Windy City Parrot Now Shipping From Lowell, IN
A blue and yellow macaw performs a trick involving a toy car at the KL Bird Park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Windy City Parrot Now Shipping From Lowell, IN

Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman

We can’t thank you enough for your patience as we had to shut down shipping last week while we began to organize our new workspace.

There are a host of reasons that we made this move aside from saving money on rent, utilities and taxes. 

Interesting to note is that when you operate an Internet retail company, you can run it from anywhere on the planet, as long as you have a high-speed internet connection.

We are now poised to tackle the world wide web retail niche of pet bird supplies from a historical landmark house built in 1928.

Illinois residents will pay no sales tax saving Illinois Windy City Parrot customers 10.25% starting 5/1/19.

Indiana residents will now pay 7% sales tax.

Ironically it suffered a fire about 12 years ago thus the entire interior was rebuilt with modern drywall, electrical and plumbing into a useful commercial space.

 

The upstairs has become our living space and as we expected not having to travel between home and a physical storefront instantly allowed us to be more proactive and productive.

 

Catherine and I now share 1300 ft.² of living space which is slowly becoming a remarkable place to live.

Product Availability

One small issue is living in a town with less than stellar water pressure.

 

We have two bathrooms and each toilet uses a Flushmate pressurized water tank which has been a challenge in the upstairs bathroom,

 

I finally gave up on try to repair it as the cost of replacement parts was nearing the price of a new unit

 

I ordered Model 3 to be delivered today 5/3/19 which will end the walk downstairs in the middle of the night (in a strange building) just to access a working toilet.

 

One of the things that makes this house remarkable is that is owned by Sheets Funeral home just next door.

 

I can now boast that we have three silver hearses in our garage and a basement (we share) filled with body bags on top of gurneys as well as a hefty inventory of coffins and coffin parts.

 

In that, the town of historic Lowell’s Main Street, (IN Rte 2) is lined with antique and retail shops and we are front and center on that street that we too will be adding Avian Collectibles to our retail bird supply offerings.

 

We’ll also be offering a free coffee and toast bar.

 

Why toast?

 

We’re on the Keto diet and don’t eat bread.

 

During the move, Catherine recovered our three toasters stored in the garage.

 

Who wouldn’t want a nice slice of warm toast while shopping for their bird?

 

Speaking of shopping for parrot supplies I’d like to take a moment to further talk about Windy City Parrot V3.0.

 

There’s been a lot of upheaval in the pet industry recently.

 

We’ve noted the closure of Dr. Fosters and Smith who couldn’t survive on $300 million a year in sales.

 

Petland Discounts filed for Bankruptcy in NewYork state laying off more than 300 employees.

 

Chewy is about to file an IPO (Initial Public Offering on the stock exchange) because its owner PetSmart can’t afford to live on 8 billion dollars a year revenue in spite of paying cashiers $9.01 per hour.

 

So how do we survive in a land of retail giants?

 

Although any big box store sells supplies for pet birds, you’ll typically find about 500 square feet of retail space devoted to the avian niche (we’ve measured them all).

 

Our new space will be filled with 2000 square feet of everything for pet birds – 4 times more display space than any Petsmart, Petco, Pet Supplies Plus or Petland store.

 

Many of these stores offer bulk bird food from dispensers.

 

We think that’s a terrible idea as bird food is perishable enough without being exposed too.

 

Our selection of food and accessories for your pet bird is second to none.

 

We try to offer competitive pricing but sometimes the big box stores can make pricing very attractive.

 

They do this by “volume purchasing”.

 

There’s a big problem with that.

 

Every bag of bird food has a “best used by date”.

 

When a large corporation buys tens of thousands of pounds of bird food, who is watching for the “best used by date”?

 

The Amazon robots are not.

 

The product pickers at enormous distribution centers are not.

 

The reality is you don’t know the food that you are getting is going to be good for one month, six months or year.

 

We hear complaints regularly about bird food purchases on eBay where the bird food is already out of date, the day it ships.

 

We try to offer manufacturer sealed bags of food that at the very least has six months of shelf life.

 

Food that comes close to being out of date gets donated to rescues we work with.

 

You cannot call Amazon, Petco or PetSmart for advice.

