For this week’s enterprise we took a trip down to Pets Paradise in Chrisp Street Market Square to talk snakes and scorpions…
How long have you been running a shop in Poplar for?
This shop’s been here for over two years now but my mum used to have a pet store, which you could find at the bottom of the clock tower. It just used to sell general pet supplies, so we built upon that by adding services like dog grooming, which seems to be going down well!
How has working within the community in Poplar been for you? Have they responded well to a pet shop?
It’s been great so far! We’ve found that different animals seem to be more popular with different sections of the community. Some people really like birds and fish, and whilst there are quite a few dog owners around there’s also a lot of people who can’t stand them! It can be a bit hit and miss finding the right animals for the shop considering these different attitudes, but I think we’ve found what works now. The amount of dogs around here means that our dog grooming service has always been popular, and we always have passers-by taking a bit of interest and coming inside.
What are the most unusual pets you’ve had in the shop?
That depends on what you’d consider unusual really! We have a lot of snakes and spiders for sale, which quite a lot of people would be scared of but they’ve become a normal part of a day’s work for us. We sell everything in here – from birds and fish to lizards and scorpions – so anything that a customer might want we’d be able to source. We can get you a reindeer if you’d like!
What’s your favourite animal?
My favourite in this shop has got to be the canaries. There’s too many to pick from – the snakes are really cute! – but I’ve always really liked having canaries around.
We’ll be looking for new businesses to interview in the coming months so if you’re interested contact us at info@mypplr.com and we’ll look into setting something up. Make sure you’ve uploaded a free business listing with us though!
