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closeA new place for pets
Small town, friendly Sumner is ‘a great fit’ for the natural pet food store, says Mud Bay store manager Lynn Montgomery
Avani Nadkarni
Lynn Montgomery has found her dream job.
“We get to play with (pets) all day,” the manager for Sumner’s Mud Bay natural pet care store said. “There’s a lot of action with dogs, which I love.”
Montgomery, who owns three dogs and three cats, was working at the University Place Mud Bay when she was asked to be the manager for the Sumner store. An Orting native, she knew the area and thought Sumner was the perfect town for the healthy pet food chain, which Sumner Downtown Association Executive Director Shelly Schlumpf calls “the Trader Joe’s of the pet world.”
Mud Bay is an Olympia-based store founded, and still run, by Elsa Wulff and her family in 1988. Now, the chain has 17 locations in King, Thurston and Pierce counties. Before the Sumner opening, the closest stores to East Pierce County were in Kent and University Place, so Montgomery said she sees a lot of her old customers.
“Some people used to go to University Place from Sumner, Puyallup, Bonney Lake,” she said. “Everyone that has come in says ‘I’m so glad you’re here,’ so we feel very welcome here.”
The reason customers trek so far for Mud Bay, she said, is the extensive training staff receives in pet nutrition and physiology. While she is careful to say that the staff members are not veterinarians and do not diagnose pets, they are well-versed in pets and can make suggestions for more natural medicines. A popular supplement for the Fourth of July, during which pets often fear the sounds and sparkles of the fireworks, Montgomery explained, was a lavender-based calming formula that nixes the need for heavy tranquilizers.
Although the store mainly focuses on healthy and natural food for dogs and cats, Mud Bay also carries various types of outdoor equipment, like hiking boots and life preservers, something Montgomery finds is useful in Sumner.
“In University Place, customers were mainly older people with smaller dogs,” she said. “Here, our customers are mainly families with larger dogs. There’s a lot of activity. The dogs are doing agility training, they’re hiking.”
Another aspect of keeping Mud Bay a small-town store are the samples: The Sumner store has a floor-to-ceiling cabinet stocked with food samples, so pet owners can see what works best for their dog or cat. To personalize the store, items that staff members favor are marked with a photo of the staff member and their dog and a “Staff Pick” sign.
“We can find what works best for your pet,” Montgomery said, citing a money-back guarantee on pet foods.
Frequent customer Carol Patterson, a Puyallup resident who works next door to the Sumner store, said her dog has turned into a pet food snob after trying Mud Bay’s food.
“She won’t eat stuff from (other) stores now,” Patterson said of her shih tzu, Jack Russell terrier and Chihuahua mixed dog. “I was probably the first customer (at the Sumner store) and I’ll keep going back. The staff really helped me, they’re very helpful, very knowledgeable and so nice.”
Many people see the sign, walk in and become frequent customers, Montgomery said. Sumer Lentz of Lake Tapps is one of them. She stopped by on the way to get a smoothie next door.
“We’ve heard a lot of good things about Mud Bay and we like spoiling our dog,” Lentz said of her Australian Labradoodle. “We’ll probably keep coming here.”
Mud Bay works with local pet shelters and if someone adopts a pet, they are given an array of coupons to use at the chain. Working with local shelters and groups is part of the Mud Bay philosophy, said Cathy Schellhammer, marketing manager for Mud Bay. Sumner’s staff was present at the July 12 Mutts off Main event and the staff members plan to integrate themselves in the community whenever possible.
“Much of what we offer is made locally, from socially responsible manufacturers and producers headquartered in the Pacific Northwest,” Schellhammer said. “We’ll do anything we can to help the dogs, cats and owners who visit our stores.”