Pet products - the Dog Days of summer

There is a movement afoot — or, perhaps more specifically, apaw — whereby garden centers are venturing into the growing pet supply market. It makes sense — garden centers are evolving into "Home" centers, and pets play a vital role in many homes. On any given shopping spree, your customer's "to buy" list might include plants, decoratives and pet care products.

You can make the process easy by offering all of those in one handy-dandy location. Country Mile Gardens in Township, N.J., has parlayed an eclectic product mix into 25 years of business success. (Check out the Bird Feeders, Pet Food link.) Lest you think this is just a fad, consider that a Web search of the words "pet supplies" recently yielded 116 million options, including gourmet dog treats that look so good your customers will be hard pressed not to buy them.