Pet Pals

Great Danes Inspire Essential Local Business

By Erin Kelly-Allshouse

Pet Pals, an independent, family business owned by Glenn Matherly and wife Lorraine, offers a large selection of pet food and supplies.

Glen and Lorraine — both 65 years old — have been partners in business and in life — married 45 years.

In 1986 the couple started delivering dog food out of their garage while Glenn Matherly worked part-time as a furniture salesman.

“Pet Pals is not a chain and we did not buy it,” Matherly said. “We came up with the name and the idea to open a pet store in 1986 after we got our Great Danes in 1985.”

Dogs have always been a large part of their life and the couple has owned two No. 1 Great Danes.

“My wife started showing them at AKC dog shows and got hooked,” Matherly said. “Lorraine co-bred the No. 1 Great Dane in 2013 which earned the record of Best in Shows of any Great Dane in history through today. She also won 39 Best in Shows.”

After purchasing food at the local pet store for their Great Danes, the couple noticed the price was high, they never had good stock and had to dust the bags off before purchasing.

“We thought there was a better way and decided to do it ourselves,” Matherly said.

So they did.

In 1989 the ambitious couple opened a brick and mortar store in Marina and moved through three locations before opening their store in Soquel in 1995.

“My wife actually started the business and I joined her after leaving my furniture sales job,” Matherly said.

Lorraine does most of the purchasing for the 15,000 square-feet store.

“We incorporated Pet Pals in 2005 and at that time my wife became the president of the company,” said Matherly. “We are pretty much the Costco of pet stores.”

With concrete floors, 24-foot ceilings and pallet racks, the recipe for success is offering a huge selection of food and supplies then offering low discount prices, Matherly said.

The couple employs 22 crew members.

Paco Deas has been a manager with Pet Pals 25 years and Michael Montoya, also a manager, has been with Pet Pals for 15 years.

“Our goal is to offer pet supplies at low everyday discount prices; thus the name “Discount Pet Supplies,” Matherly said. “We do not sell live animals, only food and supplies for dogs, cats, rabbits, rodents, birds and reptiles.”

Pet Pals has a close relationship with local rescue organizations including the SPCA, Rabbit Haven, Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter and local dog training clubs.

Matherly said the store often provides space for adoption clinics, dog training and low-cost vaccinations but not grooming.

“Being in our current locations for 25 years, you can imagine the customer base we have been so lucky to acquire,” said Matherly. “We even have customers come from Monterey, Watsonville and Los Gatos — really all demographics.”

After the shelter in place order in mid-March, as some essentials at grocery stores were hoarded and took a long time to return to the shelf, Pet Pals also saw some supply chain interruptions.

“We have worked through most but some manufactures don’t have enough product in their warehouse to restock stores,” he said. “This really caught retail by surprise.”

Now it is business as usual, with hours the same — 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day — as before the COVID-19 coronavirus, plus curbside pickup. A webstore is under construction.

“We are very lucky that the state considers pet stores essential businesses,” Matherly said. “I see the suffering of other business owners and it just kills me.”

“My managers Paco Deas and Michael Montoya are very connected to the customer base and have a real sense of community responsibility,” said Matherly. “They enforced the use of face masks by our employees, cleaning check out stations between customers and offering a “sanitizing station” for customers.”

They also installed Plexiglass barriers between our cashiers and customers.

The couple plan to keep a close eye on the health of all their employees during the next few months and keep in place all of the sanitizing protocols.

Matherly said one employee who is 67 wanted to remove himself from one-on-one contact with customers and other employees and is sheltering at home until the situation is resolved. Another employee has his father living with him and his father’s health is compromised, so he decided to stay home as well.

“Both of these great employees continue to be paid by Pet Pals for their time off and we look forward to their return,” Matherly said.

“We will continue to offer a fantastic selection at the lowest prices around and look forward to seeing old and new customers,” he added.

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Pet Pals Discount Pet Supplies, Inc., 3660 Soquel Dr., Soquel, CA 95073

831-464-8775 • glenn@epetpals.com • www.petpals.net