 

Try walking into a big box pet store and find somebody who can help you care or even knows what a noble macaw looks like.

 

Our move from Chicago (pop 3.6 million) to Lowell IN (pop 9700) will make us financially stronger and even more flexible strategically.

 

How do you know you’re in a small town?

 

When you go to your first meeting, in this case, the Historical Society to gain approval for signage on the historical building we’re now occupying and the chairman of this group starts the meeting by saying “Let’s recite the pledge”.

 

There I stood hand on heart, with six other individuals facing an American flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance – for the first time in more than 50 years.

 

100 Things We Won’t Miss About Chicago

  1. Alleys
  2. Bicycles
  3. Divvy stations
  4. Bicyclists
  5. State Income tax
  6. Chicago sales tax (10.25%)
  7. Cook county liquor tax
  8. Bottled water tax
  9. Plastic grocery bag tax (.07/ea)
  10. English as a 2nd language
  11. Traffic
  12. The Dan Ryan
  13. Litter
  14. Rats
  15. Neighbors
  16. Parking meters
  17. Looking for parking meters
  18. Parking
  19. The CTA
  20. Taxis
  21. Junkies
  22. Dogs with shoulder harnesses
  23. Red light cameras
  24. Speed traps
  25. City stickers
  26. Zone parking passes
  27. Illinois Department of Revenue
  28. State of Illinois building
  29. New mayor with no experience about to run the 3rd largest city in the US
  30. Watching politicians going to prison
  31. The daily shooting of humans
  32. Potholes
  33. Western Ave
  34. Graffiti
  35. Stickers on everything
  36. Porch Pirates
  37. Chicago winters
  38. Currency exchanges
  39. Garbage and recycling trucks
  40. Panhandlers on every corner
  41. Rooftop parking over Mariano’s supermarkets
  42. Tiny gas stations
  43. The price of gas
  44. Tiny Menards
  45. Footsteps heard from neighbors on the second floor
  46. Shopping in the ghetto
  47. Chicago tree services
  48. Dog sh*t on sidewalks
  49. Speed bumps in alleys
  50. Speed bumps on streets
  51. Tiny Lowes
  52. No hardware stores
  53. Drive for 30 minutes to go 4 miles
  54. Looking out every window of the apartment only to see other apartments windows
  55. Feeling the need to lock car doors everywhere
  56. Safe passage zones
  57. Making friends with crossing guards
  58. Unintelligible rap music coming from teeth rattling auto speakers
  59. Flags of foreign countries flying from car windows
  60. Flags of foreign countries hanging from windows
  61. Pigeons
  62. Joggers
  63. Downtown
  64. The miracle mile
  65. Skateboarders
  66. One way streets
  67. Traveling 6 blocks to go around the block
  68. Motor scooters
  69. Towing companies
  70. 24-hour Subways
  71. The Bishop Ford
  72. The Jane Byrne interchange
  73. Tiny Walmarts
  74. Grand Ave
  75. The closing of Meigs field
  76. Parking permits
  77. Insurance rates
  78. Snow routes
  79. The auto impound
  80. Crazy window washers
  81. Abandoned bicycle skeletons
  82. Cash only restaurants
  83. Swedish Covenant hospital parking
  84. The left turn on Damen from Costco
  85. The new Elston Ave reroute
  86. Rainwater sewer backups
  87. Clybourn Ave
  88. Hearing sirens all the time
  89. Grammer school pickup time
  90. Restaurants with no parking lot
  91. Movie theaters with no marquis
  92. The newly remodeled Lincoln Park Target
  93. The Kohl’s BestBuy parking lot
  94. North Ave and Halsted
  95. Channel 2,5,7 and 9 news teams
  96. Soldier Field
  97. “Was that a gunshot or fireworks?”
  98. Guaranteed Rate Field
  99. No emission test stations
  100. Homey’s wearing pants around their ass

Okay, maybe it is a little harsh, but we are looking forward to a softer, gentler future ahead of us in beautiful Lowell Indiana while we continue to serve the needs of our wonderful customers.

Thank you all for being there.

Written by Mitch Rezman and Catherine Tobsing

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Mitch Rezman

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