11 Years in Business - Owner Retiring

Squirrel Proof Feeders

Giving the gift of nature to the local community

We are an independent retail store located in the Johns Creek area. We focus on backyard wild bird watching, selling wild bird seed, suet, live and dried mealworms, houses, feeders, gifts, and more. Similar to a Wild Birds Unlimited store without the franchise fees.

The main core of the business (Approximately 77% of Gross Total) is the repeat sales of wild bird seeds, suet, seed cakes and mealworms. The repeat seed business (Appx 59.5% of Gross Total) is about as an "Amazon Proof" retail business that you will find since our products are heavy. Being heavy and large requires Amazon sellers to spend a tremendous amount of their operating income on shipping fees. Just for fun we often will have "self-talkers" stating Amazon's price and our price.

The overall wild bird seed business is growing with just over $3 billion in US sales. The largest franchise in the market has over 350 stores. Roughly 59 million Americans have bird feeders in their yards. In our local area there is a store like us every 10 miles, which is about right.

Monetarily the business is relatively stress free, very low product return rate (0.74% of Gross Sales), and zero credit card charge backs. Great vendor and landlord relations. We are currently open 6 days a week. Mondays 11am-5pm, Tues-Sat 10-6pm. Owner currently works Tues-Sat.

Customers are friendly, with the common phrase of this store being their "Happy Place." It's just not your typical retail environment. We are part of the community, often doing gift baskets with gift cards for local charities. Some we have been doing for the entire 11 years. You will get to know your customers, watch their kids grow up, learn to drive, and go to college. Some of these kids have also become customers.

This business needs a new owner that is community minded and likes talking to like-minded people. Although this business is all about backyard birds, initial knowledge of those birds is not a must have, over your first few months your customers will tell you what birds to focus on. You'll learn the top birds in your area just by working with the customers in a very short period.

Customer service centric business. We try to carry every bag of seed out to the customer's cars. You should count on this continuing. Each bag typically weighs around 20 lbs, and customers, even the ones you think are physically fit may need help.

Although we do have a web presence and a Facebook presence it has not been a store priority. There is a lot of upside here especially on the social side. We have concentrated on repeat business, 3 to 5 miles in area, coming into the store for the past 11 years.