Not every pet store throws a birthday party for a 40-year-old catfish. Even fewer hire a full band to play him smooth jazz on his special day.
Then again, Preuss Pets has never been just a pet store. Part retail store, part educational experience, and part local attraction, the family-owned business has given Lansing residents and visitors plenty of reasons to wander in and look around for decades.
Whether you’re looking for a unique animal to bring home, need supplies for your current pet, or simply love animals and want to immerse yourself in a world of them for an afternoon, Preuss Pets is worth a visit. Keep reading to learn more about what makes this beloved pet shop Michigan’s best.
From a little shop called The Fish Bowl to a Lansing institution
Preuss Pets went through a couple of name changes and moves before becoming the institution it is today. The Preuss family’s first pet store was a small shop called The Fish Bowl. Located in Pennsylvania, it was founded by Lennah Jean Preuss, who loved breeding angelfish and connecting people with the hobby.
That early focus on sharing a love of animals has remained part of the business, even as its size and scope have changed dramatically. What began with one woman’s interest in angelfish eventually grew into a multigenerational operation that introduces customers to countless animals and helps them understand what goes into caring for them.
When Lennah Jean’s son Rick took over the shop, he changed the name and relocated, first to Haslett and later to its current location in Old Town in 2005. Today, the family business has grown to include roughly 70 staff members, with the Preusses working alongside employees to keep all the different pieces of the business moving.
That includes Rick’s daughter, Kirbay Preuss, who works as the general floor manager and oversees reptile and small mammal vet care, among many other tasks. Her parents handle accounting and fish and bird health, as well as the “10,000,000 other things we all do because entrepreneurship is never-ending,” Kirbay told us.
A river, a school bus, and a whole lot of animals
Walk into a regular pet store, and you’ll probably be greeted with shelves of pet food, toys, and maybe some live animals in tanks or cages. But step inside Preuss Pets, and you’re instantly transported to a tropical-inspired wonderland that spans about 23,000 square feet. There is a river winding through the store and is home to fish you can feed for a small donation to charity, as well as a school bus where you’ll find small animals, rodents, and the store’s cricket bar.
Preuss Pets specializes in exotic animals, with everything from tropical birds and saltwater fish to tarantulas and axolotls living under its roof. And, of course, it’s still a pet store. Alongside all the animals, shoppers can stock up on the food, toys, habitats, aquarium supplies, and other essentials they need to care for their own pets.
But you don’t necessarily need a shopping list to have a reason to stop by. Preuss regularly hosts events that range from practical pet care to an excuse to have a little fun. Its calendar includes nail-trimming clinics and celebrations like Neighborhood Pet Store Day and Howloween, complete with dog trick-or-treating, goody bags, and a costume contest.
Education is another big part of the Preuss experience. Many schools take field trips to the store, much like they would an actual zoo, and Preuss intentionally trains employees to be “educators and hospitable instead of salesmen.” Even visitors who come in simply to look around can leave knowing a little more about the animals they encountered and what it takes to care for them responsibly.
Preuss’ approach is especially important when the animals for sale have needs that may be less familiar than those of a common pet like a dog or cat. Someone captivated by an axolotl, tropical bird, or reptile needs to understand the habitat, food, equipment, and ongoing care that animal requires. By treating employees as educators rather than salespeople, Preuss Pets makes that learning part of the experience before someone decides to bring an animal home.
Behind the scenes, there is another Preuss Pets
Beyond the massive retail floor, many other parts of Preuss Pets remain out of public view. Incoming fish, for example, can spend time in a dedicated quarantine room where the fish health team observes them before they make their way onto the sales floor. That’s an extra step shoppers may never see when they’re admiring the aquariums out front.
Elsewhere, a coral propagation room and a classroom are used for educational programming and school groups. Preuss also boards birds, fish, and reptiles for pet owners when they’re away from home and operates an aquarium service division whose staff head out into the community to set up and maintain aquariums for customers.
A commitment to animals and Old Town
Preuss doesn’t describe itself as just a retailer: the family often calls its business “a pet store with a purpose,” rooted in the idea that selling animals means taking responsibility for their lives, not just moving product. That shows up in many different ways, like Preuss’ USDA-licensed status, in-house breeding, high rescue standards, veterinary students on staff, and 24/7 telehealth access.
It’s also why Kirbay now sits on the board of the World Pet Association, where she’s been asked to help explain how an independent store competes in an industry dominated by chains. (She answers the question simply: good welfare, the right team, and people who actually love the work.)
That mindset carries over to how the store sees its neighborhood, too. Four decades in, and more than two of them spent in Old Town, Preuss has grown into something closer to a neighborhood fixture than a family business.
“We love our community,” Kirbay told us. “Preuss would not be what it is today without Old Town.”
Throughout the years, the store has taken on some of the neighborhood’s own character, incorporating what Kirbay calls Old Town’s “inclusive, diverse, and colorful culture” into the business.
It’s fitting, then, that when Preuss marked its 44th anniversary this year, the celebration wasn’t really about the store at all. It was about the animals that make it what it is, including birthday parties for a bird named Poncho (who wore a custom poncho to mark the occasion) and Hoover, the 40-year-old, jazz-loving catfish.
“I think he liked it,” Kirbay said.
This article first appeared on Good Info News Wire and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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