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Pet store chain Pet Valu Inc. announced Wednesday that it is closing all 358 of its U.S. stores, including 10 in the Indianapolis area. The retailer blamed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the closure.
The company has four stores in Indianapolis, two in Carmel and one each in Brownsburg, Greenwood, Shelbyville and Zionsville. The stores carry pet food, treats, toys food, treats and supplies, and some offer services such as grooming and adoption.
“The Pet Valu U.S. team is proud to have met the needs of our devoted pet lover customers in the U.S. for more than 25 years,” Pet Valu Restructuring Officer Jamie Gould said in a written statement. “However, the company’s stores have been significantly impacted by the protracted COVID-19-related restrictions. After a thorough review of all available alternatives, we made the difficult but necessary decision to commence this orderly wind down.”
The release does not specify when the last day of operations will be at the stores. Liquidation sales began Thursday.
Pet Valu U.S., which is headquartered in the Philadelphia suburb of Wayne, Pennsylvania, is a licensee of Markham, Ontario-based Pet Valu Canada. Pet Valu Canada is a separate company whose 600 stores in Canada and e-commerce site will continue to operate.
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NO WAY!
One of the most customer-centric stores of any kind of ever been in
Wasn’t pet food stores essential? There has been a huge demand for pets in the last 6 months. I think there is a narrative missing from this story. Sorry to see another store go under.
I wholeheartedly agree with the previous post.
I agree. Something else took this retail chain down besides COVID. Pet stores as a segment are doing quite well.
Just got a dog, started going there for supplies and seemed like the Greenwood store was doing okay. Everyone’s gravitation to e-commerce in light of the pandemic did them in. Hard to compete with Amazon and Chewy.
Let’s just blame Covid w/out doing any real fact checking. That’s the way of the IBJ!
Matthew, IBJ didn’t blame the pandemic. The company did. Pet Valu is a private chain and it isn’t based in Indianapolis, so we do not have a lot of background on the company. It does not share a lot of information about operations and it is not followed by business analysts. We reported the reason the chain cited for the closure. You can check the dozens of stories that were written about it in other markets and you won’t find any other reasons cited other than the pandemic. It is true that business is up for pet supply sales this year, but much of that is due to online sales of pet food, led by Amazon and Chewy.