The Globe And Mail:
The 1940s witnessed the rise of Tupperware parties, during which happy housewives discovered the joys of resealable plastic containers. The 1960s saw Mary Kay head into homes. And in the 1970s, Avon exploded in living rooms. Useful? Yes. But one thing was always missing at these sales shindigs: adorable animals.
Finally, we have Pupperware parties.
At these affairs, 10 to 20 pet owners get together, swap tales, have a little wine and listen to a Pupperware “consultant” try to sell them gourmet cat kibble, doggie couture and parrot grooming products. The consultant gets a cut of the sales, the hostess usually gets a product discount and everyone has a good time – except maybe for the pets forced to model their newly purchased clothing.
The two giants of the pet product direct home sales industry are Shure Pets, a Chicago-based company founded in 2002, and Petlane, a Concord, Calif.-based company founded in 2003, both of which have hundreds of sales consultants across the United States. Neither one conducts business in Canada, but entrepreneur and animal-lover Emma Cox has set out to fill that tragic party gap. She started Party Pets a year ago from her home in Nelson, B.C., and currently has 10 direct sales consultants working for her across the country.
You would think that launching a business right before a global economic collapse would have been a very bad idea. But it turns out that selling organic catnip and rhinestone dog collars is a good bet in a bad economy.
“I would say the industry has been fairly recession-proof,” says Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a consumer research firm based in Charleston, S.C. “The whole thing is interesting, how people become attached to their pets and what they’ll do for them.”
Logo from Party Pets