When Isabella Alcaraz talks to the creatures in her Sunset pet store, The Animal Connection, her voice ratchets up an octave, and her tone gets melodic. “Hey, baby!” she greets a fluffy chinchilla, Phoebe. An elderly rabbit, Jupiter, gets a scritch between the ears.
In the six years that she has owned the store, Alcaraz has bonded with all its animals: guinea pigs, birds, turtles, fish, and her favorite rat, Petunia — even the hissing cockroaches (a popular pet for young boys). But despite her affections, she’s looking to walk away in the next few months.
Instead of selling the business, Alcaraz hopes to give her store to the right owner. Her inspiration came from Pet Central, which went viral in fall 2023 when John Chan offered to sell his Chinatown shop for “$0.”
“This might seem crazy, but the most important thing to me (and someone like John) is the quality care of our animals and having customers taken care of,” Alcaraz wrote in an open letter on The Animal Connection’s website.
In the case of both Pet Central and The Animal Connection, the business isn’t really “free.” Chan wanted to recoup his inventory investment of around $120,000, while Alcaraz hopes to find someone to buy The Animal Connection’s products for “a couple hundred grand.”
While it’s not as cut and dry as passing along the keys, the model bucks the status quo, according to business broker Cheryl Maloney. Small biz entrepreneurs looking to sell usually bake into the price the work it took to get their shops up and running. The actual sale price is typically “a lot more” than the wholesale cost of the inventory, she noted.
Alcaraz is hoping that her unconventional offer will spark interested parties to reach out and keep alive the store’s legacy of offering adoptions, a wide range of products, and exotic pet foods (like crickets and “frozen feeders” for snakes). She’s stepping away because her family recently moved back to the Philippines, and she can’t balance regular flights around the globe with independently owning a small business in San Francisco.
“I just want this place to be in good hands, because it’s really special,” she said.
Her relationship with The Animal Connection, which opened in the late 1980s, started when she would visit as a middle schooler with her guinea pig (named Hammy, because she had wanted a hamster) to get its nails clipped. In high school, she scored a summer job as an “animal caretaker,” and in college would pick up shifts during breaks.
The owner felt ready to retire and told Alcaraz she would “give it away if I took care of it and kept it alive,” she says. At only 22, Alcaraz decided to take the leap. She scrounged up the money for the inventory from a friend (“I just had to beg someone I knew to give me a loan”) and started learning on the job in April 2019.
Since then, she has taken on projects like modernizing the point-of-sale technology and expanding the range of insects for sale. And, of course, she has formed connections with both animals and customers.
“I talk to my friends who work in tech, and we have completely different lives,” she said. “Not everyone’s lucky enough to do fulfilling work, and I’m so grateful — it’s the best thing I could ever imagine doing, because I get to play with animals all day.”
Alcaraz declined to disclose revenue or whether the store is profitable but said she “would discuss numbers with any potential new owners.” The store has survived dramatic change over the years, she added, and has the legs “to be around for quite a while longer.”
She says she has batted away takeover offers from a private equity firm in the past because she didn’t want the store “to turn into something icky and corporate.” Her ideal buyer would be a person or group with a love of animals and strong nose for business. She offered the opportunity to her two employees, one of whom has worked at the store for 20 years, but neither wanted the responsibility.
Because the job won’t be easy. Take it from Christopher Blake, who took over Pet Central with two friends in 2023.
“It’s a struggle, but you just gotta keep on hustling,” he said. “I’m relying on our customers of 40 years.”
Competition from Amazon and chains like Petsmart have been among the biggest challenges for indie pet store owners.
“We can’t beat Amazon on prices, but if you want to know more information on the products, or be educated on how to raise reptiles or fish, come to the small businesses,” Blake said.
Megan Johnson, who has owned The Animal House in Lower Haight since 2007, echoed that.
“We know your pets, and we’re a community resource,” she said. “It’s generally been challenging, but you try to find the things that work for you the most.”
Alcaraz hopes to find a buyer before the summer and knows that some customers might be “scared” when they see that she’s trying to sell. Frankly, she’s afraid, too, because she doesn’t want The Animal Connection’s story to end with her.
“I want this place to have a future,” she said. “The people in this community depend on it.”