There’s a new breed of pet store in town!
Homes Alive Pets is a new pet store located at 13340 St. Albert Trail. They actually opened on the same day as the Edmonton International Cat Festival (maybe next year they can be a part of the festival!) and co-owner Evan reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in checking out the store and bringing along Thor, Loki, and Olive for the fun. Loki does not travel well so we left him at home, but Mike and his friend Mike (lol), along with Olive and Thor and I, were eager to see the new shop.
Homes Alive Pets is located at 13340 St. Albert Trail.
Homes Alive Pets is a family-run pet store. Leon and Evan Ropp are a father-son duo who originally started Homes Alive Pets in Lethbridge in 2010. Their family has been in the pet shop business for much longer than that though – Evan’s grandfather actually started selling pet supplies out of his garage in Brooks, Alberta in the 1970s.
Essentially, Home Alive Pets offers the convenience, selection, and prices you would expect at a big chain store, but they have the small mom and pop shop feel that you’d get with a family-owned, Alberta-run store. Evan says they’re somewhere in the middle, “bringing the best of both worlds” for pets and pet owners (hence the clever, “new breed of pet store” tagline).
Learn more about Homes Alive Pets here!
Huge selection of pet food/treats at Homes Alive Pets.
Evan, who manages the Lethbridge location as well as marketing for the company as a whole (while dad Leon and brother Caleb are operating the Edmonton shop), gave us $200 to shop at the new Edmonton location for our fur babies, and also generously offered to give me two $50 gift cards to give away to readers!
Scroll down for the giveaway, or read on to for more about our shopping spree!
Olive on her shopping spree at Homes Alive Pets!
Olive immediately went around and picked out her own toys (lol).
Olive picking out her own toys at Homes Alive Pets.
She was obsessed with the tennis balls but we also found her a new rope, “Mrs. Dragon” crunchy toy, and a very sturdy “Mr. Bear.”
We were amazed at how big Homes Alive was – and how their selection is even bigger than what we’ve come to find at even your big chain pet stores.
Recently opened, well-stocked!
I have personally never seen that many dog/cat beds, rows and rows of toys, and cat towers in a single shop.
Lots of cat perches, towers, lounges, etc. at Homes Alive Pets!
In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ve got the biggest assortment of cat towers I’ve ever seen in a single shop.
Checking out new @HomesAlive Pet store on St. Albert Trail! Huge selection! Olive and Thor are happy. #yegpets #yeg pic.twitter.com/SXJDqeGtNn
— Linda Hoang (@lindork) June 27, 2015
Thor was quick to settle onto a cat tower, but then I spotted this gorgeous Vesper brand cat tower that I fell in love with and had to plop her into to see if she’d like it. (Fun fact: Vesper is under the Hagen brand, which also runs Nutrience, who was the title sponsor at this year’s Edmonton International Cat Festival!)
Thor settles into a Vesper cat tower at Homes Alive Pets.
I know cats (including mine) are happy to be sitting in a box or a bag (and lately, Loki’s been obsessed with sitting on towels), but I could not resist getting this cat tower (the $200 gift card helped, lol).
Super fancy line of cat towers at Homes Alive Pets
We ended up spending over and above the $200 gift card (the Vesper cat tower is on the pricier end of cat towers lol) – which is not unusual for us when we head to pet stores.
We always go in with the aim of picking up a few specific items (food, litter) and then walk out with lots of (probably unnecessary, but anything for our fur babies!) toys and accessories. Our visit to Homes Alive Pets was no different :-)
The pet industry is soaring right now as fur parents more and more spare no expense to ensure their animals are comfortable (maybe a bit spoiled) and #OliveAndTheCats are no exception.
Thor checking out her new toy. Olive throwing Thor some shade.
Loki looking up at Thor in her new Vesper cat castle/tower from Homes Alive Pets.
#OliveAndTheCats play with their new toy!
I’m excited for the Ropp family and their expansion from Lethbridge to Edmonton. We were pretty impressed with what we saw – and are eager to make Homes Alives Pets our go-to spot for Olive, Thor, and Loki’s pet needs. As I said, the selection was like nothing we’d seen before, and the prices = great. They’ve also got a nice points/rewards system, lots of coupons/discounts, and you can order products online too – they ship throughout Canada!
Evan (left) and Caleb (right) – brothers at the family-run Homes Alive Pets!
Hopefully one of the $50 gift cards I’m giving away will give you some incentive to go visit Homes Alive Pets! Enter below!
** GIVEAWAY **
ENTER TO WIN A $50 GIFT CARD TO HOMES ALIVE PETS
I’ve got 2 Homes Alive gift cards (valued at $50) to give away!
to Log into Rafflecopter below for different ways to enter – leaving a comment on this blog post telling me a little bit about your pet(s) is mandatory in order to win! a Rafflecopter giveaway
This contest closes on Friday, July 10, 2015. I’ll randomly select two winners from all entries.
Note: Comments are moderated so don’t be concerned if your comment doesn’t appear right away!
