Whiskers Holistic Petcare is far more than a pet supply store. That is because the proprietors, Randy and Phil Klein, are far more than business owners. Their mission is to help people save or enhance the lives of their pets. “We are an educational center that happens to sell product,” Randy told us as we strolled through her shop. She wore a bluetooth earpiece, allowing her to be in constant communication with many of her employees. Given the different aspects of the business - from shipping and delivery to consulting, sales, and even care for homeless cats - it makes sense that Randy runs a tight ship. “I’m a clean store fanatic,” she stated. Sure enough, as we traveled down the narrow aisles of pet food, vitamin supplements, and grooming and hygiene supplies, not a single item was out of place. She admitted that she has had to be organized to run a business for over thirty-five years.
“The initial passion grew from our own experience,” Randy explained. It all began when Tiffany-Anne, Randy’s collie-mix rescue dog, became ill, and the couple began to learn about the pitfalls of traditional pet medicine and the benefits of holistic care. When they started out in 1988, “holistic” medicine was a foreign word to most consumers. Today, Whiskers is known nationwide as a pioneer in an area that is now much more mainstream. “That doesn’t mean that there is not still work to be done,” Randy admitted. “What we often see and hear from our customers about their experience at the vet is money-based. Doctors will recommend certain treatments because it means someone will get paid. The saddest part is that even when a vet refers a patient to us and our methods work, they show zero interest in what we are doing.”
At Whiskers, there is no “cookie cutter” approach. When someone comes in for a consultation, members of the trained staff will ask question after question so that they can determine an individualized course of care, one that centers around promoting natural animal behaviors. In reality, this means treating your animal like you would a human: Humanely.
For Randy and Phil, running Whiskers, with locations in the East Village as well as Astoria, is “not without stress.” Randy expressed to us that “What sometimes gets lost is how conscious we are of our customer experience. We care for them as people and we care about their animals. Our interest is in their stories.”
