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MORE THAN A PET PROJECT

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 21, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - The dog food is stacked and the fish tanks are stocked. Now all the owners of the new Pet Supplies "Plus" franchise need are customers.

The store opened quietly a couple weeks ago in the Regency Square shopping center. Since then, a trickle of shoppers has found it, but owners Chris Kacir and Peter Arndt hope that turns into a flood in the near future.

They'll hold a three-day grand opening starting at 9 a.m. Friday to let neighbors know they're around. They plan to mail fliers to surrounding homes.

It didn't take Tonia Lane, who lives in the subdivision behind Regency Square, long to find the store. On a recent visit, she was buying feeder mice for her pet boa constrictor.

"I buy the products that they sell online, but they're closer, so there's no shipping," Lane said.

Kacir and Arndt are banking on the abundance of nearby homes to jumpstart the business. There also are all those winter visitors from the Midwest, who might recognize the store as a touch of home, Arndt said.

Kacir and Arndt are brothers-in-law from the Detroit suburbs. After careers in advertising and construction, they and their families recently decided to take a risk and try something new. Arndt describes the new venture as a midlife career change.

"We love animals," Arndt said. His family has two dogs and seven cats back home in Michigan.

"The reason this works is because people's pets are like their kids," Arndt said.

It also helped that Kacir and his sister, Donna, who is married to Arndt, were relatives of Harry Shallop, the man who founded Michigan-based Pet Supplies "Plus." With a number of Kacir cousins in the business, the pet store business seemed like a good opportunity, Arndt said.

But franchise opportunities were unavailable at home, so the partners struck out for new territory in the South. Hurricane Katrina forced them to cancel plans for a store in the Biloxi, Miss., area.

"You don't know who's still living there and if they have pets," Arndt said.

A relative suggested they try Florida.

They found just what they were looking for at Regency Square and quickly set up shop in a space formerly occupied by a Walgreen's, which moved to a freestanding store diagonally across Little Road.

The pet store can be a tough fit for shopping center because it's smaller than a grocery story but larger than a nail salon, Arndt said.

"So an in-between size like this is hard to find," he said.

Kacir and his family have moved to Pasco. Arndt is unsure about his family's plans.

Company officials came to town to help turn the empty space into the brightly lit pet store. Arndt, Kacir and their families spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day stocking the shelves.

The pair understands they're up against national pet chains Petco and PetSmart, which have been staking their claims to Pasco's high-growth areas in Trinity and Wesley Chapel.

Arndt sees an advantage for his venture because it's smaller, has less overhead and is more responsive to customer's needs - such as special ordering dog food, for example, based on requests.

Arndt and Kacir said the small-business approach gives them an advantage, but they acknowledge it's a big risk.

"Here, this is it - these two families chipping in everything they have to make a go of it," Arndt said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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