H Street G Street reports that Metro Mutts will open April 3rd. The store will open at 508 H Street. Here's a comment previously left by one of the team behind Metro Mutts:
Hey everyone! My name is Lee and I’m one of the founders of Metro Mutts. First off, thanks so much for your interest in our store! I would have replied sooner but as you can imagine, we've been pretty busy getting ready for the big day. I'll do my best to answer some of your questions and take lots of notes on all of your comments and feedback. We’re working on a press release but I’ll provide a sneak preview here… First off, all three of the owners live within a block of the store. We wanted to bring something new to H street, but had a hard time deciding what was the best fit. I was actually leaning towards a CrossFit gym at first, but my wife Kelly and the third partner Anna didn’t support that one. It didn’t take many trips to the suburbs for dog food for the winning idea to sink in. H Street needed a pet supply store and we were determined to make it happen. I won’t get into the details here, but let’s just say it’s been a long road (I guess that’s probably true for any business). We’ve learned a lot and continue to learn everyday – your continued feedback and advice is our greatest resource. Metro Mutts is your pet store, and we will make every attempt to fulfill your needs. Now for your questions...
Grooming: Our original plans called for 3 self washing bays, but the city had other plans. The zoning process for any grooming services takes a minimum of 6 months and isn’t guaranteed. If anyone has a good zoning lawyer they recommend, please let us know. We’ve been sidetracked with renovations but I’d like to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. Full grooming services are in our mid-range plan, but your feedback could make that a bigger priority.
Pricing: We are pet owners too. We have the same feelings as you about stores that only offer high end items. We plan to have a diverse range of products and we promise to price them reasonably. If you’re looking for something in particular, let us know.
Resources: We are working around the clock to learn as much as possible, but we also recognize that good professional resources are critical. We have some fantastic pet nutritionists that are helping us along and they will be ‘in our back pocket’ to answer any questions we can’t. We’ll also be sure to have a comprehensive list of local services, but we’ll need your help to determine who’s best.
Foods: We have received a lot of feedback on what foods to carry. We really appreciate all the input. As of today, here’s our lineup: Verus (preferred by our pups), Innova, California Natural, Evo, and Before Grain. We will also have frozen raw diet from Primal, Bravo, and Aunt Jeni’s. We’re looking into a few different freeze dried and dehydrated options as well. We will have a wide range of treats, but the coolest ones are the homemade styles from Anna’s kitchen! She posted some pictures on Facebook if you want to check them out. I am making notes of all the other requests and will look into them this week. Customer service is our first priority. If we don’t carry the food you prefer, we will order it especially for you.
Hours: We’re working on those. I could use your feedback. Would 8PM give you enough time after work? We are planning for 6 days a week, including weekends.
Cats: We placed a big order yesterday and plan to have plenty of cat food options. We’ll also have the various litter types. If you need something special, just let us know.
Fish: Sorry jmarcus, we don’t plan to extend beyond dogs and cats at this point and we won’t have any live animals for sale.
Please keep your questions and comments coming. We’ll do our best to provide quick responses here and on Facebook. And if you see us out walking the girls, please say hello! I’m terrible with people names, but I’ll probably remember your dog’s name! Thanks again, Lee.
25 comments:
Would love if you would carry Wellness brand food, and Halo brand canned food. Also Zuke's z-ridge dental bones, my dog loves them and I usually end up in Falls Church to find them!
Can I bring my boyfriend in? He's pretty shaggy.
I have to trek to Petsmart in Alexandria to find Blue Buffalo and Chataeu Animaeux is great but their prices have become more than my own haircuts so a close groomer would be awesome!
Good luck with the zoning, if you get the self-washing stations my dog and I will be regulars.
We would also like to put in a request for Blue Buffalo fish and sweet potato. Also, lots of tough to destroy toys.
Iams. And greenies in all sizes.
Iams. And greenies in all sizes.
Know what would be cool? A tie up station where you could leave your dogs for 10 minutes while you pop into a store that doesn't allow pets. Obviously we don't want a Molly situation, so it would need to be monitored or something. I don't know how it would work, but that would be cool.
"diverse range of products and we promise to price them reasonably"???
Good God, another place with low-end goods to attract the neighborhood riff-raff. Aldi all over again. Yuck.
WHEN is H Street going to be the next Georgetown, already?? I can't wait much longer...
Eukanuba for the kittehs.
It would be great if you could carry Eukanuba cat food. And perhaps toys?
two words: tiger cubs.
you're welcome
I vote Nuttro dog food :)
You should sell training collars. When I'm walking my dog people ask me all the time where they can get one.
You should also sell tough looking collars. Leather, spiked collars and such. There are a ton of pit-bull owners and the neighborhood and these are the type of people that like to make their dogs look cool or tough with such collars.
stock these two things and I promise you'll move them.
I would suggest the Taste of the Wild pet food varieties. My dogs eat the salmon variety, but this dog food is a huge seller at Chateaux Animal (their staff have told me on numerous occassions it is their #1 brand) and is often not in stock. If your store had it regularly, I would expect it would be a great seller.
