Market Spotlight: The Greater Minneapolis Area
With a median home sale price of $360,000 in April 2025, according to Redfin, Minneapolis offers an affordable cost of living paired with access to beautiful natural surroundings and a strong job market powered by major employers like Target, UnitedHealth Group and Best Buy. The Twin Cities metro area stands out as an attractive place to settle down, build a career and raise a family. It’s also gaining recognition as a growing hub for pet-related businesses, ranking 18 among the top 25 pet marketplaces in the US last year. This rise coincides with a shift in pet owner behavior, as more locals prioritize premium nutrition and treat their pets as cherished members of the family.
By The Numbers
The Minneapolis metro area is home to 121 total pet specialty store locations representing 33 different companies. Of note, Chuck & Don’s, a banner operated by Minnesota-based Independent Pet Partners, boasts a store count of 30 in this market, while national retailers PetSmart and Petco have 18 and 17 stores in the metro area, respectively. This trio represents 53.7 percent of the total market share.
They are followed by Pet Supplies Plus with 10 stores in the area and Pet Evolution with seven stores.
Single-store retailers represent 14.9 percent of the total market share.
Community of Pet Lovers
Independent Pet Partners (IPP), based in Minnesota, has strong ties to its local communities through its network of 30 Chuck & Don’s pet retail locations in the metro area alone. CEO Julie Maday said the company makes a conscious effort to nurture relationships with local partners.
“We’re always working with different rescues and shelters because that’s where we do a lot of good,” she said. “We’re almost always running a drive. We’re trying to make sure we are giving back into our communities. It is not lost on me the e-mails we are responding to the most frequently are about giving back. In our industry, not only do people love their own animals, they love everybody else’s animals. It feels so good to know that is true.”
Another community staple is Three Dog Bakery—Apple Valley which opened in January 2021.
“We specialize in human-grade pastry treats and Celebration Cakes, baked in house,” said Franchise Owner Nicole Fandrich. “We are committed to pet nutrition and quality of life. To that end, we also carry a wide variety of healthy foods—frozen, freeze-dried, air-dried, kibble—along with interactive dog toys, chews, collars and leads, no-pull harnesses, grooming and health aids, bandanas, sweaters and celebration gear, home/gift products and full-spectrum CBD products. We are your local experts to help maximize dogs’ quality of life with their families.”
Three Dog Bakery’s varied inventory reflects the many reasons its customers come to frequent the store.
“We have customers here with a variety of goals—from simple everyday celebration to sharing a special goodbye with an aging/ailing pet,” Fandrich said. “We do our best to learn about each individual dog and their preferences, so we may help enrich their lives and human relationships. We get a variety of questions: training, nutrition, separation anxiety, proper weight management, allergies and more. If we don’t have helpful insight, we have a great network of experts that we can enlist to help ensure a dog’s life is the best it can be. Seeing a happy, healthy dog with a loving owner is the best reward!”
The network is especially important to help Fandrich make available all the services that she can’t provide alone.
“Our footprint is too small to allow for grooming/vet care,” she said. “We partner with multiple local vets to mutually support each other and are always looking for new ways to network. We do offer a full array of high-quality grooming and health supplies for those owners that maintain their dogs’ personal care at home. This includes targeted products for allergies, with a focus on healthy fur and skin biomes.”
Manufacturers based in the Minneapolis area are also attuned to the community’s priorities and needs, as well as its unique resources.
“Project Hive Pet Company is headquartered in Minneapolis because that’s where the founders have been living and working for the past 25 years,” said Co-founder Melissa Rappaport Schifman. “The Twin Cities area is an ideal place to launch a brand because it is a hub for consumer products and all the creative energy and services that support retail businesses. Minneapolis is home to large retailers like Target and Best Buy and major consumer products companies like General Mills, Land O’Lakes and 3M. So, we are able to find talented web designers, photographers, printers and other types of service businesses that can support consumer brands in our backyard.”
This area is a great place to have a dog, said Schifman.
