How is PetSmart like Apple’s iPhone?

Update: As of August 16, 2009 I have yet to receive any sort of response from PetSmart. I sent a hardcopy of the e-mail below (modified slightly to read better on paper) about a week after the email. (If you are familiar with how Apple has been handling their issues with the iPhone, you might agree that no answer fits well.) I half expected a lame apology and a coupon for $5 off my next visit if I spend $50 or more, but I am a competitor. On the bright side, this did help motivate to do this. If I am a competitor, than I better compete.

The purpose of this website is to provide people with useful information about dog training and behavior. By providing people with this information I assume one of three things will happen:

It helps people. As a result they recommend the website to friends and family.
It helps people and as a result they contact me for more help.
It doesn’t help people (or they just disagree with me) and they look somewhere else.

This marketing model has become very common on the Internet over the past decade or so. I believe it has its roots in the Open Source Software model and the “hacker ethic” pioneered in the early days of the Internet. (For some background take a look at Eric Raymond’s The Cathedral and the Bazaar or just about anything by Seth Godin.)

For a practical example in the technology world, this blog is run on WordPress software. The developers of WordPress released their software to the public for free, while also offering free or paid access to a system of their own.

Some businesses do not want to operate this way. For example, Apple Computer runs a closed system with their iPhone. They control all of the software that can be (legally) loaded on it and they control which phone networks it will operate on, literally disabling some the phone’s capabilities to satisfy AT&T.

In the dog training community I “grew up” in the “open source” model prevails. The knowledge required to train a dog is freely available — despite what you might have heard there is no secret to dog training, it’s science and not magic. There is a lot of information to know, and being an effective trainer takes a long time and a lot of practice, but there is neither a secret technique nor a silver bullet.

Most dog trainers freely exchange information and techniques with each other and with their clients. My marketing model is hardly unique, and there are associations such as the APDT (to which I belong) and the IACP wherein information sharing is a key member benefit. There are also many active Internet communities where professionals and amateurs “meet” and discuss training and behavior almost every day.

However there are still some trainers and some companies that want to be Apple. I had a run-in with PetSmart this weekend that makes me think they wish they could be the Apple of dog training and supplies, and makes me feel the same ambivalence toward them that I feel for Apple.

PetSmart has done the rescue community a huge service by providing them with a place to hold adoption events. I will never stop thanking them for that, and I sincerely wish PetSmart nothing but success so that their facilities remain available to rescues around the country. But like most things in business, this is a two way street and a double-edged sword. In return for providing these facilities PetSmart receives some very valuable retails traffic, consisting of people that may very well leave with a new pet and a shopping cart full of merchandise. They also receive a list of customers with new pets (all adoption agreements are turned into the store) and most valuable of all, the goodwill I just expressed above.

But apparently this is not enough. PetSmart insists that they be able to completely control the interaction. They want to be a traditional closed system.

I found this out the hard way this past Saturday. I will let my e-mail to PetSmart tell the story:

I am writing to inform you about how I was treated at your stores in Paramus NJ (#1538) this weekend, and why I will never shop at a PetSmart again, let alone recommend PetSmart to any family, friends or clients.

I am a part-time dog trainer in Bergen County, New Jersey. I have been active in the “dog community” in this area for quite a few years and have attended numerous adoption events at 6 (or more?) different PetSmart stores in the state. I also count several former and current PetSmart managers and dog trainers as friends and acquaintances. I do not offer classes, only in-home training and have never really seen PetSmart as direct competition.

A few months ago I encountered a rescue at store #1538 while I was shopping there. I was impressed with their volunteers, their dogs, and their policies. I started to help out on Saturday afternoons for two or three hours whenever I could.

I was there to help the rescue four or five times. This past Saturday was the first time since June 20. Several times, including yesterday, I wore a t-shirt with my company logo on it. While I was there I did what any volunteer does: took dogs out to show to families, gave them potty breaks, and cleaned up after puppies. Helping rescue dogs is important to me, and this was a great opportunity located very close to my home.

