High Street
The high street remains a vital battleground for pet retailers, balancing in-person service with growing digital competition. Pet Gazette covers the role of independent pet shops, regional chains, and national retailers on UK high streets — reporting on shop openings and closures, rent pressures, footfall trends, and evolving customer expectations. We also examine localised marketing strategies, product merchandising, and how high street stores adapt to omni-channel retail. For wholesalers and suppliers, this tag offers visibility into the challenges and opportunities facing brick-and-mortar stockists across towns and cities.
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Mar- 2020 -9 MarchBusiness
Bira issues five point plan to ‘Save Our Shops’
A five-point plan to ‘Save Our Shops’ (SOS) has been issued by Bira, the umbrella group of the Pet Product Retail Association. It’s the key feature of Bira’s forthcoming manifesto which focuses on what can be done to better support independent retail businesses and minimise the burden on them. Bira…
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6 MarchVeterinary
Blue Cross reopens Merton hospital
Blue Cross announced it has reopened its animal hospital in Merton following a refurbishment. The animal charity said that work was needed to update the reception area, dispensary and other public spaces within the hospital on Merton High Street. The hospital now features a new operating theatre, as well as…
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3 MarchPet Owners
Brits spending more on pets than ever, research reveals
Brits are spending more on their pets than ever, according to Argos Petcare. Petcare sales at Argos soared by 70% in just five years, with sales this January up an extraordinary 19% on the same month in 2019. Argos attributed the rise of the ‘petfluencer’ for the rise in the…
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Feb- 2020 -5 FebruaryBusiness Bites
Tesla, Macy’s and organic food: serious change is afoot
Sometimes change is sudden and surprising, but sometimes it bubbles away under the surface for decades before making a serious impact, and in today’s roundup I have a few examples of the latter to highlight. First, there is Tesla. The firm led by billionaire space-AI Elon Musk has long been…
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Jan- 2020 -27 JanuaryVeterinary
Blue Cross hospital to undergo refurbishment
The Blue Cross animal hospital on Merton High Street has closed temporarily for refurbishment. The refurbishment work will reportedly improve the reception, dispensary and other public areas. It will also include the construction of a new operating theatre and exotics kennel. The charity said it hopes these changes will “improve…
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15 JanuaryBusiness Bites
Boohoo more valuable than M&S – a sea-change encapsulated
From a purely journalistic standpoint it is now a de facto cliché to refer to Marks and Spencer as the “high street bellwether”, yet that is the status it has held for so many decades. The once mighty monolith was the first British retailer to reach a market capitalisation of £1bn and…
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10 JanuaryBusiness Bites
Spooked markets seem soothed by Iran-US climb-down
When Iran decided to hit back on US military facilities after president Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, there was talk of the outbreak of war. NATO countries apparently implored Trump not to go for another attack, fearing that if he did things would escalate beyond control…
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9 JanuaryBusiness Bites
Who would have thought skinny jeans could be anyone’s undoing?
It’s not often that the business pages give you a good belly laugh. But today we have the spectacle of Marks & Spencer blaming its poor Christmas trading results partly on an oversupply of skinny jeans for men. Apparently customer surveys revealed that the high street bellwether’s ranges were “too old” the…
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8 JanuaryBusiness Bites
Greggs going vegan has paid dividends: we can all learn from them
There is an adage about business and entertainment emerging in the conservative media, which is “get woke, go broke”. It translates crudely to, “cave to the demands of social justice activists and you will suffer financially”. And while it is true that some have come a cropper by tilting the…
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2 JanuaryBusiness Bites
The internet need not be the scourge of every sector – just ask the CEO of Mountain Warehouse
The last decade in business was arguably characterised by one word: disruption. While the internet behemoths had already begun building serious fortunes in the 2000s, most would agree it was after 2010 that things really started motoring. Heralded as the great democratiser of information and services, the effects of a…
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