Monroe woman follows dream to open pet store

Official opening
of shop scheduled
for tomorrow

BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer

MONROE — Starting tomorrow, residents will no longer have to leave town to search for a pet shop.

That’s when Pet’s Place, owned and operated by township resident Caroline Schommer, opens its doors on Spotswood-Englishtown Road.

Schommer said this endeavor is something she has wanted to do for a long time.

“I wanted to go to veterinarian school, but I knew I couldn’t deal with the death of animals,” she said. “So I’ve always wanted to just enjoy the joy of the animals. I guess as you get older and you start having more and more animals, you start realizing, ‘You know what, I really should go do this.’”

Though it’s her first pet shop, Schommer’s has experience — her own assortment of pets and related items includes four dogs, a cockateel, a goldfish pond, three freshwater fish tanks, a saltwater coral reef tank and one roman tufted goose. That’s right, a goose.

“It’s a long story,” Schommer said, before explaining that her father saw a family attempting to set the goose free in DeVoe Lake, Spotswood. The goose, having already been domesticated, kept running after them. Schommer’s father then volunteered to take care of it for a while, and then Schommer herself took it in.

“I sometimes feel like I have five dogs, because we just walk her out in the yard and she just waddles along with you; the other dogs are right behind her,” Schommer said.

The store will sell small animals such as puppies, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs and rabbits, as well as reptiles including geckos, bearded dragons and lizards. The store will also sell cockateels, parakeets, finches and canaries, as well as a full variety of freshwater and saltwater fish, live rock and coral.

“In order to have a full-line pet store, that’s basically what you need to bring in,” she said.

Schommer grew up in Spotswood, and moved to Monroe in 1986. After recently leaving her prior career, and with the blessings and encouragement of friends in the business, she decided to open a pet shop.

“It’s just always been a love of mine,” said Schommer, adding that although she does not have a background in selling animals, she does have a background of owning and loving animals.

She received help and advice from other pet store owners as well.

“A lot of good people in my life pitched in,” she said.

Schommer also said the township Zoning Board of Adjustment was supportive of the 14,000-square-foot store.

“Everybody in the zoning office agreed that we need a pet store here in town,” she said. “So they were just absolutely wonderful about the whole thing.”

Schommer said business at Pet’s Place will be conducted in a personal, friendly manner. When a customer asks about a certain animal or pet supplies, “My people are going to walk you over and they’re going to show you where it is, and most likely, they’re going to carry it to the register for you.”

Schommer said the store will offer pet supplies and food for every kind of animal the store sells, but the building is not big enough to accommodate a grooming department.

“If the business does well,” Schommer said, “I may consider, if the township allows me, to build up, and maybe eventually go that way.”

Schommer, who will work in the story daily, is hiring two full-time employees for the day, two part-timers at night.

The grand opening of Pet’s Place is tomorrow at 1 p.m. Regular hours will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the store will be open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.