Petco Moving Into Old Blockbuster Space on North Decatur Road
Decatur Metro | January 6, 2012 | 9:42 am
In a FFAF comment, AMB let us know that construction at the old Blockbuster location in the Publix plaza on North Decatur Road is converting the space into a future Petco. Cue logo…
An intensive Google search (like there is such a thing!) by yours truly revealed that there are a crud load of part-time job openings up on the interwebs for a Petco at 2115 N Decatur Rd Decatur GA.
So that pretty much confirms it!
From a check of Google maps, this looks to be Petco’s second ITP location. The other in-town store is located at the traffic nightmare officially known as the Edgewood Retail District.
Hooray! Somewhere for the Pro-Melton’s/Anti-Pet Supermarket to give all their pet-related business.
At least until Walmart opens
I drove my Melton’s last night (as I do every night), and people were circling the parking lot at 6PM. Based on the level of support, I think Melton is going to recoup a large part of his loss quickly if this keeps up.
+1000
My husband handed Aaron Melton our Pet Supermarket keychain card on the first day Melton’s was reopened. We will NEVER spend a penny there again.
+1 on that! No more schepping to the Petsmart by Northlake!
Yay!! Dog food and people food with a single park of the car.
My thoughts exactly!
Yeah! I think ….
I mourn the certain loss of all the little mom & pop pet food stores once this predatory behemoth sinks its corporate fangs into the neck of our pet loving hamlet.
While I empathize with your general sentiment, I think you’re oversimplifying. Back in the day, many of these supposedly superior mom and pop pet shops were some of the biggest supporters of puppy mills and other unsavory aspects of the business.
The folks at the ERD location are extremely friendly, so it’ll be great to have a location closer to Decatur (and 1% cheaper!).
Blaming Pet Supermarket for Melton’s problems is silly. There’s no evidence of that, other than the rats that were at Melton’s. It’s real easy and cheap to get some rat baits and throw them down where they’ll do some good. Melton’s could have done this. They didn’t. For years, apparently.
As to the Edgewood Center, I shouldn’t mention this but there is a back entrance off LaFrance. Works well.
Really? You’re trying to blame Melton’s?
After the landlord’s investigation showed that the Pet Supermarket was to blame AND a judge required that the Pet Supermarket (not Melton’s) close their doors until the rat problem was eradicated?
I guess that new brick wall between the businesses is just for looks. Everyone knows how important trendy decor is to Melton’s App & Tap.
How about trying out a small pet supply store if you don’t want to go to Pet Supermarket anymore instead of going to PetCo? Most will have competitive pricing to the PetCo on many of the same brands – plus you’ll be supporting a fellow community member instead of a giant corporation.
We buy kibble for our kittehs and Big Daddy biscuits for some of the neighborhood yard dogs at Kirkwood Seed and Feed on Hosea Williams Boulevard. Great service and competitive prices on the high end kibble (Innova) our snobs prefer, with the tenth bag free. Rick behind the counter is quite possibly the world’s greatest Beatles fan and it’s always fun to engage him in a little classic rock chatter. Then there’s the bonus of some skritches for Fred and Ginger, the store cats.
I agree that this is a great idea when possible. In my experience as a petsitter, though, when I’ve often tried to buy food and supplies for clients at the locally-owned retailers, I’ve learned that certain manufacturers/distributors only sell to national retailers. While I personally would simply choose another option, I recognize many have loyalty to exclusive brands (ie Science Diet) and are going to continue to buy them. I also recently used a coupon (for a client) that Petco had sent me for their private label cat litter, and the price ended up being a fraction of the cheapest brand at Target (plus the tub is refillable for a discount, which is also nice). For these sorts of situations, I’m glad there’s a closer option.
You need to educate folks about Science Diet. There are much healthier options for pets.
I certainly agree! I’m amazed the animals eat it, as it just smells like a chemical stew. However, it’s like trying to explain to people that most of the “food” at a traditional grocery store is equally toxic. People don’t like preachiness and sadly often aren’t interested in learning the alternatives until some sort of catastrophe happens. They’ll continue to buy what they want in most cases, which was my point about that particular brand.
