Pet Food Express

Pet Food Express opened its first store in San Francisco in 1982. As the pet supply industry grew, they created a niche for themselves that combined leading-edge pet nutrition with the best employee training and customer service in the industry. The remarkable commitment to building a customer-centric company fueled Pet Food Express' steady growth from 6 stores in 1994 to 63 stores in 2017, transforming it into an acclaimed industry leader.​

Big Box Competitors Threatening Niche

However, Pet Food Express faced stiff competition from big box stores that had come to dominate the national market through sheer size, brand recognition, and aggressive advertising and sales. Considering these market realities, company leaders became convinced that their primary competitive advantage was the unique culture of Pet Food Express—the special way that their employees work together and serve their customers. If they were to continue growing profitably, they needed to prioritize and preserve their culture.​

"You have to have a real philosophy. You guys just can't say I want to be here. You have to have a plan to get there," Terry Lim, the company's chief operating officer, explained about the strategic challenge. The company understood that vague aspirations wouldn't protect them against competitors with massive scale advantages.​

Growth Threatening What Made Them Successful

They also recognized how the very growth they were pursuing could easily disrupt their operating culture, the loss of which would likely alienate the fanatically loyal customer base so critical to the company's success. Pet Food Express' management knew they needed a systematic way to sustain their culture through effective team performance management as they continued to pursue growth into the future.​

The stakes were clear: maintain the special culture that differentiated them from big box competitors, or risk becoming just another commodity retailer competing only on price and location. Without a framework to systematically embed and scale culture, aggressive expansion would inevitably erode the very advantage they were trying to leverage.​

All-Night Reading Creates Clarity

It was with this need in mind that Terry Lim read Leadership and Self-Deception as his first assignment in a new business book club. Immediately, he knew he had found the framework of ideas that would provide the company's foundation for ongoing growth. "I happened to join a business book club. Leadership and Self-Deception was the first book. I just stayed up all night, reading the book and thinking about it. And I mean it was just immediately obvious to me that this was the way. This provided a structure of language, a philosophical underpinning," Terry recalled about the discovery.​

Terry and others in the company became certified as facilitators of Arbinger's training programs—programs which have now been delivered company-wide. "There is real substance in the training," Jose Sanchez, a Bay Area store manager, remarked. "It provides a guide for everything we do."​

Company-Wide Training and Refreshers

The training is reinforced periodically in refresher courses. Just as importantly, company employees from every level apply the Arbinger principles in all aspects of their work from customer service to team performance management. "There's materials, there's a guide, and there's something to it. There's substance," an employee emphasized about the practical application.​

The executive team ensures that company policies and practices invite, encourage, and reward an outward mindset across the organization. "We spend so much time and effort in training people, and then we trust them," one leader explained about the investment.​

Decision Authority to Every Employee

Similarly, Pet Food Express has applied an outward mindset to its team performance management philosophy. Leaders give each employee the decision-making authority to do what is right for fellow team members as well as make decisions that impact customers. "You could give a customer discount. You can do a refund without a receipt, and that's fine. You're given less supervision than other places, but you're trusted to do that," an employee described the empowerment.​

One store manager shared his approach: "So every day I dealt with my staff individually. I came to work happy, I came to work open, I came to work willing to understand and let them take over the store cause they wanted to run the store their way, and I just kept the vision alive."​

Direct Feedback Culture, Not Soft

Though fun, lively, and warm, the company culture is anything but soft. A central feature of that culture is the sharing of straightforward and honest feedback, stemming from a genuine desire to help employees grow. "You can't get sustainable change in a store until everyone is connected and communicating," Kellyn Fuller, a store manager, commented. "And it's not always a soft approach, sometimes you need to be direct with staff about what they need to work on. But it's how you deliver that message that really determines your impact."​

As Amy Vargas, a district manager, noted, "Now that I have the tools, I don't hesitate to give the truth." This helpful honesty and directness is the foundation of the way Pet Food Express approaches team performance management and is at the heart of the trust that exists at every level of the company. Kathy Bretz, a district manager who was promoted from within the company from a sales associate position all the way to district manager, believes it is this trust which has proved critical in maintaining the culture through Pet Food Express's aggressive growth. "Our customers trust us, staff trust us, we trust each other. It's about honesty and expectations."​ 