“As the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes,’ Minnesota draws people who love the outdoors in almost any kind of weather. This bodes well for dog parents, as people have to get outside to walk their dogs. The Trust for Public Land Park Score index ranks the 100 most populous cities in the US for parks, and Minneapolis and St. Paul have consistently scored at the top or near the top. Remarkably, 99 percent of Minneapolis residents live within a 10-minute walk of a park, compared to the average of 74 percent across the 100 most populous cities and 55 percent for all urban cities and towns. Minneapolis ranks No. 27 in the number of dog parks per capita. So, that’s also great for dog parents, and we’re able to tap into the needs of pet owners who like to exercise their dogs outside in any weather, by any lake, river or pond.”
Outdoor Lifestyle
“We have a winter friendly environment,” said Maday. “What’s so unique about it is it is a full four-season solution to keep our pets happy. We have rain boots, collars, leads and flea and tick solutions that are flying off the shelf in mid-April, and in the winter months we’ve got a lot of coats and winter boots. We provide a full range of products. Even in our grooming salon, our animals need a different level of care and support throughout all the different months of the year because the environment does change so rapidly. I was joking with somebody that it doesn’t seem very long ago it was below zero and there’s a reason for that—it was only 10 days ago. And now we’re looking at 70 degrees. The variety of situations that we end up in really does allow for a broad product assortment. It presents so many wonderful opportunities to service our pet parents and their animals.”
In Minnesota, the snow doesn’t slow anyone down, said Maday.
“There’s all kinds of winter events we sponsor and get involved with that involve dogs. Skijoring, where a person on skis is pulled by one or more dogs, when you have a dog pulling you on skis—there’s all kinds of silly things we can get involved with. While we love our summer months events—there are so many events and opportunities—it doesn’t slow down in winter. We are blessed to be in three markets with hearty humans and pretty big dogs that love getting out and enjoying all the seasons,” she said.
Schifman said it’s really been the people and the outdoorsy culture in Minneapolis that has helped Project Hive thrive. “For example, we are home to The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, a 1,200-acre horticulture garden that attracts gardeners and nature lovers near and far,” she said. “They have hosted annual ‘dog days’ for small vendors like us to sell products to members and their dogs. Every dog parent who came by our booth bought some of our products—which they love, and they also wholeheartedly appreciate and support our mission to save the bees.”
The outdoor culture has helped shape Project Hive’s innovation and marketing strategies, too. “Living in the north, we have weather extremes—hot and humid long days of summer and freezing cold dark days of winter,” she said. “This presents both opportunities and challenges. For example, since we live among 10,000 lakes, when we were developing our toys, we knew we wanted them to float. Dogs love to chase our toys in the lakes and rivers! In the summer, we can interact more with neighbors and their dogs near lakes, which allows us to shoot more videos and photos of a wide variety of dogs fetching our toys in the water. In the winter, though, those lakes are frozen, so we focus on other benefits of our toys, like how they work with our treats to engage dogs or how our far-flying Disc also serves as a lick mat to soothe and calm dogs.”
“Minnesotans are an outdoorsy folk, and our dogs play a great part in activities throughout the seasons,” said Fandrich. “We have working dogs that serve their handlers, hunting dogs that thrive in their element and family companion pets that are truly part of our families. We draw a crowd from across the states; we have great ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising, but because we are a newer, smaller business, there are still many Minnesotans that have yet to meet Three Dog Bakery.”
Meanwhile, Fandrich will persist in making sure Three Dog Bakery is a one-of-a-kind destination for pets and humans alike. “Dogs provide unconditional love and are the best customers! We have developed relationships with our furry customers and their owners—many dogs will lead their human to the Bakery on foot or know where they are when they pull into our parking lot. We celebrate special occasions, as well as celebrating the bonds we have with our dogs every day,” said Fandrich.
With its plentiful natural resources, relatively affordable housing market and business-forward climate buoyed by several well-known companies, the Minneapolis metro area has no shortage of pet-owning households looking for a host of goods and services to support their active lifestyles.
