Bernal Beast

great neighborhood pet shop. Lots of grain-​free cat/​dog food options, natural flea solutions, etc etc. Staff is always warm and friendly, and the owner is adorable!

This place is hit or miss; some days like weekends when Tatiana works there, the customer service is super nice and helpful. Other days, during the week when the bold guy with glasses works there, the customer service is very rude.
I went there over the weekend and bought a harness for my large dog. I was told that if the harness doesn’t fit, I can return it. Unfortunately the harness did not fit correctly so on Monday I came back for a refund. The guy behind the counter asked whether I wanted the XL size, which they didn’t have. So I asked for refund. That’s when he pointed to a sign on a wall that spelled out «Store Credit Only.» I told him that I was promised a refund and that I have gotten refunds before.
At this point the bold guy with glasses joined the conversation. he said that it is unfortunate that other employees offer me the refund when the store policy states otherwise, and that if others want to do it — that’s fine, but he is not going to.
He added «You can call the owner if you like a special treatment.» I said that maybe he could call the owner and ask him for refund for me since he is the store’s representative at the moment, to which he replied: «NO! It’s your business to call, not mine.»
All right, fine. I have been a patron there for a while now. I like to support small local businesses. But this is not worth the stress. I have dealt with 3 $ 6 blinking lights, that broke within a month. A $ 21 light collar that stopped working in few months. A $ 11 glowing in the dark ball, whose battery fell out and my dog almost choked on, and now the unnecessarily bad attitude and patronizing pointing at the wall’s sign as if I couldn’t read.
All the stuff that Bernal Beast sells are sold on Amazon cheaper, where refunds are given promptly with no problems.
Goodbye Bernal Beast! I have tried to support you, but many of your toys are cheaply made, or unsafe, and your customer service a Russian Roulette.

This place has such a great selection and killer service!

I was looking for a microwaveable pet bed warmer for an elderly cat. I called the Bernal Beast a few minutes before closing, an a helpful guy (Andy) had exactly what I wanted. Since I was pushing it for time, I asked if he was willing to stay open a few minutes after hours and, no problem, he said yes! I actually arrived on time but wanted to let people know about this really nice experience with a local business.

Been taking our dog here for self service baths for years, but today’s visit was awful. One clean towel, clogged drain, and only one useable apron when there were two of us.
I’ll give you one more try, but if there aren’t any improvements it’s off to another local business that provides dog wash facilities.

very helpful staff. I went to give my pups a bath. There was no line to wait, lots of different choices in dog shampoos. I got both of them done in under an hour blow dried and all. great selection of foods, dog treats and other products.

I’ve given Bernal Beast enough chances already:
* I’ve taken my dog in to wash him — NO clean towels; «Come back another time».
* Other visits, the shampoo bottles were all empty or near empty.
* The gate to the wash area isn’t secure and my dog almost escaped.
* The faucet (temperature) control is nearly non-​existent. You get whatever temp comes out
* If you do a certain number of washes (as tallied on a card at the cash register), you get one free. They lost my card!
So I gave up washing the dog here.
BUT I WAS STILL A LOYAL CUSTOMER for food, treats, leashes, etc.
Till today. Trying to make a little foster dog more appealing to potential owners, I bought an expensive ($ 28) collar from Bernal Beast in the last part of July. Within weeks the appliques that made it the cute piece it was, started falling off.
Today I tried to return the-collar-that-didn’t-even-last-a-month for at least partial store credit (AND ready to buy something else). .. but nope, they are not going to stand behind their merchandise.
Nor do they care to keep me as a customer. Enough. Bye.

Awesome little pet store with friendly knowledgable employees. Got some great fish advise from Jason today! We got two beautiful freshwater fish… so far they seem very happy in their new home. Will definitely return for more supplies.

Local pet store. Dog, cat, and fishes seem to be the focus with other stuff as well. Great staff and always ready to help. Highly recommended!

Return Policy & Customer Service
I purchased 2 Gentle Leaders for my two dogs and the trainer insisted on using something different. When I called the store to ask that I exchange the Gentle Leaders for something else, I was told that 6 weeks is too long for an exchange. I reiterated that the collars haven’t been used. Still in the plastic packets. I obviously didnt deem it relevant to explain that I had been away for work, hence its six weeks later. The store lost a customer today who typically spends $ 250 on dog food a month. Seems a bit short sighted in my opinion.

So happy to have access to such a lovely dog bathing station! It’s stocked with everything you need to get the fidos squeaky clean. Only bummer is that they charge per dog to bathe, which gets expensive fast.

Customer for 8 years; amazing all the inventory they get into one folksy neighborhood space; staff tends to be friendly and helpful; there do seem to be a few chronic problems. Has a wonderful community-​oriented, neighborhood-​friendly retail vibe and seems to have good prices.
At Bernal Beast you can get:
– Dog grooming
– Dog food and supplies
– Cat food and supplies
– Fish food and supplies + aquariums and fish
– City chicken supplies and information
– Frozen raw food
The store hires some of the coolest people i’ve ever met yet there’s a bit of staff turnover and not sure if that’s just the way things are these days or not. They do seem to train team members quickly to get them up to speed for all sections of the store. Customers seem enthusiastic and the store is very dog-​friendly if you want to bring your companion along.
The fish and tanks are always well kept, but there is a tendency, from time to time, to stock fish that are too big and can sometimes be too aggressive, such as Featherfin catfish which can be very destructive to the tetras, barbs, mollies, platys, etc. the store normally carries; these fish also need 50+ gallon tanks which most Bernal Beast shoppers likely don’t own, and should probably either be banned from the retail industry or made available on a special-​order basis only for people with large tanks.
Call-back’s and follow-up’s have been problematic all the years i’ve shopped here — i like to order cases of catfood or refills on cat toys i’ve bought there before, or fish or aquarium plants … almost inevitably they don’t call to tell me when these items are in, but after i order them, or if there’s going to be a delay in obtaining what’s been ordered. Usually whatever i’ve ordered does arrive but then it just shows up on the shelves. If I call to ask them status on an order, they try to be nice but they’re super busy either taking inventory or dealing with customers, so the only solution seems to be if i’ve placed an order to show up in the store once a week.
From time to time, mostly just to get on top of my own bookkeeping, i might want a tally that i can look at before making a final decision to buy all the loot i’ve brought to the counter. The register is a bit primitive, it doesn’t have a screen where you can see line items, and they even seem to have a hard time just printing a subtotal that a customer can maybe go off to the side and read while other customers are being rung up, and if they do go through the pricing they do so with a handheld calculator which is kind of vague and gets a little pressured when you know there’s a line behind you.
Still hoping they sort out the above but otherwise it’s a great store and i’ll continue to recommend it to fellow pet humans.