Yesterday (July 11 2009), your store manager (Alan?) pulled me aside. I have not been addressed in such a disrespectful and confrontational manner for a very long time, if ever before. It certainly was not a situation I have encountered in any sort of professional environment, and I am saying this from the viewpoint of a military vet and someone who has worked on Wall Street for 20 years. I know rude, and this was truly a trip into the realm of the professionally and socially challenged.

I was accused of some sort of ethical lapse for being in your store and helping a rescue while wearing a t-shirt with my logo printed on it. I was shown one of my business cards, but when asked where it came from your employee belligerently refused to tell me. He didn’t just refuse to give me a name; he refused to tell me anything about how he got the card exclaiming “That’s not important right now!” Did he get it from a rescue volunteer? My vet’s office? My Mom? I still don’t know where it came from, and if it wasn’t important, why was he brandishing it at me?

Last, I was dictated terms and how I can continue to help the rescue in the store. While the “terms” themselves are actually not entirely unreasonable, the medium was the message. “These are PetSmart’s terms: take them or leave them. And by the way, we’re hoping for leave them.”

I fully understand and respect’s PetSmart’s desire to grow and protect its business. My problem is with the manner in which I was confronted yesterday. I feel uneasy and distinctly unwelcome about visiting a PetSmart ever again.

I’m not aware of a policy regarding the conduct of employees or owners of competitive businesses in your stores. I searched your website today and could not find one. The rescue certainly isn’t aware of one, otherwise I am sure they would have discussed it with me – their relationship with PetSmart is critical to them and I doubt they would jeopardize it for the sake of a single volunteer.

I also want to reiterate that I was not selling services or advertising. I was not handing out my business cards. Perhaps if your employee and I had conducted an actual conversation, I may have been able to convey that fact. Perhaps not. Either way, I was there to help a rescue and ended up accused of doing something unethical. To be perfectly clear, I am taking that personally.

By the way, based on the reaction of your employee, working an adoption event is an effective way to work up business for a dog trainer. Why is it that I have never seen a PetSmart trainer helping at one of these events.

I want to convey my disappointment at PetSmart’s unwillingness to maintain any sort of strategic (or civil) relationship with a competitor. I communicate with other trainers on an almost daily basis. We refer clients to each other, share information about different cases, and help each other with various problems. The fact that your store(s) are not satisfied with the increased traffic, goodwill, and pre-qualified client list provided by hosting adoptions and instead run off experienced and skilled volunteers based on the mere suspicion of competition is very unfortunate.

Last, reread paragraph #3. I found the rescue while I was shopping there. I was a customer. I used to shop at PetSmart for my three dogs and three birds. I also used to regularly send clients to PetSmart for equipment and food.

While my experience at your store was execrable, I still do value what PetSmart has done to raise the profile of pet adoptions in the U.S, and wanted to make sure you are aware of what is happening in your stores. I also want to make it very clear that the rescue should not be held responsible for any of the apparent misconduct perpetrated by me and I certainly hope that expressing my dissatisfaction with the situation will not reflect negatively on them. Rest assured, I am well out of the picture now.

Sincerely,

Eric Goebelbecker

I am not going to tell you to boycott PetSmart. As I said, I feel that their adoption program provides the community with a very valuable service. But I am, obviously, very upset and disappointed over their reaction to just the possibility of competition. I’m not going to recommend them either.

One thing I will do for the first time is level with people about PetSmart training. Take a look at the description of their trainer’s credentials. It is purely an internal training program. PetSmart, as a corporate entity, does not participate in the training community in any meaningful way. (Most likely because if they did, their trainers would probably very quickly move on to greener pastures. Their trainers are not treated, much less paid, very well.) This is another example of how PetSmart is a closed system.

While PetSmart does have some truly exceptional trainers working for them here and there, these trainers are exceptional because they chose to pursue educational opportunities outside of their employer.

Caveat Emptor.