Meet Louis - Co-Owner Of The Pet Beastro

• Posted on 11 April 2022
• By Louis
• Posted in Pet food specialist & Staff
• 0

I wear many hats, as most entrepreneurs do. You may find me in the delivery van, stocking shelves, fixing lights or toilets, working in-store events, answering questions about health, dressing up as Santa (shhh! don't tell anyone), or even working the cash registers.

At The Pet Beastro From Before The Beginning

I've been around since the inception of The Pet Beastro. Jill and I met almost two decades ago and before the beginning of The Pet Beastro's creation. When we first met, she was involved with greyhound rescue. We continued our involvement in greyhound rescue and began raw food distribution for Oma's Pride out of our shared home in 2005. Growing up, I did not have any pets, but one of our greyhounds, "Bash," chose me as his owner. We have shared our home with many greyhounds and some other breeds along the way. Our hounds have passed on their spiritual journey in recent years, and we now share our home with our Savannah and Bengal cats. Although dogs and cats are different in their lifestyle and needs, they still bring us plenty of joy.

Retail Experience

My retail career began when I was just out of high school. I started at the supercenter stores of Meijer as a grocery clerk, advanced to a manager, then was promoted to a hardlines team lead role overseeing six different departments.

After Meijer, I had a short stint at professional plant scaping, which entailed installing plants in malls, casinos, and corporate office buildings. My duties entailed account management, maintaining greenery with watering and plant replacement, annual outdoor planting of flowers, and holiday decoration installation and set up at large corporate accounts.

In 2006, I found my way back into the retail scene with Kroger until 2015. I worked in several retail areas, from inventory management to dairy department manager, backup grocery clerk, inventory receiving, and union steward, and enjoyed various responsibilities of running a grocery store. During this time, I held many part-time roles with The Pet Beastro as needed. During my tenure at Kroger, I was exposed to many different areas of inventory and leadership opportunities which have helped me improve and implement day-to-day operations at The Pet Beastro. I officially joined The Pet Beastro as a full-time employee in August 2015 and left big-box grocery retail behind. 

Entrepreneur & Louis Of All Trades

My official title at The Pet Beastro is Integrator, where I take the big ideas and vision and make them a reality. In addition, I implement our core values amongst our team members at every stage of their journey with us and work on daily operations and procedures. I wear many hats, as most entrepreneurs do. You may find me in the delivery van, stocking shelves, fixing lights or toilets, working in-store events, answering questions about health, dressing up as Santa (shhh! don't tell anyone), or even working the cash registers. When I'm not working on operations and procedures, I'm often behind the scenes, coaching, guiding, and mentoring our leadership team. I genuinely value an honest hard day of work, people who are true to themselves, and truthfulness. And I encourage our employees to balance work and life as much as retail allows.

Outside Of The Pet Beastro

When work/life balance permits, I like spending my time outdoors. I fill the summer months with fishing and camping. Every summer, I want to have a project outside of work hours. I have hand-dug a small pond in our backyard with 30+ goldfish with a complete freshwater habitat. This is a fun yearly summer project that ebbs and flows with plant life and wildlife. I built an outdoor catio onto our sun porch for our cats to enjoy nature while being safe. I took apart and rebuilt our 2001 Jeep Cherokee's engine to keep it in working order. I enjoy learning while improving our home. 

I enjoy traveling and visiting new places for adventures and new experiences such as snowmobiling and zip lining in the Colorado mountains, hot springs, and backpacking on North Manitou Island, part of Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Park. They have all been great experiences. I hope for many more adventures in the years to come.