Does anyone know why Pet Supermarket was determined to be at fault instead of the building owner? I haven’t been able to understand all this wrath towards PS. They are a pet store afterall… they can’t be expected to not have bags of tasty food laying around everywhere. The rats should not have been able to get inside in the first place. If they are able to get in, it seems that would be the fault of the owner for not properly excuding vermin.
See below
See comment below
Most commercial leases state that rodent issues are the responsibility of the tenant. If a professional determined that the source of the infestation was the pet store, then the pet store is responsible to the landlord and Melton’s.
I think the real story, from a Real estate standpoint, is Petco taking such a small space- is this their smaller footprint called ‘unleashed’ ? I’m assuming they took roughly 8,000sf, which is tiny compared to typical stores
Well, I am glad they chose a location that will never flood. We do not want a Johnson City Ny tragedy to happen here. No large corporation comes without black marks…too bad this one did not make the right choice.
It will certainly be nice not to have to drive all the way out to Northlake for pet food now. I’ve never shopped at a PetCo before, but I’ve never heard anything negative about them. I still wish there was a pet store in the city of Decatur limits though, maybe one that I could walk to with my pooch in tow. I imagine the PetCo will do a fine business there though, since they are one of three pet stores I know of now in the immediate area (the others being Pet Supermarket by Metlon’s and Pet Supermarket in the Toco Hills shopping center). If nothing else, it’ll be nice not to have that big chunk of the Emory Commons shopping center empty.
Off on a bit of a tangent – I suppose I don’t understand all the wrath towards Pet Supermarket either. Yes, Melton’s is a beloved restaurant – I get that and enjoy it myself. But the problem got fixed. Should Pet Supermarket have let the problem go for so long without doing anything about it? No, probably not. But on the other hand, should Melton’s have let the problem go on for so long without trying to really exterminate the rodents? No. I think blame falls both ways in situations like this and what is the point of vilifying the Pet Supermarket in a situation like this which was clearly just an unfortunate and costly (for both parties) accident? After all, it’s not like the employees of Pet Supermarket sneaked into Melton’s and dropped a box of rats. Things like this happen and now it’s over and both parties are fine. I know Melton’s had a lot of out of pocket expenses for this whole ordeal, but with the amount of people I’ve seen at Melton’s since they reopened, I think they’ll be fine.
+1, Scotty. The ideal thing to do now is to enthusiastically support Meltons to help them recover financially. Continued negativity toward Pet Supermarket doesn’t serve much of a purpose at this point.
On another note, I took our three family dogs to the Edgewood Petco’s weekly (?) vaccination clinic last fall and saved over $250. While I love our veterinarian and realize that it’s, unfortunately, lost revenue for them, the discounted cost was a big boost for our monthly budget.
Let me add my 2 cents regaring the “wrath” directed at Pet Supermarket. There was evidence of of an infestation at that location for a long time, evidenced by droppings, open bags of food and a general stench in the store. Melton’s addressed this issue with the landlord and the Pet Supermarket home office. Neither party addressed the problem. The rats were not in Melton’s at that time, but the infestation was compromising the firewall between the 2 businesses, so it was only a matter of time before the problem did come into the restaurant. Because of both parties failure to address the issue, Melton’s was forced to file an injuction and FINALLY the problem was addressed, at a considerable expense to the restaurant.
Yes, Melton’s will be just fine. No, I don’t want to forgive and forget, or ever support a corporation that would ignore a problem like that. One that sffects more than just the business in that center, evidenced by the check I just wrote to have rodent exclusion performed at my home in the neighborhood. I will shop at Petco, I will shop at a mom and pop if one ever opens nearby. I will NEVER spend another dime at Pet Supermarket.
