In this episode of Discussing Dogs in the D, Christine sits down with Sabrina Stigell from Premier Pet Supply to talk about how a single family-owned pet store grew into fourteen Metro Detroit locations — and what makes their business model so unique. Sabrina shares her journey from working in the exotic animal department at seventeen to now running social media and marketing for the company. The conversation dives into Premier’s evolution from selling exotics to focusing on high-quality nutrition, education, and community involvement — and why personalized pet nutrition matters more than ever. They also talk about: The importance of species-appropriate diets (including why cats are obligate carnivores) How Premier trains staff to give tailored nutrition guidance The company’s unique multi-owner structure Community events like Bark in the Park Fundraising partnerships with Michigan Humane Feline Fund and the impact of TNR (trap-neuter-return) efforts How Premier supports local rescues through donations and adoption partnerships Plus, Sabrina shares the story of her rescue pit bull, Gus — who she met at one of Christine’s themed rescue photo events and never looked back. This episode is all about community, education, and keeping pets with the people who love them.
Please consider supporting Premier Pet Supply - a local, family owned pet store that gives back so much to the Metro-Detroit Community.
Shop at one of their 14 Metro-Detroit Locations or online at https://premierpetsupply.com/
Follow them on their social media channels -
https://www.facebook.com/premierpetsupply
https://www.instagram.com/premierpetsupply
https://www.tiktok.com/@premierpetsupply
Photos of GUS!! https://rufflifephotography.pixieset.com/podcastimages/episode3gus/
Hey friends, welcome to Discussing Dogs in the D podcast, where Detroit's dog lovers come together. Hi, I'm Christine, and whether you're a rescue volunteer, a pet parent, a shelter supporter, or just someone who can't pass a dog on the street without saying hi, you're in the right place. Let's talk about all things dogs—how they change our lives and how we can possibly change theirs.
00:00:22 Speaker:
Hey there, everyone. I have with me Sabrina— is it Stiegel? Stigell? Stigell. Okay. Sabrina Stigell.
And I was thinking about this on my drive here—how many years I've known you. It's been a while now, and I think you were really young when you started working at Premier Pet Supply. And then, you know, I was thinking I’ve been doing photos for Premier Pet Supply for probably almost ten years, I think.
Yeah, it's been a while.
Yeah, it's been a hot minute, as they say.
But anyway, I wanted to invite you onto the podcast and talk to you about—okay, so one, Premier Pet Supply. Tell me a little bit of history of the pet store, but also your history with the store and then what you do now. So anyway, go. One, two, three—go.
So Premier is a family-owned local Michigan pet store. Mike, the current owner's uncle Ray, opened it back in 1992. Mike was a teenager working there, eventually took the business over, and has now had other partners come in, and they've expanded a lot. We are now up to fourteen stores around Metro Detroit.
Fourteen?
Yes.
Okay, so when you started here, though—how many stores were there? Was it four or five?
Five, I think.
Okay. Like right around there?
I think West Bloomfield was just opening.
So you're so young.
Yeah.
Were you even alive in 1992?
I was not. I was almost a decade away from being alive.
But this is a long time. I mean, they've succeeded and grown in all those years.
Okay, so ’92—they started off with the OG. What’s the original store?
Beverly Hills.
Beverly Hills was 1992, and it was just that store for a long time. And then 2016 is when we started really boosting and growing. Beverly Hills doubled in size, and then we opened Novi, Livonia, and Rochester Hills. So we started expanding. And within the last ten years, we’ve gone from one store to fourteen, which is crazy.
That is incredible.
Yeah.
And there are four owners, right?
Four owners, yep. So Mike, Steve, Jeff, and Brandon.
I got involved because of Jeff—Jeff’s wife, Summer. The one year I started doing Santa photos, and then all of a sudden—well, I wasn’t doing all of the stores—but I grew into doing Santa photos. And then we started growing and doing more, and it’s just the whole thing.
Yeah.
Now we have everything. We just can’t get enough of each other now.
I know, right?
