PetSmart opens in Manassas

By BENNIE SCARTON JR.

bscarton@manassasjm.com

A new PetSmart store will open in Manassas on Saturday.

The new Manassas South facility will be located at 9970 Sowder Village Square.

PetSmart provides the pet owner with essential tools and expertise. Pet grooming salons, training classes, adoption centers, hotels, knowledgeable and caring associates and thousands of different products are all art of PetSmart's offering.

This is the second store for the company in Manassas. The first opened at 10834 Sudley Manor Drive.

The company has more than 1,000 retail outlets in the United States and Canada with the average size of 20,000 square feet.

Each store employs on average 30 to 40 full and part time associates.

Stores are divided into categories to make customers' shopping experience more convenient. These categories include dog, cat, pet care (small pets, birds, reptiles and fish) and the services offered within that store

PetSmart welcomes leased pets to shop with their pet owners. In an average week, more than 90,000 pets have visited a PetSmart store in the United States and Canada. The majority is dogs but occasionally cats, birds, lizards and even horses come into the stores.

Each store carries more than 13,000 products for dogs, cats, small pets, reptiles, domestic and wild birds, fish, as well as pond equipment and accessories.

The first two stores opened in 1987 in Phoenix, Ariz. And the first Canadian store opened in 1996. The firm had $4.67 billion in revenue in 2007.

To help address pet overpopulation, PetSmart has never sold dos and cats. Instead, the company partners with more than 3,300 local animal welfare partners to find homes for shelter pets through in-store adoption centers. Since the program's inception in 1992, the firm has helped save the lives of more than 3 million once-homeless pets. PetSmart sell companion pets such as rats, guinea pigs, gerbils, hamsters, mice, fish, birds and reptiles.

All PetSmart stores offer pet training classes to strengthen the bond between pets and their owners. Classes include puppy education, beginner education, intermediate education, advanced education, click-a-trick and private sessions. All of the pet trainers are accredited professionals. In 2006, the company trained more than 378,000 dogs.

Full-service pet grooming salons are located in all the stores and pet owners are invited to watch the grooming process through large windows surrounding the shop. Services include full styling, bathing, brushing, styling, nail clipping, ear and tooth cleaning. The PetStylists groomed more than 7.5 million pets in 2006.

PetSmart currently employs more than 39,000 people in its headquarters, stores, call center and distribution cen-ters.

Staff writer Bennie Scarton Jr. can be reached at 703-369-6707.