If it crawls, slithers or goes bump in the night, pet retailers have it; changing market gives new life to low-upkeep pets such as lizards, snakes, spiders - includes related article

Discount Store News,  March 6, 1995  by Richard Halverson

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NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT -- Believe it or not, accessories for reptiles such as snakes and lizards, and bugs like hairy tarantulas, are the fastest growing category of pet supplies at retail.

Sales hit an estimated $100 million last year for such items as cages, hot rocks, hiding places and even leashes for walking one's favorite Savannah Monitor, a lizard that can grow to 4 ft. long.

Including the sale of live reptiles, the market last year approached $168 million at retail.

It is a market that, so far, discounters are leaving to the pet supplies superstores and independent pet stores. A Kmart store in West Long Branch, N.J., for example, carries no reptile accessories, and the Wal-Mart in Toms River, N.J., carries only three skus, a leash for walking a pet iguana and two skus of reptile food, including iguana chow.

For reptile accessories, "You're better off going to a pet store," a pet department associate said. But talk in the pet industry has it that Wal-Mart is expanding its pet departments overall and will include more reptile accessories in future sets.

At Petstuff, an Atlanta-based superstore chain that industry leader Petsmart is seeking to buy, "reptile accessories are the fastest growing category," said company spokeswoman Martha May. This is especially true in South Florida, where Petstuff stocks more critters and accessories.

Petstuff invites pet owners to bring their pets into the stores, May said. As a result, more and more customers are bringing their reptiles--4-ft. iguanas on leashes and boa constrictors or pythons wrapped around someone's neck--into the stores.

"Sometimes customers get frightened and complain," May said. But Petstuff explains the company policy and tries to separate the friendly from the frightened.

What is driving the reptile market is a changing lifestyle, with less free time for taking care of pets.

Reptiles require little upkeep, she said. Snakes, for example, need to be feed at most once a week and require little personal attention to be content.

Youngsters, especially boys, are taking to reptiles as the "in" pet, May said.

Petstuff stores stock a wide range of live reptiles, while PetsMart, the industry's largest superstore chain, carries none. If PetsMart does acquire Petstuff, it remains to be seen whether PetsMart will drop live reptile sales in the acquired stores. (Two Petstuff stockholder lawsuits are seeking to block the acquisition on grounds that they would get too little for their stock.

Here are examples of the reptiles that the Petstuff store in Glen Burnie, Md., was selling: Mexican King Snake, $99.99; Black White Tegu, $99.99; Sudan Plated Lizard, $44.99; Green Iguana, $24.99; Boer Ball Python, $79.99; Albino Burmese Python, 199.99; Similus Monitor, $49.99; Armadillo Lizard, $34.99; Water Dragon, $59.99; and Schneiders Skink, $49.99.

Among the accessories were a wide range of products to keep reptiles warm and content, including: reptile tank covers, $34.99; iguana lights, $32.99; heave cave, $39.99; fake Vebal cactus, $8; Repti-Bark, 8-qt. size., $7.99; cactus skeleton, $4.99; iguana food, 4-lbs. size, $11.99; and electric rock heaters, $19.99, $25.99, and $39.99, depending on the wattage.

Also, iguana leashes, $9.94; reptile vitamins, $15.99; hollowed-out hiding logs, $5.99 and $10.99; and floating food sticks for iguanas, turtles and frogs, $15.49 for 14.5-oz. size, or more than $1 per ounce.

Major vendors for reptile accessories include Zoo Med and Tetra Terrafauna.

To get youngsters started on reptiles, the Petco store in Eatontown, N.J., stocks a Zoo Med Reptile Habitat kit at $39.99 that includes a rock heater, thermometer, reptile vitamins, a fake grass carpet and a beginner's guide for reptile care.

Among the more than 400 skus of reptile products, the Petco store stocks Repiticare ceramic heat emitter bulbs at $34.99, $37.99 and $39.99.

Other reptile care products include solutions to help snakes molt and to care for turtle eyes.

Overall, the iguana is the pet of the '90s, proclaimed Brian Devine, chairman and ceo of Petco, noting that iguana accessories are extremely profitable. While declining to identify a specific profit, Devine admitted that the animals themselves generate relatively low margins when the cost of caring and feeding them--plus mortality losses--are figured in the equation. But livestock purchases drive sales of accessories.

And margins on reptile accessories are at the highest levels, while dog and cat accessories are in the mid-range and pet food in the lower range, Devine said. Turns are slower on reptile accessories, however, and a store needs sales expertise that discount chains lack, he added.

The Pet-Food Giant store in West Long Branch, N.J., stocks two models of reptile tanks from Lounge Lizard, one for $76.19 and another for $150.67 that requires its own cabinet base.

Among live reptiles, The PetFood Giant, a new superstore chain of nine stores, stocks: Savannah Monitor, $45; baby iguana, $28.95; Rose Hair Tarantulas, $15.45; Ball Pythons, $35; Senegal Chameleon, $47.50; Leopard Gecko, $50; Florida King Snake, $70; and House Gecko, $4.99.

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