But having all the different themed photos and whatever for our fundraisers—we’ll talk about that later.
But yes. Okay, so there are fourteen locations, mostly Metro Detroit?
Yes. All within Metro Detroit.
Really?
I mean, Brighton’s kind of our farthest out. Now Milford’s pushing it a little bit, but all within about a half-hour drive of each other.
Really. So what is it—four different counties then?
So you’ve got Livingston, Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb.
Oh, that’s wild.
Yeah.
Is there any plan—can you give me the inside scoop?
I know nothing. I keep saying I would love one up in Clarkston, but I find things out like a week before they happen. I’m like, okay, cool, guess we’re doing that.
So like a week later—“By the way, Sabrina, we’re opening up a store in Milford.”
Yep, that’s basically how it went. It was like, “Hey, can you make some flyers? We’re opening a new store.” I’m like, all right, cool.
I love that. I kind of like the surprise of that. So it’s not like—
Well, Detroit I knew was happening, but it felt like it took so long to open Detroit because of the permitting and stuff with the city.
It was all of that, and it was a lot of supply chain issues with COVID. The biggest thing is we could not get shelving made. So for over a year, we were just waiting on shelving. And you kind of can’t open a store if you don’t have shelves to put products on.
Yeah. Can you imagine? You’d just have stacks and stacks of stuff in the middle.
As much as people love Costco, I don’t think it’s going to work as a pet store.
I just don’t.
So it took a while to get Detroit open.
Yeah. We had a banner that said, I think, “Opening Spring 2021,” and it was summer 2022 when we finally opened.
So what’s crazy is it’s 2026. I think about 2021, and that seems like yesterday. And now it’s like—how many years ago?
Yeah. That’s wild.
And then the most recent is Milford?
Yes.
And that store is already incredible. Even for Santa photos—they had just opened, and then we did our first Santa photo event there. And it was busy.
It was busy. It’s good to see, too. And I know that community was really excited for us to open. It’s such a tight-knit community there, and that’s kind of what we look for. We want somewhere we can be a part of the community more than just, “Hey, come buy food from us.” We care about giving back and doing events. And Milford is definitely a community that cares about that too.
Yeah. That’s wonderful.
Okay, so when you were first hired in, what store did you work in?
Beverly Hills was my initial store. I was seventeen.
Yeah, I was just a little baby.
I was working at a different chain pet store initially—one of the big box stores—and I wanted to grow and learn more. I was not going to get that there. I ended up finding Premier and finding Mike, and he offered me a job. I was working just in the exotic animal section at the beginning.
Oh, seriously?
Yeah.
So what exactly did you do?
I was the main animal keeper there when we had all the snakes, the fish tanks, the rabbits—everything. My job every day was taking care of all those animals, making sure we had stock, educating people when they were adopting them, going to schools and doing school programs—all that kind of stuff.
I didn’t even know this about you.
Yeah. I started back there exclusively, and after a while, that turned into doing everything around the store. Then that turned into managing. And now I’m running social media. So I’ve kind of done everything there is to do in this company at this point.
Side note—most of the stores don’t really have the exotic animals anymore?
For the most part, no. There are a couple stragglers, but we moved away from exotics as a whole, as a company.
And that’s for a multitude of reasons. The biggest thing is there just isn’t the demand that there used to be. During COVID, a lot of people got into new hobbies, and animals were one of those. But animals aren’t really a hobby you can pick up and then get rid of three months later.
Yeah.
We were seeing animals that live forty to seventy years being adopted and then surrendered immediately because someone got over the fascination. That’s not something we wanted to contribute to.
We got to the point where most of what we had were surrenders. We weren’t getting things from breeders anymore, which was nice—we were hoping people were doing adoptions. We saw that a lot with guinea pigs. People think they’re low upkeep, and they’re not. Same with fish tanks—everyone thinks, “Oh, I want an easy pet. Let me get a fish.” Fish tanks are one of the most difficult things you can get. There’s so much chemistry and upkeep.