It’s a very casual place where employees bring their dog (s) that chill behind the counter peacefully. TONS of affordable and healthy treats unlike some other shops and a great variety of dog foods, which is helpful in my case since I look after a number of pups in my home with sensitive tummies.
Overall great neighborhood spot and just a few blocks from one of my favorite parks– Holly Park!

Not far from where I live. I’ve been in here a couple of times over the years. But it isn’t actually my Go-​To place to buy things for my dog, Lucy.
Today I was looking for a new dog leash but didn’t quite find what I was looking for.
They are a small store, where they sell many dog & cat items from dog food to cat food, beds for your furry friends, treats, and you’ll be helping out a small local business.

Excellent customer service and self-​service dog wash for $ 12 (please don’t raise the price!). Our only issue was when we came to bathe our dog and they didn’t have towels. I was going to be two hours til they got clean towels and by then we would only have had a one hour window to return and bathe our dog. That was really frustrating! Aside from that, we love this place. Will absolutely come here every few weeks to bathe our pup.

Super nice and friendly and HELPFUL staff here. I came in with a new dog that wasn’t liking what I got for her. I was given a few samples to try and was able to find a few types that she liked! I was super happy to have a happy little dog.
Good prices, not expensive, great selection, and overall great store.

We found Bernal Beast a few years ago when we need a special cat sand– Cat Attract– for cats that urinate out of the box. They carried it. We have been going there ever since.
I have found the staff to be very helpful and they always carry out the super heavy bags of cat sand for me. They carry very high quality products.
I like supporting local business. It’s a fun store and always have fun people and dogs milling around.

I went in to Bernal Beast yesterday on a routine errand to pick-​up cat food. When I arrived, I didn’t see the brand I needed on the shelf, and started to feel a slight panic at the thought of heading home to my highly vocal, finicky cat without her favorite food (!!!). The guy working there gave me the whole history on the brand – they used to be great, were bought out, promised nothing would change, changed everything, etc etc etc – and told me that there had been several recalls lately and that they had since stopped carrying the food.
Begin full-​on panic. I could imagine the weeks stretching out before me – the cat on a hunger strike and me miserably offering up choice after choice of food, while the cat punished me for being such an insufficient provider. I was getting ready to head home and break the bad news to my roommate.
Instead, the guy helpfully walked me through the food selection that they did have, explaining which ones were most like the food my cat was used to, and even gave me tips on how to test out different foods with her, how long to suffer through one food choice before moving on to try another, etc etc. I settled on one kind that he highly recommended, and then he told me that they’d give me a few samples of other kinds to try. At the counter, they just kept piling up the samples until I was taking home more cat food in samples than cat food I had purchased.
When I got home, I poured two kinds of food into my cat’s bowl, one of which was recommended as the kind most similar to the food my cat had been eating. I put the bowl down, and my cat – who had refused to eat ANY OTHER kind of cat food in 5 years – began immediately chowing down on the new food.
Crisis averted. Thank you, Bernal Beast!

GREAT SELECTIONS — GREAT DISCOUNTS!
I’ve always been a big supporter of keeping the dollars $$ in house and shopping locally whenever I can. You can also be guaranteed to find that one of a kind plush or toy for your pooch at the local pet stores versus their chain competitors. Service is also a factor for me shopping locally because the owners always knows their inventory.
Bernal Beast is a really cool pet store that’s like a «general store» for dogs. They sell everything from dog food to dog toys to offering a regular weekly once a week low cost vaccination program for the neighborhood. When I was here — all of their dog and cat toys were 30% off — and I bought a Tennis Ball Launcher for my «busy bee» dog for about $ 11. It was a deal! I also found a cute round pink dog bed but they only made it for dogs under 25 lbs. I have a dog who is about 100 lbs plus! Kind of worked out since I am not a big fan of PINK but I thought gee — that would be a conversational piece whenever my friends and family comes over for a visit and maybe they will sit on it too!
Oh I almost forgot to mention that Bernal Beast also have tons of organic treats some locally provided by local dog bakers in the neighborhood. I think that is so cool — local business supporting local talents!

I was so happy to discover that Bernal Beast carried a LID (limited ingredient diet) dry cat food that was ½ of the price that I was paying for a prescription brand through the SPCA.
When you have a pet with special dietary needs (my cat recently developed IBD), getting your hands on the right food can be difficult. You can get prescription food, but that option is generally the most costly and inconvenient. Bernal Beast carries a variety of higher-​end pet foods that are not only better for your pet’s health, but are surprisingly affordable.
The best part is, they have a frequent buyer card — so after 10 bags I get one free!