Why we brought Pet Depot online

Joe on why Petshop Near Me exists, what the shortlist is, and how a properly-run online shop is meant to feel.

Pet shop counter with shelves of dog and cat food | Petshop Near Me

Last updated 12 May 2026.

We opened Pet Depot Enniscorthy in 2009. Wicklow in 2014. Between the two shops, thousands of people come in every year for food, advice, and the brands they trust. Most of them we know by name, or at least by the dog's name. Some have been buying the same bag from us for ten years.

The first question most of them ask is some version of: what should I feed her? The second is some version of: do you have it in stock? The third, more often than not, is some version of: can you put one aside for me?

For years the people who could not get to either shop have had no third option. They have either travelled, or used the supermarket aisle, or ordered from one of the big online retailers and put up with the markup, the wrong bag arriving, the brand they actually wanted being out of stock.

Petshop Near Me is the online edition of Pet Depot. Same brands, same standards, same answers when you call. Just delivered to your door.

The shop floor matters

Most online pet retailers were built by people who have never worked a shop floor. The shape of their websites tells you that. Ten thousand products, recommendation algorithms that nudge you to whatever has the highest margin that quarter, marketing copy written by someone who has never had to look an unhappy customer in the eye.

We have done the shop floor for seventeen years. We know which foods cause problems, which ones do not, which bags people buy back, which bags get returned. That is the shortlist. Around three hundred products, give or take. Not ten thousand. The same shortlist that has been in Pet Depot for years.

Properly priced

Online pet food in Ireland is often marked up over physical shops. This makes no sense to us. The cost to stock a bag and dispatch it is not dramatically different from selling it across the counter, particularly when most online retailers do not run any physical presence at all.

Petshop Near Me prices match the Pet Depot shelf. Where we make less per bag online than we do in the shop, that is because we are paying DPD, not because we are pretending to be a discount brand.

Free DPD delivery over €69

The threshold is honest. A 12kg bag of food costs roughly €60 to €75 depending on the brand. One bag and a couple of treats clears €69 without trying. We are not running a loss-leader; we are not pretending shipping is free when it is hidden in the unit price.

The shortlist

Stanley's Grain Free. Burns. Carnilove. Royal Canin. Naturo. And others on the shortlist. The same brands Pet Depot has stocked for years, online for the first time, properly priced, delivered Monday to Thursday for next-day arrival across Ireland.

If you would have walked into Pet Depot Enniscorthy or Wicklow looking for honest advice and a bag you can trust, that is the shop you are looking at. Just with DPD doing the walking.

— Joe Christian
Pet Depot, since 2009

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