As a result of their systematic approach to developing an outward mindset in every employee, Pet Food Express has successfully maintained and deepened their unique culture while growing to over 60 retail stores throughout California. For seven consecutive years, the company has been honored as the recipient of a "Bay Area Top Workplace" award, a distinction based on the ratings of company employees. It is the only retail company so honored.​

Industry Recognition and Innovation

"There's an award named, 'Top Workplace'. Our employees have voted us a top workplace for five years in a row. We're the only retail company that's been rewarded that way," Terry noted about the distinction. The company has also been recognized multiple times as "Retailer of the Year." In 2015, Business Insider spotlighted Pet Food Express as one of "25 Companies That Are Revolutionizing Retail," highlighting the company as a true innovator in its industry.​

Employees Proud of Retail Work

The cultural transformation created an environment where employees feel genuinely proud to work in retail—a rare accomplishment. "And I'm proud to work in a retail environment. That it on its own is special. Because most people can't say that. And I can generally say that I'm a better person because I work at Pet Food Express," one employee emphasized.​

Another described the personal impact: "I think that even though there's more responsibility our employees appreciate that. They appreciate that they're being treated like a person that they're not just an object, they're not a robot. They're not replaceable at the drop of a hat. We matter. I'm not afraid that I'm going to make a mistake and get fired for it." 

Culture Customers Can Feel

The internal culture transformation directly impacts customer experience. "When you walk in a store pretty much everyone's very happy. It's a nice way to live. It's a lot more enjoyable because everybody is a part of the solution," an employee described the atmosphere. A customer observed: "There's a different feeling in their store compared to other stores or big-box stores. People are very very accommodating and very knowledgeable."​

"I mean, we literally have thousands of customers in our store every day. Customers generally don't raise their voices. We don't have negative encounters. It's truly amazing how our culture brings out the best not only in our own employees, but the customers that walk through our door," one team member noted about the ripple effect.​

Competitors Copy the Wrong Things

Although Pet Food Express has seen their competition mimic many of the company's initiatives, Terry Lim is not concerned. "They routinely copy the wrong things," he says. "The deep-rooted culture that drives the way we treat people is what drives our success, and that is something our competitors simply can't, or won't, copy."​

Terry explained the business fundamentals: "We have to go out and earn people's trust every day. We have to be trustworthy and we do that by serving their needs before our own. And we put a lot of emphasis on our people. That's what drives our business. That's what makes our business successful. We pay attention to the numbers, but the numbers don't drive our business. Our purpose drives our business. And when we do that, well, we're profitable."​

A team member captured the philosophy: "We like to see people as people. This is a people business. Our customers come here because of the way that we treat them- the associates. And we have a lot of long-term employees. They stay here because of the way we treat them." One employee summarized the transformation: "I'm a changed person because I worked at Pet Food Express. It's life-changing. I never thought I'd stay in retail, but apparently something is working right."​

Pet Food Express proved that culture can be a sustainable competitive advantage, but only if you systematically embed it as you scale. When facing big box competitors dominating through sheer size and aggressive advertising, Pet Food Express recognized their unique culture was their only defensible advantage. But the very growth needed to compete threatened to erode what made them special: a fanatically loyal customer base attracted by how employees serve. Traditional approaches would focus on policies and procedures, instead, COO Terry Lim stayed up all night reading Leadership and Self-Deception and found the framework to scale culture systematically. By certifying internal facilitators, deploying company-wide training with refreshers, giving every employee decision authority to serve customers "off-script," and building direct feedback culture where district managers "don't hesitate to give the truth,"

Pet Food Express grew from 6 to 60+ stores while deepening culture. They became the only retail company to win "Bay Area Top Workplace" seven consecutive years (based on employee votes), were named one of "25 Companies Revolutionizing Retail," and created employees who say "I'm a better person because I work here." Competitors mimic their initiatives but can't copy the culture. The lesson: you can't defend against scale competitors with vague cultural aspirations when growth naturally erodes what makes you special. Systematically train every person, trust them with authority, give direct feedback, and embed the philosophy in all policies—and culture becomes the advantage competitors "simply can't, or won't, copy."