MOMMS Premium Pet Foods opened its doors in July 2019 in Calgary’s southeast community of Lake Bonavista. Chris Malmberg and his wife Shelley had both been looking for a change in career, and they realized that a pet food store could be just the “hidden gem” that the neighbourhood of dog-owners needed. It was another independent pet food store owner in Calgary, Drew at Dexter’s Pet Shop, who played an integral role at the beginning. “We learned a lot of knowledge from him - Drew is just absolutely brilliant,” Chris explains. “When people come into our store, they’re just blown away by the knowledge that we have, and we owe that all to Drew.” Now a fully-equipped pet food and supply store, that knowledge and education piece is something that MOMMS prides itself on. “Product knowledge and customer service is what we’re known for,” says Chris. “We have five university students that work for us, and they are super knowledgeable. They just treat customers with the utmost respect when they come in.”
From the very beginning, the Malmbergs had a strong belief in bringing in high-quality, varied food that didn’t contain any fillers, and helping their customers to make the best decisions when it comes to pet nutrition. “We will not put any product in our store that isn’t considered a premium dog food,” Chris says. “Pets don’t have a choice of what they’re eating - we want to educate people, let them know that with these fillers and all the non-nutritional stuff that’s in dog foods, it does eventually have a long-term health effect.” A focus on high-quality products - and the fact that it’s a Canadian company - is one of the reasons that MOMMS began their partnership with Smack Pet Foods. For Chris, the high nutritional value of Smack’s product, as well as the convenience and simplicity of it made it an easy choice to bring into their store. “It fits right in with our business,” Chris says. “Smack has really grown in our province - it’s just an easy food to sell.”
MOMMS had only been open a few months when the pandemic hit, but for Chris and his wife, the wave of support for local small businesses that came as a result was a “blessing” for them as a brand new business in Calgary. “We’ve got a good little business going and it just keeps growing. We’re very fortunate.” For Chris, one of the most important values at the heart of MOMMS is giving back to the community that has shown them so much support over the past three years. Since they opened, MOMMS has raised over 10,000lbs of pet food for the Veterans Food Bank and the Calgary Food Bank through three separate events. Other fundraising efforts have included bottle drives, which saw them raise $5,800 to help schools in their surrounding neighbourhoods with their lunch programs, as well as raising $500 for MS in 2021 by hosting a family scavenger hunt in Lake Bonavista. “Giving back has been our biggest success,” Chris says. “We have a very strong belief in it. We feel it’s our social responsibility to give back to the community that’s supporting us as our business grows.”
Read more at https://momms.ca/