The Hutch Shop

30/07/2024

Notice...
For the remainder of this week due to the weather being nice, kids being off school and number of customers dropping off towards the end of the day we're grabbing a extra hour of home time and closing at 3pm.

22/07/2024

It'll be interesting to see the colours develop on this little hatchling 👀

12/07/2024

As a direct result of the carpark closure and public access being blocked we've conducted a financial review to assess the damage caused to our business over the first month. As expected on a average weekday we are between 10 and 12 customers down and Saturdays in the region of 20 resulting in more than we can afford being erased from our projected turnover.
We have conducted a review of our overheads and concluded that our fishtanks are by far our biggest expense that we are able to easily and quickly cut so unfortunately after 15 years of selling fish in sleaford we must now look to move away from live fish sales.
As the tanks become empty they will be sold off to free up some room for new and exciting pet products.

20/06/2024

A few more hatches at the hutch this week 😀

15/06/2024

We have 4 divided display tanks with glass sliding lids surplus to requirement all water tight, can be used as singles or plumbed into a central sump £40 each

14/06/2024

Plenty of locusts reaching 4th and 5th size and a few thousand small ones still to grow through, won't last long though but enough to sustain regular sales this week.

07/06/2024

Bit lost for words this morning, 😥😥 after fighting the decision for the last couple of years the owners have finally been forced to close the carpark next to us,
let's hope now we're tucked away in a corner us along with the other business in millstream Square don't get forgotten..

02/06/2024

Sunday babies newly hatched numbers 4 and 5 spots and stripes 😀

28/05/2024

A couple of weeks worth of growing and changing, number 1 looks different already 😍

23/05/2024

Number 3 has hatched this morning, bright eyes, good size and looking good. 👌

11/05/2024

And the 2nd has arrived, bit smaller this one, more to follow over the next few weeks 😍

11/05/2024

Welcome to the world little dude... First of the leopard gecko eggs just hatched 😍

18/04/2024

Before I look to my wholesalers, breeders/ importers. Is anyone looking to rehome or downsize any adult leopard geckos or crested geckos? Please either pop in and see me or ring on 01529 968082 but please leave a message if I don't answer.
James

28/03/2024

Just a little reminder that we will open as normal on Bank Holiday Friday and deliveries are still coming in.

16/03/2024

The sun is out... smile 😃

29/02/2024

We've had this little fella handed in to us this morning, found outside extremely cold and lucky to be alive, probably escaped a while ago and has multiple layers of unshed skin along with a little damage but with a little tlc a good warm up and a bath should be fine. I have him here warming up slowly and will continue to provide care but if you recognise him please come see me. James

24/02/2024

Today only ( Saturday 24th February) 10% off marked prices on all 2kg and 1.5kg bags of dog food.

19/02/2024

28/12/2023

A quick reminder our opening hours between Christmas and New year are as follows.
Wednesday 27th Dec 10am to 2 pm
Thursday 28th Dec 10am to 2 pm
Friday 29th Dec 9.30am to 2pm
Saturday 30th Dec 9.30am to 4 pm
Sunday 31st Dec closed
Monday 1st Jan closed
Tuesday 2nd Jan back to regular hours

Also please be advised if it is quiet on any day throughout this period we will close early and go home for some extra family time.

16/09/2023

😍🥰😘 one or 2 visitors in the shop today

30/08/2023

Notice...... we will be closing at 3:30 for the next 3 days due to family commitments.
Apologies for any inconvenience
James

22/06/2023

Shop update...... as of Monday 26th June Melissa will be leaving the shop to go back into full time employment working in the same sector she worked before coming to the shop 10 years ago, we've taken this decision as a family in order to safeguard the future of the shop and ensure the business survives while so many close around us.
The reality is for the last 2 years or more with all the economic upheaval the shop does not on a monthly basis make enough profit to pay us both a minimum full time wage so there's always one of us working for nothing and quite frankly we've had enough of us both working 6 days a week and only earning 1 wage.
We made this decision way back at Christmas that this year one of us would go back to working as we could only see the situation worsening or not improving.

