Small Is the New Big at Bark N Fetch

Bark N Fetch, Frisco, TX

OWNER: Heather Denton | FOUNDED: 2019 | LOCATIONS: 1 | AREA: 1,368 square feet | EMPLOYEES: 1 full-time, 3 part-time | URL: barknfetchfrisco.com | FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM: barknfetchfrisco | TIKTOK: barknfetchfrisco1 | TOP BRANDS: Bark’n Big, My Perfect Pet, Tuesday’s Natural Dog Company, The Bones & Co., Farmina Pet Foods, Earth Animal, Instinct Raw Pet Food, Smallbatch, Green JuJu, Bocce’s Bakery, OC Raw Dog, Super Snouts Hemp Company, Front Porch Pets

TWO DECADES AFTER writing her first pet-business plan, Heather Denton realized her dream by opening Bark N Fetch in Frisco, TX. The journey included years of corporate life in advertising and media sales, along with volunteering for various animal rescues.

The longtime pet parent — her family currently includes four rescued Golden Retrievers — found her passion for nutrition in 2016, upon learning that the food one of her dog’s was eating contributed to his severe itchiness. After going down what Denton calls the “pet industry rabbit hole” in research, she overhauled his diet to help him live itch and medication free. To get the premium food, Denton had to drive 24 miles to Lucky Dog Barkery in Dallas, where she fell in love with the products, the employees and the shop itself.

Owner Marsha Lindsey began to mentor Denton in 2018, sharing details about many facets of her business. This allowed Denton to gauge if she could open her own store. Once Denton decided she could, Lindsey recommended books to read and people to talk to. Then, it was time.

Denton says, “With my family and friends’ support, my love and devotion to the health and happiness of animals, and a great name idea from my oldest son, Bark N Fetch became a reality” in 2022.

Big-Time Ingenuity

While Denton initially looked for retail space at around 1,800 to 2,000 square feet, her current 1,368-square-foot location popped up right where she wanted to be geographically, within 10 miles of home, and in a high-traffic, well-established shopping area surrounded by affluent neighborhoods. Denton embraced the smaller footprint.

The compact space makes managing inventory easier along with needing fewer team members to run it. (She “runs the store,” while her one full-timer and three part-timers “keep the store running.”) But a small shop also means less space for new products. If Denton wants to bring in something new, something existing needs to go. Fixtures move and displays change to make seasonal and new products fit.

Creative design, shelving and storage helps, such as overflow dog beds placed near ceiling level, tiered displays and benches. “Galvanized rods allow us to custom fit for the space,” she explains. “I also have round metal nail bins like you used to find in hardware stores for treats and toys.”

Although packed with most everything a pet parent may need or want, the design ensures customers don’t feel overwhelmed. Touches of wood warm the simple industrial look of Bark N Fetch. The patterns and colors of leashes and collars draped on metal bars pop against a black wall. A welcoming steel blue on the opposite side of the retail space elicits calm and openness to the food areas. Hand-painted signs identify each category, such as Bites & Bones and Tough Toys. A smooth, concrete floor finishes the design.

Denton says she didn’t want a generic look. “My brand and my products are unique, so the store vibe has to be as well.”

Major Focus on Nutrition

Bark N Fetch focuses on premium treats, supplements and foods, along with cool products not found in big-box and chain stores. Shoppers can lay hands on everything from hard-to-find frozen, freeze-dried and gently cooked foods, to toys such as petrol chemical-free tennis balls, beds with sustainable fill, and products that showcase local sports teams.

Nutrition fuels the business’s growth, with food contributing approximately 50% to revenue (with raw and gently cooked on top), 18% for treats and 6% for supplements.

The store leans heavily on feeding from the freezer with 11 glass-front doors allowing full visibility into its selection. Prioritizing feeding “out of the freezers” was always a part of Denton’s business plan.

“I started out with just two three-door freezers and very quickly outgrew those within our first year,” she says, then adding more to keep up with the amount of frozen they sell each week.