I suppose I find this argument a little contradictory. You say that both parties had a failure to address the issue, but then go on to say that you can’t support a business that would ignore a problem like that. Isn’t that what your doing by supporting Melton’s’ then? Both groups knew it was only a matter of time before something happened, but Melton’s waited until they had no choice but to close to do something about the problem, exactly like the Pet Supermarket.
It’s no matter though – a few Decaturites boycotting one Pet Supermarket is not going to make a dent of difference for that company. It might hurt sales at that particular store but the worst it’ll do is force that store to close or to relocate. The corporation will see no significant ramifications from this. So when you think about it like that, it is essentially pointless to harbor a grudge like this. Melton’s will be absolutely fine and if nothing else will emerge more popular from this ordeal. Had Melton’s not been able to reopen, I could somewhat understand the hatred towards Pet Supermarket, but both parties are back open and are going to be fine.
If I understood SPS correctly, the phrase “neither party” referred to the Pet Supermarket corporate office and the landlord. So it’s not a contradictory argument at all. As for a grudge against PS being “pointless,” it depends on what you think the point is, to start with. That probably varies from one person to another.
Meant to say that both “neither party” and “both parties” refer to the PS and the landlord (if I understand SPS right).
As for SPS’s “neither / both” parties, I see now that it does refer to the landlord and to PS. My apologies. I read over it so fast before that I missed that.
I suppose I’m just not a fan of any business playing the pity and blame card when things like this happen. As I said in an earlier post, blame in situations like these goes both ways. Everything I’ve read about it sounds like Melton’s knew about the problem for a while. When complaining to the landlord and corporate PS management didn’t work, they could have gotten the injunction earlier. There are also pet store laws in the state of GA about cleanliness and sanitary conditions (which PS was obviously in violation of). Melton’s could have reached out to the inspectors who deal with that, but didn’t. I’m not saying it’s Melton’s fault that this happened, but there are more measures they could have taken as well.
Thanks to everyone for their input… I have a much better understanding of the complexities of the situation now. Still can’t say I would be able to clearly assess blame. I’m sure there are things each party might have done differently in hindsight. I just find it odd that Pet Supermarket would just ignore gaggles of rats running wild through their store every night and choose to do nothing about it. I mean, if they were breaking into bags of food and causing damage to the store that’s lost revenue for them as well.
I can see how a reasonable pest control program would be the responsibility of the tenant, but if they are getting inside the store, that’s a structural issue with the building. We also had to have an “exclusion” done for our attic and crawl space (thank god not inside the house). We’d never had a problem until I made the mistake of leaving a bag of bird seed out just ONE time. Even with the food source removed, there was no amount of pest control (traps, bait etc.) that was stopping them until the company finally found and closed off every single entrance point. The tenacity of those vermin was really amazing! My point being, I have some level of sympathy for anyone dealing with an infestation. It can be a really difficult problem to solve and can get out of hand in no time.
I may be too late to this post to get a response, but I’m curious what mom ‘n pop pet supply stores there are in the Decatur area. I’ve generally gone to PetSupermarket because it was the only store I knew of close by and I was excited by the thought (as mentioned above) of being able to buy people food and pet food with just one park of the car with the new PetCo. But I’d love to support local b’nesses if someone can point me in the right direction.
Right in the Decatur city limits there is no indie pet supply however there is: Kirkwood Feed & Seed on Hosea Wms, Inman Park Pet Works (very easy to get to off Dekalb Ave), Tucker Pet Supply on Main St. in Tucker and don’t forget the plethora of daycares in Decatur with nice retail action – Camp Woof, WagALot, etc. These stores all have good foods and experienced employees who can answer all kinds of questions and help you get what you need!
Also … here’s a nod to our favorite daycare, Pets Playhouse on Ponce, which also carries food and supplies. And, for wild bird food, I’m a huge fan of a newish little shop called “The Garden Enthusiast – Backyard Nature Station” on Main Street in Tucker.
Thanks! It looks like I may have a cat with special dietary needs so it will be handy to be able to ask for that personalized attention as we figure it out.