The Baker Family’s Legacy of Innovation and Dedication
A candid look at how values, innovation and a people-first mindset shape a resilient business.
Meet Jos Zamzow, Co-CEO of Zamzows Inc. and the current subject of our WPA Visionaries: Leadership & Advice series. The Zamzow family’s long and illustrious history in pet retail has earned the WPA Lifetime Achievement Award (Multi Stores). But as Jos says, “This is really like four or five lifetimes that are involved. I’m receiving this award on behalf of many, many generations.”
Learn more about Jos’s perspective on building customer loyalty, innovating in the pet retail space, running a successful family business and more.
Putting Customers First, Always …
Jos’s great-grandparents launched the business in the midst of the Great Depression, when meeting customers’ needs was vital for generating sales that kept their store afloat. After the Depression ended, the Zamzow family continued prioritizing customer loyalty, making it a core tenet of the business.
“That has been passed on from generation to generation, and those are the lessons that we are still teaching to new employees,” Jos says.
… And Listening to What They Have to Say
The Zamzow family attends SUPERZOO every year to source their stores’ assortment. But the final say goes to the customers.
“Some of our most rural stores are our top frozen pet food stores, not because those customers are the most interested in that, but it’s because they don’t have access to it,” Jos explains. “So sometimes you see [a product], and you think this is a big-store or big-city type of thing, but sometimes the availability makes it work in other places. We let the customer show us.”
The Zamzows also involve their employees in the process, from store managers to cashiers. This deepens their knowledge and builds their credibility, Jos says. Employees bring genuine passion for the products, he adds, “and the customers can feel it, and they jump on board because of it. And it raises everybody up.”
Small Companies Have a Big Advantage
Cutting-edge innovation is a Zamzow specialty, honed over years of identifying pet retail trends and understanding how they can intersect. One of Jos’s favorite family stories dates back to the 1970s, when his father was speaking to Washington state orchardists about natural fertilizers.
“This old man came up after the presentation and said to my dad, ‘You know, Jim, I always said I never wanted to feed anything to my apple trees that I wouldn’t feed to my cows.’ It stuck with my dad, and he started thinking about how a cow’s digestion works, and how the soil works. He realized these things are all really closely tied together.”
Business Is All Relative
Working with family members can be challenging, but Jos says the Zamzows succeed by clearly defining expectations and areas of responsibility. His advice for other family businesses: Talk about what success and failure look like, and put a written agreement in place to guide decision-making when there is a difference of opinion.
“Without that, you can create a tremendous amount of division inside your company, and it can be a real problem,” Jos says.
Real Talk Delivers Real Results
Jos says the overwhelming amount of information — and misinformation — available to consumers is the biggest challenge facing pet retail, because it leads to confusion and less-confident buying decisions.
“I think the future for our business is to stay focused on having people in our stores that can legitimately talk through these issues, so [customers] have a human there who can help them understand what’s really going on,” Jos says. “And I don’t see that ever going away.”
Discover more inspiring stories featured in our WPA Visionaries: Leadership & Advice series, and learn more about WPA’s mission to unite the pet community.