What is this place?

What is this place?

Well, it’s complicated.

You’re currently on Pet World Lawrence’s eCommerce Shopify site. We still have our original site for your convenience but this place is an ever improving work in progress.

Let’s start with explaining what this site is not.

THE PET WORLD EXPERIENCE

Pet World Lawrence Online is not intended to be an online version of the Pet World Experience in Lawrence, Kansas. There is no way we could even attempt to recreate a virtual experience of our Lawrence rehoming center. Locals understand this but if you’ve never been there, wow, it’s hard to explain.

Imagine a huge pet store that’s shockingly clean and full of all kinds of supplies for pets. Then imagine a trained staff of the coolest, friendliest, most passionate pet people you’ll ever met, whose job is to introduce you to the animals they take care of and love. Imagine looking closer and seeing rescue animals right alongside specialty bred animals, living in the most amazing habitats, accessible to touch and pet and even hold, and imagine suddenly realizing you’re actually standing inside a licensed animal shelter – that’s operating inside a full line pet store. We call it a Rehoming Center. (Yeah, we made that up many years ago, and it seems to fit.)

Imagine Girl Scouts earning their Animal Husbandry Badge and class field trips and birthday parties where kids donate supplies to shelter pets in lieu of gifts. Imagine people holding a snake for the first time and feeling their fascination replacing their fear. Then imagine happy faces everywhere on animal lovers just like you.

Yeah. That’s the Pet World Experience. That cannot be duplicated online.

ONLINE MERCHANDISE FOR SALE

Now what about all those thousands of supplies sold at the retail location in Lawrence, Kansas? Why aren’t they all available through this online store?

Because as of this moment that is a project we’re not prepared to take on. We're a small business with fair prices and fair labor. Getting in the ring with Amazon and Chewy would change everything about who we are and prevent us from doing what we do. We’d rather just close our small business than become the very thing that’s destroying small business. That's why we have no sustainable plans to maintain a complete, online catalog of everything we sell at our retail location, BUT you can still call directly and order whatever you want! There are thousands of items available that you won't find here but we can still provide what you need.

PET WORLD LAWRENCE GLOBAL

The good news is we have some unbelievable sources for items that aren’t readily available from Big Corporate, and some exclusive items you can’t get anywhere else. After networking all over the globe for 30 years, and wholesaling to other independents in our buying cooperative for decades, we’re in an excellent position to offer some fabulous products to the public at great prices both locally and online! 

So...what is this place, Pet World Lawrence Online?

Pet World Lawrence Online is a way to offer fabulous products to people in places that don’t have awesome, independent rehoming centers and locally owned pet stores. It’s mostly wood and rock because it was created as a fish and reptile hobby site.

We sell wood and rock at trade shows around the country and what we've discovered is that many cities have been taken over by corporate stores and, with no locally owned, independent options. Consumers literally have no choice but to shop corporate or online and they are not okay with that! So this site was first inspired in 2019 by former customers who moved away and told us how much they missed the Pet World Experience. It has since been expanded for our online customers who never make it to NE Kansas. It’s one way we can stay connected to former customers while reaching out to a whole, new group of fish and reptile hobbyists we’ve yet to meet!

So welcome! And thank you for your support. We hope you enjoy the expanded experience.

~Tim and Sherry