Offering healthy bags and cans of gourmet grub for Central Oregon’s plethora of pets, Bend Pet Express is celebrating its 20-year anniversary with a whole lotta drooling and purring.
Manager Stephanie Clanin oversees both eastside and eastside Bend locations and has been with the company nearly six years.
“What’s primarily important for us is good quality info for our customers so they can choose a better diet for their pets,” she said. “We live in an area where we enjoy camping, biking, hiking and all sorts of outdoor pursuits and want to take our pets with us.”
Bend Pet Express sells an impressive roster of premium pet foods of quality and distinction from sterling names like Champion Pet Foods, Acana, Solid Gold, Natures Variety, Natural Balance, Innova and Pure-Vita.
“What’s exciting about Pure-Vita is that they’re part of the Nutri Source family, a third generation company based out of Minnesota. The latest trends in pet foods are grain-free and raw diets. We try and focus on products that utilize human-grade, U.S.-sourced ingredients whenever possible. What’s also trending in the grain-free lines are special formulas moving away from potatoes and introducing alternative starches like lentils, tapioca and peas,” Clanin said.
Bend Pet Express began life in 1993 inside a humble yet legendary Bend garage owned by Julie Hunter.
“Julie had a sick dog and she took it to a veterinarian and the vet told her to get that dog off the bad grocery store dog food,” Clanin explained. “She did some research and found very few natural, premium pet foods other than the few sold at feed stores. So she became a distributor for Pro Plan dog food and started selling it from her home and delivering it fresh to friends and customers.”
Within three months Hunter’s business had outgrown the garage and she leased out a local warehouse. Six months later she opened her first retail store in Sisters, selling pet supplies, grooming tools, livestock feed and dog and cat food of a higher quality than found at normal retail outlets.
In 2001, after relocating from Sisters, Hunter celebrated the birth of her first Bend location on the Westside. Soon after, in 2003, the eastside store was born.
“Our loyal customer base are Bendites who are mindful of a healthy pet lifestyle for energy and recovery and who are searching for high-quality, reliable products, whose companies deliver not only a consistent food but are known for their integrity.”
Not just satisfied with selling massive volumes of yummy dog and cat food to High Desert pet owners, Bend Pet Express takes its role as a community leader very seriously.
“Because we’re a solid Bend company, born here and raised here, it’s vital to give back to the community via various charities and fundraisers. We’ve recently opened a new food bank in conjunction with the Bend Spay and Neuter Project we’re really happy about. We also do an annual charity fundraiser called Yappy Hour to benefit the Greyhounds Northwest organization. We sponsor food drives for humane societies, offer donations to Bend-based humanitarian and vocational groups for fundraisers year round, anything assisting with our pets and their welfare.”
Bend Pet Express also stocks a complete line of locally-produced leashes, collars and accessories from Spindrift and RuffWear. They have small animal products for rodents, guinea pigs, domestic and wild birds as well as food cups and water bowls.
“We sell a comprehensive assortment of calming agents and nutritional supplements like fish oils, coconut oil, glucosamine supplements for joint health and cutting edge multi-vitamins too.”
And now with the main course out of the way, where’s dessert?
“We’re so well known for our delicious lines of natural cookies, treats and biscuits, in bulk or by the box, without grain and baked with holistic botanicals. And you can’t forget the amazing creative toys, balls and chew bones we carry. We have such a fun time researching and testing and bringing in new lines of fun stuff. Sometimes the cat toys are more exciting than the dog toys.”
With so many happy tails wagging, it’s a wonder Clanin and her staff can keep up with it all.
“What I like most about this job is that I really like my customers and my coworkers. I get to come into work and play with people’s dogs all day long. Not bad. We get a great workout moving and stocking products and carrying out for customers and learning from them. That sharing of knowledge is so important.”
Clanin loves when customers come in and ask questions and she encourages them to learn more about their pets’ habits and training.
“There’s so many pets who go through the same things we as humans go through, like stress, anxiety, allergies and digestive problems and we try to help the pet parents to make informed decisions. We still see growth within the community, this is our home, and we’ll definitely still be here in another twenty years.”
Bend Pet Express is located at 133 SW Century Drive and 420 NW Windy Knolls in Bend across from Costco. www.bendpetexpress.com, 541-385-5298.