They make a point of how they want to carry a range of things and not just be some high-end store, and everyone here goes off and requests a bunch of whacked-out high end dog foods.
Don't forget the ones in which each morsel of kibble is individually wrapped in a silk pouch, everyone.
welcome to the hood! i'll certainly be patronizing your establishment - I DO NOT WANT YOU TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS! screw the other joint in other areas of town, or across the border in other two states. my dollar goes to you!
Pro Plan, Pro Plan, Pro Plan dog food please. The kind with the chunks of fake meat. Have 2 large pits we will buy you out. Also, agree with the leather and spiked collars post.
Russ
Would love love love the self-wash station - looking forward to the opening!
I am big fan of Planet Dog collars and leashes. They are made with all natural materials such as hemp. They look cool and they are nice and soft for the pups.
Would be great if you carried Canadae. I currently trek to Barracks Row for pet needs-would definitely support you if you carried my brand of dog food.
If I didn't have to drive all the way to Old Town to buy our pup's Sensi-Bites food (made by U.S. Grain's Regal Pet Foods), I would be thrilled! Also I love the "tie-up station" idea. What a great one. I'd pay a few bucks an hour for a monitored room where I could drop the pooch and she could play with others while I shopped and/or yoga'ed (a la the Dogs by Day model on 14th Street). I realize this requires more space than you likely have, but I'm just saying.
Thanks again for all the discussion and interest in Metro Mutts!!!
To address your questions about our food line-up, let me start by saying that Metro Mutts can't possibly stock every brand - we simply don't have the space! To help narrow down the selection we did quite a bit of research and consulted with some of the industry's leading pet nutritionists. Although we recognize that some of the more popular brands are missing from our lineup, we decided to stick to a set of standards. At the top of this list are (1) The brand has never been recalled due to unsafe ingredients, poor manufacturing standards, or other potentially harmful reason, and (2) The food is made in the USA and all ingredients are sourced from the US (there are minor exceptions such as lamb from New Zealand and certain exotic berries which can't be found in the US). While we would love to apply the second criteria to all our other products, it just isn't practical. Some of the best dog toys are made overseas and we didn't want to limit the range of products/prices available at Metro Mutts. That said, we're planning to have a great lineup of US made toys and supplies, many from inside the Metro area! For more information on some of the recent pet food recalls, do a quick search on "Diamond Pet Food plant", or "2007 Pet Food Recalls." You'll see that many brands were impacted and our pets paid the price.
Metro Mutts will offer a variety of dog and cat food choices from economy to high-end. This includes grain free options, puppy food, senior and weight management, dogs prone to allergies, raw diets, dehydrated raw, and even frozen yogurt designed specifically for dogs! We have plenty of samples and will personally work with you to find the food that best fits your furry friend! All dogs are different and no one diet works for all of them. We had your pets' best interests in mind when selecting our foods and hope that we can find you a suitable healthy alternative within the price range you are accustomed to. If, for whatever reason, you can't find something in our lineup that suits your needs, please let us know. We can set up a special order for most foods and have it delivered to Metro Mutts especially for you.
On the topic of treats, toys, leashes, and other products...please come by and check out our extensive inventory. We'll have Zukes, Planet Dog, training collars, spiked collars, leather collars, and MORE. Sorry - no individually packaged kibble bits, but I did get a laugh from that one! As Moms and Dads to a few Mutts of our own, we tried to take elements from our favorite stores and combine them into one location. We wanted to offer a lot of variety, but not at the expense of a cluttered and disorganized store. We're confident that you will enjoy your visits to Metro Mutts, whether for food, supplies, or a quick homemade dog or cat treat baked by one of our own.
***See next post***
**Continued from Above**
We are also working with 'Diva Dog', a mobile dog groomer who has great reviews on Yelp! We'd like to establish a regular routine for his service to park near Metro Mutts and offer grooming appointments (with enough interest, we hope to get some quantity discounts). We are planning to try him out with our own pups this week! Hopefully this will help with your grooming requests while we work through the city for a special exception to our zoning permit. If anyone has experience with this process or advice on how to expedite it, please contact us at info@metromuttsdc.com!
Please check out our Facebook page for more discussions on products, pictures of the store, and to connect with your neighborhood dog owners. We apologize for the delay in getting our website up, but assure you that we are working hard to have it available before next weekend.
We hope that you will make it out on Saturday April 3rd (NEXT WEEKEND) for our soft opening! We'll have some free treats for you and your Mutts. Bring your Metro Mutts receipt to Toyland that night and receive $1 off your first drink! Also be sure to try the new "Metro Muttini" which will be offerred for $5 all night!!
Thanks again,
Lee, Kelly & Anna
The Metro Mutts Team
Good day to you my friend. I needed to give you a quick note to express my thanks. I've been studying your blog for a month or so and have picked up quite a lot of good info as well as enjoyed the way in which you've setup your blog. I am attempting to setup my own blog but I feel it is too general. I want to focus more on specific topics. Being all things to all folks isn't all that it’s cracked up to be. Many thanks.
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