Leading the Pack in Oakland! We're kind of obsessed with this Bay Area gem that prefers apple spice to pumpkin spice, is 100% anti cheesy Christmas music, and deemed a toddler as their "customer experience manager". We are thrilled to be featuring them this week in our retail spotlight post.
Firstly, Leading the Pack (also know as LTP) offers one-on-one experiences for your furry friend, including pet styling, grooming, and shopping, of course! Also, We love them because they only source goods that come from small and family businesses, and charitable companies. Lastly,, they donate a portion of sales every month to a pet-related charity! What's not to love?
Furthermore, The founders are husband and wife, Caitlyn and Justin. Caitlyn grew up on a vegetable farm and raised lots of 4H animals. She met her husband, Justin, at Cornell University. Then, Justin has a background in accounting and business management and along with Caitlyn's creative background and animal experience they decided to open their own family-run grooming salon. You may pop into the salon on any day and see Caitlyn working on a dog and Justin up front running operations while toting around their son, Westley. Leading the Pack in Oakland.
Below are Caitlyn's answers to some of our spotlight questions.
1. Do you have any pets / special store mascots?
We have 2 Welsh Terriers, Guinness and Stella (@blackandtanterriers) Our logo is a Welsh Terrier.
2. What's your go-to lunch spot in your area?
Cholita Linda
3. What is your go-to play list for the store music?
We like a little of everything. Could be different based on the dog in the salon!
4. Pumpkin Spice everything this fall- yay or nay?
We don't participate in P.S. but we do have an apple spray that is quite nice in the fall. We also don't play Christmas music in the store. :)
5. Anything else we should know about LTP?
We usually have our toddler in the store with us. He will be 2 just after Christmas and He loves to hand treats out to the dogs and walk them around the store. He is the "customer experience manager".
