Both of these stores are available for me,but I wonder which one has the most items and services,and the cheapest prices? I want to be a smart shopper.
Around here at least PetSmart has the best prices of the two. It costs me 50 cents per Natural Choice wet pouch at PetSmart, Petco charges 65 cents for the same pouch. Pet Supplies Plus has even better prices, but not as many services- it has many ultra premium brands of food however.
Petsmart seems to be cheaper and have a bigger selection. I've been disappointed in every Petco I've been to. They also take better care of their animals from what I've seen.
Petsmart wins hands down in my opinion! I work for one of the animal shelters in our area and Petsmart has been nothing but wonderful to us. They opened up a small satellite location for our shelter in their store when it was built with tons of nice kitty condos for us to bring our cats that are available for adoption. Every time one of our animals is adopted as a result of the petsmart location- they make a donation to our shelter.
They also let us host adoption days there several times a month for our dogs that need good homes. Several of the employees there have come to be such good friends with our shelter staff that they now volunteer at our shelter on their off days! You just can't beat the good prices, the friendly staff, or the amount of help Petsmart personally gives to local shelters and homeless pets.
Although Petco is closer to me geographically, I prefer Petsmart by a long shot. While i was getting Feliway plugins every month, I hated paying full price. Both places have it cheaper online, BUT Petco does not honor their website prices in store. petsmart does. I used to bring in a printout of the page for Feliway and hand it to the cashier. Honored every time, even different stores.
I like their selection, prices, everything. Even our shelter, where i volunteer, likes them. We have some adoption cages there, so some of our adoptables get even more visibility. Their staff seem to be more attentive, too.
Personally I think that both are somehow owned by the same parent company...or at least had their web site done by the same person/company. Their promos and web site are too similar...
All in all though, I find that Petsmart has more sales than Petco. Without the sales, they're about the same.
IMO they are about equal. I think the Petsmart stores are larger, but both stock pretty much the same things. I use Petco only cause its on my way home when I need canned food. The closest Petsmart store is 2 hrs away.
When we got our cat tree - we looked at both places. Petco had a nicer one for less money.
I'd really like to see one of them over here in the SW side of Minnesota!
I've never been to a petco... they don't have them where I live. Here there are Petsmarts in the cities but not where I live so I only go there for special toys and things I can't get. Normally I am a Petvalue shopper.
I have to agree with most others that PetsMart is by far a better store. More economical, better selection and the clerks seem to have a better knowledge of their stock.
However I only purchase toys and treats at the chain store. Most of my supplies comes from a smaller delivery bases store in my area. When the larger stores moved in our local pet store(which had been serving the area for 50 years) had two options, go out of business or offer another service so they started a delivery service....
It fantastic, I pay between $7-$15 more for the supplies but that is well worth the convenience of having them delivered to the door. I live on the third floor, so believe more lugging 15kg of kitty litter up was no fun.
I shop at whichever one has the best sale. Sometimes Petco actually has better sales. But you have to watch the ads.
Generally, I shop at Petsmart for food a lot. BUT if I want a better selection of toys I go to Petco. I think they have better toys to choose from. They definitely did at Christmas.
They were the only ones here who had the Kitty Hoots Christmas toys. Stimpy still goes nuts over the Christmas tailchaser that was in the stocking.
Around here Petco is the better store. They have more small pets too look at
The also have much better prices and more items. They also have a lot of sales and clearance. I really didn't like the PetSmart in Cedar Rapids, IA (were I used to live).
I like Petsmart better. Aside from the prices and foods, I think it's more cleaner and easier to find what I want. Plus, they team up with the local SPCA for cat rescues, so I always go look at the cute kitties when we're there
I've never been to a Petco, because the closest one is over 2 hours away. I really like Petsmart but don't get to go there very often because it's not exactly close to us either... about 45 minutes away.
I have a Petco within a couple of miles of me, but it's really a terrible store. It may just be that particular store, but I've seen horrible conditions in their small animal pens. Also, for some reason my boys are always less enthusiastic about the food I buy from there, even though it's exactly the same brand as I get elsewhere.
It's almost like it's stale or something. Like I said, though, it may just be that one store. I either shop at the small family-owned shop up the street or go out of my way to go to PetSmart.