Good luck! And even if you don’t win – be sure to check out Homes Alive Pets!
Congratulations on your opening / expansion to Edmonton Evan and family! Thanks for having us come and check out the new store. We’ll be back real soon!
Linda
26 Comments
Awesome, gotta love family run stores! So glad Maverick and Olive could meet this weekend. My corgi is the king of my house and he loves to also go and pick out his own toys when we take him to the pet store. His favourite summer treat has been dog ice cream!
I have two tuxedo cats, 2 years old and 3 years old, named Count and Countess Von Sockula (Socks and Tess) and I just adopted two barn kittens, Terry Tuxtable (Tux) and Jersey Moo Cow (Moo). Tux and Moo are miniatures of Socks and Tess, so my husband and I were suckered in and had to take them home.
So excited to check out this place with our 1 year old labradoodle, Jordie! He certainly falls into the spoiled fur baby category!
We have two gorgeous guinea pigs named Lucy and Charlie and are looking for a new puppy
Jonnie
Wow! We drove by yesterday after pets in the park and thought about stopping-pups were too tired. Will visit soon!
I can’t wait to go here. I usually have to go to a few different stores for our animals. We are huge supporters of the Edmonton Humane Society and are lucky enough to have been “adopted” as family by two dogs – Bramble (5 year old Golden Retriever/Rough Collie – female), Thornly (3 year old Husky/English Mastiff – female), Bacon (7 year old male tabby cat), Waffle (5 year old male cat with heterochromia and brown chocolate tuxedo markings), Mushroom (3 year old male cat), Hermes (no idea on age – Mosaic Chinchilla), and Apollo (no idea on age – regular chinchilla). Also one Beta fish – Aqua.
Close by, so I will definitely stop! I’m always on the lookout for heavy duty cat toys, my three farm boys are super hard on toys they like. About half get destroyed in less than a day (record is 5 minutes to complete destruction), so I’ve learned the fine art of test purchasing.
I have a handsome kitty named Bean who is soft, fluffy and oh so sweet. He loves cuddles!
Do you know if they carry a selection of raw food/supplements? It’s been suggested that we try Baxter on a raw diet to combat his GI issues and a $50 gc would be a good incentive to give that a try!
So close to our house – my Pepper would love running around and picking out his own toys!!
I am entering to gift to my daughter who has a minature dachshund and lives in Edmonton and loves to buy treats for him.
Yes! They had a long row of freezer/ refrigerators full of raw food!
my pom is such a character!
Thanks to a friend I was able to check out Homes Alive Pets during their grand opening – and I’ve been back 3 times since! In addition to the huge selection we live the friendly, knowledgeable staff. It is a rare & much appreciated addition to the Edmonton pet scene.
I am so excited to have such a great pet store located so close to where I live! My husky cross rescue dog, Dart, will also be enjoying it! ☺️
I’ve shopped there twice now! It’s right up the street from my office which makes it very convenient to shop for my Shepherd/Husky mix Murdoch and our Tuxedo cat Miss Marple.
You wouldn’t believe my excitement when I found out that a Homes Alive was being opened up in Edmonton!! when I would visit my daughter in Taber I made sure we made a stop at the store in Lethbridge to pick up supplies I needed. Homes Alive was the only place I could buy a huge box of cage “stuffing” for my rabbit and guinea pigs. As a matter of fact, my first guinea pig, Penelope, was from Homes Alive in Leth.
Homes Alive Pets is such a fabulous store! Their staff was so helpful in recommending a small Furminator to deal with my lop’s shedding instead of the usual (ineffective) small animal brushes. Twix’s coat has never looked better!
I love Homes Alive! We have switched to getting prettymuch all of our pet supplies from there now, ordering online as we live in Calgary. Hope they’ll consider getting a store here as well at some point. :) I have three pets – Tifa my dog, Jacob my cat, and Chihiro my other cat. They have great selection and we can almost find all of our supplies there, we’ll continue to be loyal customers.
This is my new favourite store! I love it! I have a 6 year old mastiff/staffy mix, previous puppy mill breeding dog that I rescued. She’d look so cute in one of the pink leather collars with hearts that I’ve got my eyes on at Homes Alive!
I have three kitties and we would love to expand our tree collection – I’m sure my Russian blue AJ would love the one you’ve picked up!
I have a funny cat Willow. She thinks she’s a dog and will retrieve her ball and bring it back to us (when she feels like it).
I have problem to comment maybe I will just reply here. We ( my hubby, myself and little frenchie Chet ) love that store. We were at their grand opening. The store is awalys clean and their staff were very helpful.
Sir Winston (http://imgur.com/FZHluAk) is allergic to most things that are food, so I rely pet stores with high-quality products and knowledgeable staff to get him kibbles and treats that don’t make him explode. Looks like these guys carry his brand!
For my boss’s lab retriever, she is the cutest.
We have 2 house cats that are 9 years old. They are my sons cats really, he loves them dearly. We also have a 5 year old husky cross German Shepard who is a huge joy to our family. She is my best buddy.