11/20/2024
Happy Wednesday, everyone! We have had a busy couple of weeks here at The Village Groomer - Lawrence, as we all get ready for the holiday season.
As we slowly move into 2025, we enter into our third year in business. We are thankful to those who have given us the opportunity to groom, train, and board your dogs during that time. We also want to give everyone an update on what to expect in 2025 - from pricing, to services, to policies.
What to expect in 2025:
Bangor property renovations: Unfortunately, soon after Bruce's hospitalization, we had a gas leak at our house in Bangor, followed by the discovery that the roof is leaking on the future groom room. Financially, this is something that we can't cover right now. Last month, we started getting Bruce's hospital bills, and they exceed $6,000. The medical billers are really aggressive, so we have to put those bills at the top of our priorities, which means the roof moves down on the priority list. Yes, it's a slow process, but that's what happens when a family buys an old farm and fixes it up. It takes a while, even without kidney stones, heart palpitations, and spinal tumors. We do what we can when we can, and our customers are just going to have to accept that. We understand that it has caused some anxiety, but if you feel anxious about it, imagine what we feel. The Lawrence building has done a fine job for us all over the past almost 3 years and it will continue to serve us until the day that Bangor is finally ready. We are hoping that with patience comes great things.
Pricing: As of right now, we don't feel that we need to raise the prices on any of our services.
With that said - we would like for everyone to think about the products and tools that we use as groomers. Shears, blades, shampoos, conditioners, so on and so forth. Most of those products are imported into the United States from abroad. Many of those countries are about to be hit with tariffs, or higher tariffs than they already pay. The suppliers who purchase those products aren't going to accept those tariffs, and the price of the products that we use on a daily basis may drastically change as a result once they pass the cost to us, the consumer. When/if that occurs, Bruce will do his best to find new suppliers who have products with similar quality to what we use now. If he is unable to successfully find new products that meet our client's expectations, then yes, our costs will rise. If an American company could make these products, with the level of quality that we are used to, at the same price - we would buy American every single time. Unfortunately, that's just not the case.
We are reading that other small businesses are stocking up on products that they use regularly, so that when the price increase from the tariffs comes later, it doesn't affect them as much. We are looking into doing this, but this would mean buying 2 to 4 years' worth of shampoo and conditioner, etc., which pushes the Bangor project back even further.
Essentially, where we are at is that we can't have both. We can't fix up Bangor and buy product in advance and keep up with medical payments. We have to make a decision and ultimately, the decision so far has been that we won't pass the cost to our clients, and we will instead buy products in advance and stay in Lawrence for just a little while longer. We want to be transparent about all of this so that our customers know what is going on behind the scenes and the lengths that we go so that you have the best experience, with the best products, and pay the best possible price for this service.
Thank you, again, for your continued patronage, as it is your loyalty that is helping to keep us moving forward!
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