Our Story

We are Jules and Richard, we started up our business called ‘Grumpy’s pet shop’ in 2001, we often get asked why we called it that, the simple answer is, that it’s named after our dear friend and colleague Mike Hardcastle who died in 2001, he had been a previous owner of the business and Mr Grumpy was his ‘nick name’.

We really enjoy running the business together; we are now the only independent pet shop left in Cambridge. We have collectively, been in the pet trade for 70 years now, which means we have a wealth of knowledge about pet care and nutrition and are more than happy to share this and give free advice to all of our customers.   

When we started, our main focus was to promote premium ‘natural’ pet foods because we’ve learned how important it is to feed our pets on the best diet possible. 

Over the years there has been advanced research into pet nutrition and this has seen the birth of some fantastic foods. When you feed a good food, it helps keep your pets in optimal health and prolong their life, unfortunately some of the bigger brands still use poor ingredients. Working in the shop puts us in the unique position of being able to monitor how dogs progress on certain diets and without doubt the ones fed on a good quality premium diet enjoy much better health and require less visits to the vets. 

When you come into our shop you will see that it is very well stocked. We have a vast array of loose natural treats which can be brought in singles or in bulk, some customers call it our pick ‘n’ mix. We stock all the latest training aids and soft toys; we regularly order in different items so that our customers always have something new to see. We also carry a good range of dog/cat beds, leads, collars, bowls etc.  

I guess our main pride is in our wide range of natural foods and treats that we sell. We have recently brought out our own range of natural dog food called Bark 4 more; this is in response to the cost-of-living crisis. There is a ‘Grain Free’ version and a Super Premium one, both are made with natural ingredients and are very competitively priced.  

We are aware that people lead very busy lives these days, so we do offer a free delivery service as long as it is within six miles of our shop, we just ask that customers spend £15 or more. Jason has run this service for us for over 10 years, he’s very popular with our customers for both deliveries and pet sitting. 

In conclusion, although we have been around for a long time now, we still love helping people by giving advice and offering good service. If you get chance, please check out our reviews on Google.  

We’d love to see you in our shop soon.  

Jules, Rich and Jason