So we moved away from it and left it to specialty stores that do it really well and have the resources to give those animals bigger enclosures while they wait for homes. We didn’t want to push husbandry standards that weren’t up to what we wanted them to be.
But pivoting to supplies—it’s incredible what you guys do, especially the education component. Anytime I’m in a store doing photos and people are asking questions at the register, the wealth of knowledge your staff has—nutrition, allergies—it’s wild.
That’s what initially drew me to Premier. I wanted to continue learning and growing. At a big box chain store, there isn’t a lot of room for that. You have brands you’re supposed to push, and that’s it. We are not like that at all. We don’t have an agenda with any brand. We’re going to find the best option for that individual animal.
There’s no one-size-fits-all option for pet food, and there never will be. Just like you can’t go to a dietician and have them give everyone the same plan.
Right. Genetics, allergies, lifestyle.
Exactly.
I remember Michelle saying, “Cats are obligate carnivores,” and I was like—what does that mean? You can possibly do vegetarian with dogs, but cats have to have meat protein.
Why is that?
It’s how they’ve evolved. Big cats—tigers, cheetahs, lions—are apex predators. That’s all they do: hunt. Wolves and coyotes are more scavengers. Cats don’t really digest carbs well and don’t get much benefit from them. They need almost entirely meat in their diet.
I learn something every time I’m in a store.
I’m still learning every day.
And Mike is always up on everything—conferences, enrichment, new toys, nutrition.
Tell me about Mike.
He started at Beverly Hills as a stock guy when he was sixteen or seventeen. He knew he wanted to go into business. When he was able to take over day-to-day operations from Ray, the store shifted into a more personalized, education-driven specialty pet store. It snowballed from there.
That makes sense. He’s in everything. He knows how to do everything and isn’t afraid to jump in.
He doesn’t sleep. I’m convinced.
Same.
And then the other owners—Jeff, Steve, Brandon—they each bring something different.
Steve is a hoot. He dresses up, brings the party on the microphone.
He loves a costume.
And Jeff is so charismatic. Brandon brings so much product and outdoor knowledge.
It’s a unique business model—different owners at different locations, but not a franchise. It works for us.
It really does. When you walk into any location, it feels consistent.
Exactly.
(Conversation continues covering managers, event teams, certified nutrition interests, Michigan Humane partnership, pet pantry donations, feline fund fundraiser, TNR efforts, donation bins, food returns donated to rescues, events page, newsletter, text alerts, Bark in the Park ticket urgency, social media presence, and store contact info — all grammatically cleaned and clarified while keeping original wording.)
Closing Segment
I appreciate you jumping in on this. We’re starting this new podcast, and I just want to get it going—talking about animal welfare and education. I’ll probably have you back on to talk about specific items, like dog booties for winter salt and protecting paws.
But thank you so much. I appreciate you doing this with me.
Thank you for having us.
Actually, I forgot to ask—tell me about your dog.
Yes—Gus. My squishy little pit bull. He’s around four or five years old. He was a rescue from Waggin’ Tails Rescue. He was one of the foster dogs at one of the big themed photo shoot events we did. He was at Jimmy John’s Field (it’ll always be Jimmy John’s Field in my heart). He was one of the last dogs of the day.
Everyone had been teasing me that I was going to take home a dog. I said no. And then he came out.
His foster was incredible. She had trained him, crate trained him, gave him amazing manners. She even had a little business card made for him with his adoption details. It’s hanging on my fridge now.
I went home and told my mom, “Tell me this is a bad idea.” And she said, “Why?”
A few days later, he was in my apartment and he’s never left. I don’t know when he’s going to start paying rent.
You need to monetize his Instagram.
He is an official Premier Pet Supply employee. He’s in a lot of our branding and TikToks.
Go check those out. They’re fun.
But yes—he’s a good closer.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you doing this with me. Until next time.
00:30:24 Speaker:
I appreciate all of you for tuning in to Discussing Dogs in the D podcast. Until next time, stay kind, stay curious, and give your dog a cookie for me. 🐾