Today we’d like to introduce you to JJ Diaz.
JJ, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
About 11 years ago, my beloved Rottweiler, Jake was given a year to live. Not content with being told there was nothing I could do, I went north to Gainesville and met a holistic vet who opened my eyes to the importance of pet nutrition. I applied what I learned to my feeding habits with Jake, and he went on to live another five years.
This experience made me determined to help other pet owners and educate them on understanding the ingredients of pet foods. When my wife and I opened Animal Crackers in 2010, it was just us, a few shelves of product and an embarrassingly low budget but we were determined to do it ourselves.
The food we carried we thoroughly researched from what ingredients were used, where it was sourced from and manufactured. This enabled us to switch products whenever smaller companies that were transparent in the beginning got brought out by larger companies with less transparency and questionable reputations in quality products.
About two years later, we had the opportunity to offer grooming, and have slowly built a small team of animal loving bathers and groomers that are like extended family.
Has it been a smooth road?
We’ve had some crazy times. When we first opened, we had three dogs of our own. Since then we’ve had people drop off so many animals at our door. We’ve now got five rescue cats at home due to various different people bringing them in. Someone once tied a pregnant dog to the store gate. We found her one morning when we came into work, she gave birth to eight puppies two days later.
My son had just turned two years old, it was wild. We had 12 dogs, five cats, a new business to run and a toddler to feed. We found great homes for all of them, even the mother, through clients at the store. We still see them come visit us it’s great. Recently, we had someone leave us with three pugs and never came back for them, we just don’t understand how people can just stop caring about their pets.
Right now, one of the things we are seeing is people coming in for advice on food for their pets, getting all the information they need, all questions answered then going home to buy it from the big online companies just to save a couple of bucks. You can’t complain about small local stores closing when you do this.
The past eight years have been far from a walk in the park, there have been many struggles and challenges but just to hear one story from a client that has seen drastic health improvements from changing their pet food makes it all worthwhile.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Animal Crackers Inc story. Tell us more about the business.
One of the core goals, when we started Animal Crackers, was to be the mom and pop store you don’t get anymore. Most stores are too busy or understaffed to really help and answer questions. It’s important to us to take the time and help you out, it’s not about pushing product and making a quick buck.
I remember going into my neighborhood store, they’d know my name and my parents, and if I didn’t have exact money for something, they’d let me pay for it next time. That’s what we do here, that’s the neighborhood store we are. One of my clients is also a small business owner here in Downtown, he owns a restaurant and is also a certified beekeeper.
I found this out when a delivery truck had hit a hive on one of its routes, and it stuck to the back of the van. When the van stopped in Downtown, the bees latched onto a lamppost outside my store. It was crazy, there were thousands of bees, and no one noticed. Everyone was just walking past it on their phones. He managed to move the hive and set it up in my backyard.
Since then, I’ve helped him maintain it and rescue a further five bee hives from around Miami. I’ve promised my wife no more animals, but then last week I found three baby squirrels on the sidewalk…..
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
There are always bigger food companies buying out the smaller guys, so we are constantly trying to stay on top of who runs who.
The good thing is pet food companies are responding to the shift in demand for quality ingredients. They can’t get away with crappy fillers and byproducts anymore.
Contact Info:
- Address: 280 NE 2nd Street Miami, FL 33132
- Website: www.animalcrackersdelivers.com
- Phone: 3053748004
- Email: jjdiaz@animalcrackersdelivers.com
- Instagram: animalcrackersmiami
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