# Drs Foster & Smith Acquired by PETCO?



## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Email arrived today.

Sad.


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## james1983 (Dec 23, 2007)

Yea, I read it somewhere awhile ago. Also read the Petco was closing down the Dr. Foster and smith.
http://www.petproductnews.com/News/Petc ... and-Smith/


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## Sub-Mariner (Dec 7, 2011)

Petco has owned them for awhile now just like PetSmart owns Chewy.

Wonder what's going to happy to liveaquaria, they're under the Dr foster and smith umbrella, pretty much same company just a different name.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


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## awanderingmoose (Aug 11, 2016)

Petco has owned Drs F&S since 2015, with the initial transition being seamless from a customer perspective. What appears to be happening now is to handle the business out of their existing petco.com call centers/warehouses, instead of the dedicated Dr F&S site in northern Wisconsin. What this means from a price, inventory, and customer service perspective remains to be seen. Here's a snippet from a local news report:

The closure formally takes effect Feb. 12, 2019, with operations closing to the public and a transfer of all online services to Petco at that time. However no employees will lose their jobs prior to March 10, with many of the cuts coming within a two-week window after that date.

Full article at: https://www.wjfw.com/storydetails/2..._of_drs_foster_and_smith_rhinelander_facility


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

In the past I used product info provided on Drs Foster & Smith website that I can't imagine being provided on Petco website. Also the product line...are they carrying everything DFS carried? Sorry we are losing this resource.


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## awanderingmoose (Aug 11, 2016)

Well, now we know. The Drs F&S website redirects to petco.com, which has the usual petco inventory. Liveaquaria.com seems to have at least much of the original inventory displayed on the site, but a number of items are shown as "out of stock" (not sure if that means they'll get more in eventually, or not). Listings have the same level of product detail. In principle there are customer reviews, but the old reviews were never ported over, it's a completely clean slate.


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## mambee (Apr 13, 2003)

I'm doing some price comparisons right now, and it seems that Petco pricing is much higher than Big Al's Pets. Pet Solutions has already bitten the dust. I suggest that people try to steer their purchases to Big Al's to keep them alive. We are going to lose the wide breadth of product offerings if these specialized online retailers go out of business. I recently had to visit 3 different stores (Petco/PetSmart) to pick up some medication, and the price was outrageous.


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## CharlesMTF (Oct 20, 2003)

Doesn't Petco or Petsmart pricematch, if you find the same item at an online retailer? I thought one of them did, don't remember which.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The problem is PetSmart and Petco don't even carry some of the more desirable items.


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

awanderingmoose said:


> Well, now we know. The Drs F&S website redirects to petco.com, which has the usual petco inventory. Liveaquaria.com seems to have at least much of the original inventory displayed on the site, but a number of items are shown as "out of stock" (not sure if that means they'll get more in eventually, or not). Listings have the same level of product detail. In principle there are customer reviews, but the old reviews were never ported over, it's a completely clean slate.


Liveaquaria has a clearance sale going on right now ... I imagine there are some deals to be had.

I ordered some Azoo sponge filters ... $2.00 - $2.50 ... very reasonable ... :thumb:


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