Windy City Parrot Now Shipping From Lowell, IN

Last Updated on February 16, 2023 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

Alleys
Bicycles
Divvy stations
Bicyclists
State Income tax
Chicago sales tax (10.25%)
Cook county liquor tax
Bottled water tax
Plastic grocery bag tax (.07/ea)
English as a 2nd language
Traffic
The Dan Ryan
Litter
Rats
Neighbors
Parking meters
Looking for parking meters
Parking
The CTA
Taxis
Junkies
Dogs with shoulder harnesses
Red light cameras
Speed traps
City stickers
Zone parking passes
Illinois Department of Revenue
State of Illinois building
New mayor with no experience about to run the 3rd largest city in the US
Watching politicians going to prison
The daily shooting of humans
Potholes
Western Ave
Graffiti
Stickers on everything
Porch Pirates
Chicago winters
Currency exchanges
Garbage and recycling trucks
Panhandlers on every corner
Rooftop parking over Mariano’s supermarkets
Tiny gas stations
The price of gas
Tiny Menards
Footsteps heard from neighbors on the second floor
Shopping in the ghetto
Chicago tree services
Dog sh*t on sidewalks
Speed bumps in alleys
Speed bumps on streets
Tiny Lowes
No hardware stores
Drive for 30 minutes to go 4 miles
Looking out every window of the apartment only to see other apartments windows
Feeling the need to lock car doors everywhere
Safe passage zones
Making friends with crossing guards
Unintelligible rap music coming from teeth rattling auto speakers
Flags of foreign countries flying from car windows
Flags of foreign countries hanging from windows
Pigeons
Joggers
Downtown
The miracle mile
Skateboarders
One way streets
Traveling 6 blocks to go around the block
Motor scooters
Towing companies
24-hour Subways
The Bishop Ford
The Jane Byrne interchange
Tiny Walmarts
Grand Ave
The closing of Meigs field
Parking permits
Insurance rates
Snow routes
The auto impound
Crazy window washers
Abandoned bicycle skeletons
Cash only restaurants
Swedish Covenant hospital parking
The left turn on Damen from Costco
The new Elston Ave reroute
Rainwater sewer backups
Clybourn Ave
Hearing sirens all the time
Grammer school pickup time
Restaurants with no parking lot
Movie theaters with no marquis
The newly remodeled Lincoln Park Target
The Kohl’s BestBuy parking lot
North Ave and Halsted
Channel 2,5,7 and 9 news teams
Soldier Field
“Was that a gunshot or fireworks?”
Guaranteed Rate Field
No emission test stations
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