A pet shop or pet store is an essential services retailer which sells animals and pet care resources to the public. A variety of animal supplies and pet accessories are also sold in pet shops.
The products sold include: food, treats, toys, collars, leashes, cat litter, cages and aquariums.
Pet shops may also offer both hygienic care (such as pet cleaning) and aesthetic services (such as cat and dog grooming).
Some pet stores also provide tips on training and behaviour, as well as advice on pet nutrition. Some pet stores provide engraving services for pet tags, which have the owner’s contact information in case the pet gets lost.
Many pet stores also offer retail products online. Citing convenience as the key motivational factor for purchasing from online pet stores, the number of United States households that shopped online for pet care products in 2018 was 13 million.
Other stated advantages for online shopping include competitive pricing and good value due to free shipping offers. As of 2017, North America has the largest online pet care market of any other region.
In the United States, more than 1/3 of all purchases from online pet stores were made at PetSmart with the most popular item purchased being dry dog food. In 2017, the online sales of pet care products grew by about 3.4 billion dollars, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores reported only about 317 million dollars in sales growth.
As of 2018, millennials are the biggest pet-owning generation.
Seventy-seven percent report that they prefer to purchase pet products like toys, accessories, and food online, but favor in-store shopping for treats, bedding and clothing.
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The Wild Duck (original Norwegian title: Vildanden) is an 1884 play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It explores the complexities of truth and illusion through the story of a family torn apart by secrets and the intrusion of an idealistic outsider. It focuses on the Ekdal family, whose fragile peace is shattered by Gregers Werle, an idealist who insists on exposing hidden truths, leading to tragic consequences. The play was written in a realistic style, but literary scholars have pointed out the play’s kinship with symbolism. It blends themes such as deception, betrayal, and the disillusionment of modern life with moments of comedy and satire, and is considered the first modern masterpiece in the genre of tragicomedy.
The Wild Duck and Rosmersholm are “often to be observed in the critics’ estimates vying with each other as rivals for the top place among Ibsen’s works”.
Themes of visibility and recognition permeate the narrative, featuring characters struggling to be seen while metaphorically and literally blind to each other’s true selves, symbolized through motifs such as blindness, photography, and the wounded wild duck.
Like other Ibsen plays, it is rich in references to Ibsen’s family, with “Old Ekdal” widely considered one of the most famous literary portraits of the playwright’s father Knud Ibsen. The character “Gregers Werle” represents the spirit of the Paus family and Upper Telemark, a broader theme that is found in many of Ibsen’s plays.
Håkon Werle, a wholesale merchant
Gregers Werle, his son
Old Ekdal, the former business partner of Håkon Werle
Hjalmar Ekdal, Old Ekdal’s son, a photographer
Gina Ekdal, Hjalmar Ekdal’s wife
Hedvig, Hjalmar Ekdal’s daughter, aged fourteen
Mrs. Sørby, housekeeper and fiancée of Håkon Werle
Relling, a doctor, lives below the Ekdals
Molvik, formerly a student of theology, lives below the Ekdals
Pettersen, servant to Håkon Werle
Jensen, a hired waiter
Mr. Balle, a dinner guest
Mr. Flor, a dinner guest