However, the team doesn’t have an all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to feeding raw or gently cooked. If customers feed kibble, they’re shown how to easily “up the bowl” by adding broth, goat milk and/or freeze-dried toppers. “It’s all about conversations with them,” Denton says. “You have to ask questions and listen, and then do your best to educate with what is applicable to their pet and lifestyle.”

Going Big on Local

Denton prefers to use a grassroots marketing and advertising strategy to reach customers, liking that it’s organic. “It also shows the community — the very same community that I want to shop in my store — that I support them and that I support causes important to them.”

The store donates gift baskets filled with $25 to $200 worth of pet products to support fundraisers for local pet rescues, homeowners associations or schools within a 5-mile radius. “Whatever we can do to support, promote or educate, we do,” she says.

Besides having a robust website filled with products, pictures and shopper must-know information, Bark N Fetch targets locals using Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. The weekly mix includes educational and/or entertaining posts and stories, along with new product alerts.

A part-time, college-student team member creates the fun-and-informative Instagram reels and TikTok videos, which often hit thousands of views. For example, one simple yet entertaining TikTok highlights the store’s new pool toys by showing two of Denton’s dogs fighting over a toy while swimming to the song, Kokomo. A professional digital creator also puts together five annual, effort-intensive compilation videos, such as an end-of-year recap.

The key ingredient to successful posts for Bark N Fetch: using the staff and customer’ dogs. Denton shares, “I want our customers to know that what we sell and what we talk about, we use and that we have customers who love it, too.”

Making a Huge Impact

Denton opened Bark N Fetch because she cared about her dogs and knew there was a need for it. “I am all about our community and how my lifelong dream and passion can have an impact on others, whether you’re a pet parent, a pet grandparent or just a lover of animals,” she says.

Just as Denton was mentored, she happily passes on proven tips to help other retailers. Not surprisingly, the first: Utilize every bit of space and don’t be afraid to go up.

Second, add “lights, lights and more lights” to brighten the space and call attention to areas. The store started with some dropped lights and pendant lights, but when the season changed and it got darker, Denton added more. Certain areas were still too dark — and customers won’t go to where it’s dark — so her electrician ran strips of DOT LED lights underneath fixtures. She says they not only fixed the problem, but look really cool.

Her final thought: The most important lesson Denton learned is to never stop. “You might hit some speed bumps,” she says, “but just roll on over them.”

Five Cool Things About Bark N Fetch

1. HAPPY HOLIDAYS: Last year, the shop gathered requests from a local animal shelter, stuffed stockings around those needs, and sold them at varying price points. Denton discounted items in the stockings to make back only what she paid in order to sell more. It inspired several of the business’s food and toy brands to donate additional products, which also increased their efforts. Social media posts featured several pups who had been with a rescue or in the shelter for a long time. The drive was so well received by customers, who bought 61 stockings total, that it will repeat this year with a goal of selling 150.

2. CEILING STORAGE: Taking advantage of 20-plus-foot-high ceilings, huge cedar platforms built to Denton’s specifications store pet beds. The platforms allow Denton to utilize space upward that would have otherwise been unused. Customers love the large pet bed selection, which can’t be found elsewhere in the area.

3. VERTICAL DISPLAYS: Denton uses hard-to-find antique French bottle-drying racks of different sizes to display toys and bows, particularly to show off holiday themes. She’s meticulously ferreted out five and is in the process of getting a sixth. She says they let her add “so much height,” with the tallest at 5 feet, displaying 50 to 60 stuffed toys.

4. ATTENTION GETTER: A creative sidewalk sign attracts people walking or driving by. Two of Denton’s artistic part-timers come up with cute sayings and drawings for everyday, holidays and events.

5. CUSTOMIZED BATH: A contractor built the store’s self-serve dog wash steps to Denton’s specifications: 6 inches high, 11 to 13 inches deep. “The added depth, more toward the top, gives dogs more room to get their feet on the step before moving to the next one. I knew my old girl, Bailey, could navigate that,” Denton says. The large tub can fit even a Great Dane.

PHOTO GALLERY (12 IMAGES)

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