Passion for pets energizes business

PET PROJECT: Michael Nallen, co-owner of Oceans of Pets in Woonsocket, started the store in 1987 with his wife, Joyce. Today annual revenue tops $1 million. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
PET PROJECT: Michael Nallen, co-owner of Oceans of Pets in Woonsocket, started the store in 1987 with his wife, Joyce. Today annual revenue tops $1 million. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Michael Nallen, the co-owner of Oceans of Pets, competes with corporate giant PetSmart, which recently moved within five minutes of his Diamond Hill Road store.
Smaller, independently run pet stores, including this one, are struggling to hold their own against big-box retailers, but Nallen, 58, whose love of fish – the focus of the store – dates back to his childhood, has several strategies in place to remain independent through the next two decades, he says. Though that is not without its challenges.
Fascinated by the beauty, mobility and “calming” influence of caring for fish in aquariums as a kid, Nallen got his first job at a fish store at 16 at Rumford Aquarium in East Providence. He started his own store in 1987 at age 31, with his wife, company Vice President Joyce Nallen, a certified public accountant whom he married in 1979.
Before marrying, Nallen lived with his mother in East Providence and had 27 fish tanks in the house.
Today, he is down to one tank in his own home, but the passion persists and is part of what gives him strength to weather the decline in independent pet stores, he says.
At a seminar he attended in August presented by the Pet Industries Joint Council in Washington, D.C., he learned from the watchdog group that independently owned pet stores that numbered 30,000 about 20 years ago have decreased to 6,000 nationally today.
“When I first started [in 1987], there was hardly any competition, which made it easy for us,” said Nallen. “As the Petcos and PetSmarts crept in, it took away a lot of business. Small pet stores went out of business, followed by wholesalers. We’re still in danger as an industry.”
To compensate, Nallen starts by hand-selecting healthy animals and fish weekly at wholesale outlets in Palisades Park, N.J., and West Haven, Conn. The basic business practice is all the more important in a competitive market to ensure customer satisfaction, Nallen said.
Besides fish and cats, the store sells birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, hedge hogs, ferrets and such reptiles as boa constrictors, pythons, leopard gecko and bearded dragons, he said.
Oceans of Pets also sells cat food and dog food, even though the store does not sell dogs, because caring for them is too labor intensive, Nallen said. “Dog and cat food [constitutes] one-third of the business, not in profit but in volume,” he said. “It gets customers in the door, and a lot of big-box stores don’t carry the better brands.”
Some of the 20 distinct brands he carries include Blue Buffalo, Taste of the Wild, Wellness, Science Diet and Canidae, he said.
Raw protein also has become more popular and a product Oceans of Pets supplies as a result. For those pet owners who buy it, they believe a raw diet is better, more natural and less wasteful, particularly for dogs. Chubs of raw meat may include beef, duck, bison, turkey, chicken or rabbit, he said. Bravo, Nature’s Variety and Pet Essentials are some of the brands he sells.
Using mobile-phone texting and loyalty programs also has cut down on marketing expenses while broadening connections to a customer base reached largely by word of mouth, Nallen said.
In addition to a weekly emailed newsletter, he’ll text coupons weekly. He also provides gift cards with discounts.
“I used to be in five phone books,” he said. “It cost a lot – $2,500 a month. I had a $40,000 annual budget for advertising in the 1990s. Now, it’s $4,000 a year.”
The centerpiece of the store, however, remains the saltwater and freshwater fish Oceans of Pets features.
“Our passion is the fish,” Nallen said. “We do special orders. We take the time to educate the customer so they’re successful, we’re successful and they’re coming back.”
Nallen sells a wide variety of rare and different fish, including 22 different families of koi, and live bearers – fish that reproduce their babies live instead of in eggs. Also popular are goldfish, and as with all fish, prices can range from 15 cents to $300 depending on the specimen’s size, color and proportions of the eyes, fins and mouth.
He also sells “glo fish,” which are impregnated with the DNA of jellyfish and exhibit fluorescent colors. They retail for $8.99 each, he said.
He still worries about PetSmart and Petco challenging his business, but says he has no plans to retire, and hopes to be in business for another 20 years.
“As long as I can play with my fish and animals, and make a living,” he said, “I’ll be fine.” •

COMPANY PROFILE
Oceans of Pets
OWNERS: Michael and Joyce Nallen
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Pet store
LOCATION: 1794 Diamond Hill Road, Woonsocket
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1987
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 12
ANNUAL REVENUE: $1 million

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