Going forward obviously the way we operate will change slightly to account for the fact only 1 person will be in the shop,
we've already gone back to weighing foods out to save time and money with vacuum packing labeling etc and we've dumped our epos till system to remove the product programming and backoffice work that needed daily attention.
James will now have the school run to do in the afternoon so our opening times will have to alter slightly, we will close at 3pm until 3:30 and then stay open until 5pm instead of closing at 4pm to start with and other aspects may change over the first few weeks as James adapts to doing 2 people's work on his own.
And please please leave a message on the phone if it doesn't get answered, James will always put the person standing infront of him first and return calls as time allows, persistent re dialing won't get you through any quicker.

26/05/2023

With the success of our trial going back to loose on some foods we have now extended the range to 60 varieties of dog, cat, rabbit, guinea pig, domestic and wild bird foods all available by the scoop.

18/04/2023

Iams puppy chicken only £2.95 per kg
Sold in any quantity ( just a scoop or as much as you like)

Asda price £4.38 per kg (sold in 800g bags)
Amazon price £4.54 per kg ( sold in 3kg bags)
Pets at home £4.15 per kg (sold in 2kg bags)
Sainsburys £3.50 per kg (sold in 2 kg bag)
Tesco £4.38 per kg ( sold in 800g bags)

18/04/2023

Burns chicken and rice RRP now £14.99 2kg
Our loose price only £5.60 per 1kg

11/03/2023

We've had this little fella left on a shelf today, he's safe behind the counter for the weekend if anyone knows who he belongs to.

07/03/2023

Today we will having a engineer visit to identify the intermittent fault/problem that keeps making our card machine drop connection during transactions. Hopefully this will be the end of the issues but for a time today we will be unable to process card payments or receive phone calls.

20/01/2023

Serious post alert!! ⚠️
Having spoken to various business owners both pet related and local businesses from other sectors over the last week about the impact the cost of living crisis is having on them and us, I am truly shocked at exactly how many business owners cannot see themselves surviving the next few months unless footfall and customers average spend increases drastically.
I'm also extremely angered by the opinion given by several people that we as a business should be thriving as covid provided us with a pet boom that now means 62% of households in our area now have at least 1 pet and pets like people need to eat daily.. the reality is far far from this and we too are now starting to look at our options and wonder if we can continue much longer. We have some lovely loyal customers who use us on a regular basis but this unfortunately is not enough.
In the last 12 months we have had our worst year financially since we opened 13 years ago, footfall is down by over 50% average daily customers are down by 40% average customer spend is down by £3.70, yet the number of households locally with pets has more than doubled since we opened.
Insurance up 230%
Electricity up 135%
Gas up 45%
Water up 15%
Internet up 10%
Card payment costs up 25%
Till/stock software up 22%
Accounting up 25%
November and December were the worst we have ever had and I find myself typing this on a Friday at the end of the worst week trading ever, even worse than our first week 13 years ago when nobody knew we even existed, Melissa has now taken on 2 part time jobs on top of the shop to try and make ends meet at home and neither of us have made basic minimum wage for a full 12 months so to anyone thinking that the pet trade is booming or doesn't need help this is the cold hard reality of trying to run a small business in sleaford.
One of our competitors animal magic also posted today asking for support and stressing the importance of shopping local and doing it now before they too are forced to close and look at other options, so that's 2 of us being under used by a town that now has more pets than ever before and it cannot be argued that it is to save money either because we both do our best to be a cheap as possible wherever possible, we have dog, cat and bird foods as cheap as £1 per kg small animal foods as cheap as £1.50 per kg, frozen dog foods cheaper than buying direct, branded foods and toys cheaper than pets at home and amazon, forthglade wet foods cheaper than tesco, sainsburys, asda and spar and not to mention the 100s of natural treats that you simply cannot get in supermarkets.
so I ask......
where are you?
Because we need you.
Shop local and keep us here to help you or we'll be gone before long without your support.
And remember if you can't see it ASK! We are always happy to source goods and order things for you if its available to us.

04/01/2023

I will be closing early today due to our son being taken into hospital yesterday, the frozen dog food,live food and tropical fish deliveries that were due in today have now arrived and been settled so I'm off now to be with him.
Either myself or Melissa will be at the shop in the morning but as soon as the shop goes quiet we will be closing until the next day and assess each day as it comes.
James