Tom’s Pet Supply. Photo via @toms_pet_supply on Instagram
Sept. 5, 2024 by Shane O’Brien
Popular Astoria pet store Tom’s Pet Supply will close its doors in December after more than five years on Broadway.
The store, opened by Tom Odermatt at 21-11 Broadway, has provided a wide range of pet supplies since opening in 2019, including products for dogs, cats, fish and reptiles.
The store also sells a variety of small animals, including geckos, fish and small snakes.
However, in a post on social media on Tuesday, Sept. 3, Odermatt announced that the store will be closing down in December.
“Tom’s Pet Supply has been a place of community, fun, education and love,” Odermatt wrote on Instagram. “It is difficult to announce but, Tom’s Pet Supply will be closing this December. Unfortunately the road for us has been a rocky one and after our last power outage we’ve been struggling to recover.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Odermatt said it was “heartbreaking” to have to announce that he was closing down.
“It’s heartbreaking to have to announce something like this, especially when I was born in the community, from the community, and I got to be a part of the community in such a unique way.”
He added that an “accumulation of difficult factors” had prompted him to close down, stating that the pet store will continue to operate as normal until its closure in December.
Odermatt, who founded the store when he was 22 years old, said it was a privilege to operate a business in his native Astoria for five years and encouraged customers to keep on dropping in until the store shuts its doors later in the year.
“It’s been great to be involved in this community. Astoria is very close. It’s very caring, it’s very understanding and it’s very small business focused.”
A number of customers expressed their dismay at the news, with many customers responding to the original Instagram post to state that they will miss chatting to Odermatt as they buy their pet supplies.
Odermatt, meanwhile, said he will miss hearing people’s stories as they visited his store for various reasons over the past five years.
“Getting to meet everybody and hearing unique stories about how they’ve gotten their animals or unique stories about how they’ve integrated into the neighborhood has been one of the more pleasurable parts about the job,” Odermatt said. “There’s a lot of unique individual experiences that you encounter.”
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