3 Reasons To Support Your Local Pet Events (Fairs or Sales)
Originally published at Harmonic Pets. Please leave any comments there.
This past Sunday I was at the first local bird fair for the season. We hold our fairs at the beautiful Des Moines Botanical Center, so you can come and look at the beautiful plants and also spoil your pet parrot at the same time. This coming Sunday, I’ll be at the Iowa Reptile Fair, again the first of the season. Many people purchase their pet supplies online or at a pet store and never realize they have venues locally where they can purchase from small businesses who are passionate about their pets and pet care.
Local pet fairs held by specialty clubs, are great places to purchase additions to your family or supplies for your current pets. Even if pets aren’t held and benefit a club, they often have a table set aside for the local club, so if you weren’t aware of one in your area you can find out.
You can usually find events either through a listing in a magazine line Bird Talk or Reptiles, or through calendars on various websites. A search for “bird fair + your city” should bring up these event calendars.
So why should you support your local bird or reptile fair?
First, many of these events benefit local clubs. Our local bird club doesn’t charge admission, but the table rental goes to the club, and there are raffles (I won a bag of pellets for my pionus, YAY!), silent auctions, and bake/beverage sales, all of which help fill the club’s coffers. This is good because these clubs often have rescue and educational components which benefit the community.
Second, if you’re purchasing a new addition to your family, you can purchase direct from the breeder. This gives you more information about your pet, supports an individual, and also generally gets you a better price than if you had purchased from a pet store.
Third, you can get good prices on supplies. Without a brick and mortar store and all the overhead that comes with it, my margins are lower, so I can offer supplies at a price that’s easier on your pocket book. (Interestingly enough, I use “industry standard” markup, that’s apparently not so standard, because I had many people comment on how low and reasonable my prices are.) And again, you’re supporting a small business, one who is generally very knowledgeable about the supplies they offer and the pet communities they serve.
Plus, it’s just plain fun. I love meeting up with people that I hadn’t seen in a while, buying goodies from my favorite vendors, and looking for ways to spoil my pets.