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 Spring-Ford area pet owners have a new place to find all their pets’ needs.
Petco recently opened a new store at Township Line Road and Ridge Pike in Upper Providence. The store joins Giant, Target, AC Moore and Staples, among others in the shopping center.
As he cut the red ribbon in front of the store’s doors on a recent Saturday morning, store general manager David Barnett remarked, “It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the new Royersford Petco.
“You’ll see we have a true passion for pets,” he added.
The new store is a relocation of a store from the Trappe area, Barnett explained. The old store had 9600 square feet of retail space. The new facility has 16,000 square feet. The new store also features “three times as much inventory to meet all of our customers’ needs.”
The store offers twice as many pets as at the previous location, he noted. He added that Petco has a “true passion for adoption.” They don’t sell cats and dogs, he said, but do offer adoption services for these animals.
Several animal adoption agencies were in attendance at the grand opening weekend festivities, including the Bailey Foundation, which finds homes for larger birds such as parrots, macaws, cockatoos and cockatiels; the Philadelphia Greyhound Connection, Spay and Save, and ARF, the Animal Rescue Foundation of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Other venders and suppliers were also present, including Natural Balance Foods, which provided free samples and information.
Barnett noted the Upper Providence store is designed for customers to shop all aisles by walking down one central aisle. The facility has also added grooming services and canine education, he said.
Among the opening festivities was a hamster race on Saturday afternoon. Children brought their hamsters in exercise balls, and the hamsters ran their balls along a flat track.
The winner of the race was Oreo, a 2-year-old hamster owned by Victoria Ratchford, a sixth-grader at Spring-Ford Intermediate School. Oreo was well-prepared for the race. “She runs around in her ball (at home), but I’ve never done a race before,” Victoria said.
The winner and runner up Anthony Romero, Zieglerville, received Petco gift cards and a free bag of hamster food. Anthony brought two Chinese hamsters, Eduardo and Tiffany, to the event.
Barnett indicated hamster races will happen several times a year at the store, with the next race coming up in September.
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