Duston Pet Shop

In previous blog articles we have looked at a number of local Northampton pet shops, both large chains and small independents. In this article we will take a look at an example of another small independent, namely Duston pet shop. The timing of this article is rather apt as the shop is celebrating its 30th birthday this week which explains the balloons you can see in the photo.

Duston Pet Shop – Location & Opening Hours

It’s entirely possible that many Northampton residents who are reading this have no idea where Duston pet shop is located. I get the sense that it relies mostly on local Duston residents for business. If I’m honest I don’t ever remember passing it on my travels but made a point of visiting this week for the purposes of this article.

Location

The address of the store is as follows:

Windsor House,
Limehurst Road,
Northampton NN5 6LJ

There are a handful of shops on this small parade and free parking too. Once inside Duston Pet Shop you will notice how tiny it is. This is in part because half the store is given over to dog grooming. It’s a family business with mother Heather running the pet shop and daughter running the grooming business which is called Dee’s Dog Grooming. Despite the lack of space inside they still seem able to cram in quite a lot of stock. I didn’t check too many items but I was pleasantly surprised by the prices. I found them cheaper for instance than some larger pet shops for the exact same brand of dog poo bags for example. I also noticed that they seemed to stock quite a selection of food for wild garden birds. It’s always interesting to see what smaller shops stock since they are limited on space.

Over the years the outside signage has changed. The current sign mentions the dog grooming as well which I suspect is a more recent addition. In the past the shop sign mentioned that they were a guinea pig and rabbit specialist and some of the reviews seem to reflect this too.

Opening Hours

The opening hours for Duston pet shop are pretty much what you would expect for a small independent shop like this. They don’t have the extended hours that a large chain like Pets At Home do but then if they don’t employ staff it would be wrong to expect them to open longer. Small business owners often work many additional hours ‘unseen’ on things like their business accounts, dealing with suppliers and in some cases managing their websites and social media accounts. If you are thinking of paying Duston Pet Shop a visit their listed opening hours are as follows:

Monday 10 am – 5:30 pm
Tuesday 10 am – 5:30 pm
Wednesday Closed
Thursday 10 am – 5:30 pm
Friday 10 am – 5:30 pm
Saturday 10 am – 4 pm
Sunday Closed

I can only assume that Dee’s Dog Grooming have the same opening hours.

Duston Pet Shop Reviews

When looking at reviews for Duston Pet Shop a few things become apparent. Being such a small shop they are never going to compete with larger shops in terms of the number of reviews. However the overall rating is higher than many pet shops, no doubt in part due to the quality of service offered. There’s no doubt the average employee will never care as much about the business as the actual owner.

Many of the reviews point out the knowledge of the owner as well as how helpful she is. A few of the reviews also mention the quality of the grooming service. The grooming service also seems to have their own Google business listing with a limited number of reviews but all positive.

Personally I admire anyone who continues to operate a small retail business. In the face of competition from large chains and online sellers like Amazon it would seem to be a losing battle. Those that continue either rely on offering a specialist service or knowledge or they diversify in the products and services they offer. Duston Pet Shop seems to have done both. There is no doubt dog grooming is a very popular, much needed service and my guess this diversification has helped them reach their 30th anniversary.