: young females can demonstrate the same sexual behaviors as boys (surprise!); high incidence of ovarian cysts which can require specialist veterinary surgery to save its life; they appear to me to get the same bladder/PH issues but because the urinary tract on females is very different they don't show symptoms of pain until the situation has advanced further; actual bladder infections requiring antibiotic intervention seems to me to be higher on girls.
By systematically refusing to buy boys, consumers are making a shitty situation for guinea pigs. I was making a delivery once when there was a snake food buyer in the store, buying dead frozen guinea pigs. The dead frozen guinea pigs looked like smooth-coated tricolor pet strains. Betcha there were more boys in that frozen, multi-color pile than girls.
Whenever a buyer is saying to a pet store (or breeder) "hey I want girls only, I'll wait until you have some", leaving perfectly-good, available boys untouched and unwanted, I'd like to ask them: what exactly should I do with my baby boys? I'm not into gassing them or euthanizing them, was I supposed to be? This species produces 50/50 sex ratio when measured across generations, you know.
Dear selfish consumers,
Was I supposed to flush this sweet baby boy down the toilet moments after birth,
or CO2 it to death for snake food?
Stop refusing boys.
Or maybe, get a pet snake, too. Why not?
There could be some pet stores who you may never sell to. Hopefully they are in a minority.
There are reasons like:
| Some pet stores have a
source that's keeping them full on either sale
animals, or something else frequently occupies their
cage space or store space. |
<-- This may be
seasonal <-- if buying from another breeder, this can change spontaneously. |
| Some pet stores breed a few of their own for sale. | <-- If they are
really breeding primarily for business purposes, you
may be able to sell to some of them, some of the
time, but they may want them from you too cheaply. <-- if not pedigree (probable outcross), these can be nice to buy from now and then. |
| Some pet stores are a
retail front-end for a fairly large pet breeding
operation. |
<-- Can't sell to
that. But can be good to buy from, maybe. |
| Some pet stores refuse to sell guinea pigs, but sell other animals, and seem defensive when you talk to them. | <-- Suspected bad
experience with a supplier or other breeder. You may
not be able to do anything at all about this,
especially if owner-operated and wholly set up
without correct cage areas. |
| Some pet stores may have a source for guinea pigs that is really cheap compared to you. They may at first seem interested when talking to you, but then when it comes to price talk, they expect a price that's way too low, and get a dismissive attitude because apparently you want $10 more than they are paying someone else. | <-- If its owner
operated and the person has a dismissive or shitty
attitude, don't bother, don't check back. They can
find you later if they need you. If the person is nice, there may be something that you and them can work out later if their situation changes. |
| In theory, maybe some franchise
stores are working under restrictions that limit who
they can take guinea pigs from. |
<-- Figure the situation out,
you may be able to maneuver to become one of those
suppliers. |
| A store's owner may be a show
breeder, and have a focus of selling exclusively
the owner's show rejects, and/or show rejects those
of a close associate. |
<-- These can be bad, with bad
attitudes. If something like this refuses to buy from you, it could be best to move on without engaging them much. They may view you as their competition, or as helping their competition. Its possible for a store like this to be hostile and cause problems for you in ways you can't anticipate. Be prepared to potentially notice empty cages in their store and for them to prefer this, rather than do business with you. Maybe check back every 2 years or something and see if anything changed. |
| Some retail pet stores do not sell
any small animals, but may sell small animal feed
products. |
<-- Waste of your
time, don't bother with this. When a retail store does not sell small animals but instead only offers some selection of related items and supplies, they have made a business decision to sell opportunistically, offering a minority of products where they have some competitive edge (price, retail location, whatever). In a business sense they are leeching business from pet stores that do sell small animals. |
| Beware of predatory
store managers or owners |
<-- Some business
owners are kind-of predatory. Seen one pet store
like this. Don't accept poisonous deals that you think could hurt your business either immediately or long-term. Maybe things like: under-the-table sales when all of your other pet store customers are above-table, or makes offers for your guinea pigs that are lower than what others are paying. In a case like this, a nice attitude is not indicative of a genuine interest in doing reasonable business with you. If in theory you did end up selling something to a pet store which made you suspicious for this reason, be wary of them moving the relationship in a scammy direction. Beware of gaslighting. |
| If a store which does not
normally sell small animals wants to buy from you
as a special deal of some sort, like a hardware
store wanted to offer springtime guinea pigs or
something like that, its for the best to turn down
that sale. I don't know if any pet species is a good candidate for a possibly-spontaneous pet purchase decision in an otherwise non-pet-oriented store, but in any case, guinea pigs are definitely not in such a category. |
If a sale baby in the
care of a pet store is reported to have gotten
sick, and:
It's not just a welfare thing, it also protects your interests. |
How much to price your guinea pigs to pet stores for is going to be affected by the specific situation in your area. There is certainly a need to look into what's happening in your locale before moving ahead full-steam (maybe prices are too low for your time, effort and materials). But you should not base decisions upon only one pet store's responses.
You may find that another breeder, possibly very large and or maybe a producer who is out-of-town, is selling for less than you are in a position to. In some cases (not all), selling for a little bit higher than your competition may not unequivocally rule you out as a supplier if you can demonstrate that you bring corresponding increased value to the pet store's business.
Not fully verified but: I read from one internet source that there is a retail pet store chain in the United States which finds it necessary to sell guinea pigs to the public at the same price as they buy them from producers (no per-animal profit). The business survives by selling the other products/feed/etc. This is because their buyers will never pay more than that.
A pet store in this situation seems unlikely to buy from you at a higher price, regardless of value-added quality in your guinea pigs, and you would generally need to work within that price framework.
Retail price check at the time was $32, supposedly on sale from the normal price of $38 (this is winter, 2020).
Interestingly: they state that their guinea pig stock is seasonal and that prices may vary per store. If a store like this is resistant to buying from you, seasonal shortages could represent an opportunity to get your foot in the door. Maybe they're short in the winter and you can produce then (only possible if you do the lighting properly). Or if it's not about winter, maybe it's something else you can work with.
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