IndiePet Aims to Give Independent, Neighborhood Pet Retailers a Voice

A new trade association more formally set up this year but has been informally meeting and sharing ideas for the last several years is working to solidify its organizational structure and recruit new members. Founding members of the Independent & Neighborhood Pet Retail Association (IndiePet) recently gave an interview with Pet Business to explain the evolution of the group and the critical role they fill in helping the 8,000 independent, neighborhood pet retail stores navigate continuing challenges in the industry and find victories in each other’s successes.

Andrew Kim, Founder and CEO of Healthy Spot, spoke with Pet Insight about the organization in an interview this past summer when discussing the dearth of opportunities for retailers to meet given the cancellation of this year’s many trade shows. Healthy Spot is one of the founding members of IndiePet, he said, a trade association set up to help focus on sharing ideas, creating tools everyone can use and helping independent stores manage their business through better information. “There should be a healthy, vibrant network of operators that are having discussions once a month or some regular cadence that find it non-competitive and constructive, to share ideas to help each other be better,” he said.

The organization does aim to support itself with membership dues. For more information about joining, click here.