Good Nature Pet Store, formerly known as the Downtown Tabby Pet Store, held its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday at its new location near Depot Park.

The newly renovated store on 1315 South Main St., consists of a 3,000-square-foot building with new walls, new paint and it is filled with a huge variety of pet products including a large parking lot that has a higher visibility for customers, according to Joy and Kat Drawdy, owners of GoodNature Pet Store.

“We are also an all-inclusive pet store, providing needs for dogs and cats,” said Joy Drawdy. “[Since we’ve been in the pet industry for 30 years], I think the pet industry within itself has evolved to really support a lot of small companies out there that are creating superior products that are more organic, healthy and affordable options for pets and that’s our focus, smaller companies and local Florida vendors.”

The pet store will hold its grand opening party at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23.

“We will also have the radio station KISS 105.3 here and we are going to have free Five Star Pizza here all day including several different rescue animals from Second Chance Rescue,” said Joy on the grand opening event. “Also, we will have an ice cream and lemonade vendor here as well.”

Joy said the store will feature newer brands such as Solutions Pet Care which is an amazing frozen fruit product for dogs and cats that are made by holistic veterinarians and will feature European brands that cater to dogs or cats with prescribed diets to help with their kidney or urinary needs.

“We also have twenty glass freezers of gently cooked and frozen food for pets which is a really unique growing category for people who want to give their pets’ alternatives to dry kibble,” she said. “We also have amazing employee retention where we’ve had the same employees for years and years who are credibly knowledgeable so anybody who comes in, no matter who they speak with will have all the information that they need to help with whatever their pet is going through.”

Joy said they are very excited to have their store in the old Doris building that is very historical to the city of Gainesville. She said they plan to extend the new store to have grooming services in the near future. 

The overall cost for the full renovation of the store was $250,000, Joy said, adding that with the new changes within the store, it should provide a fun, easy shopping experience for the customers.