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Mud Bay (store)

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Mud Bay
IndustryPet store
HeadquartersOlympia, Washington, U.S.
Number of locations
58 (2019)
Area served
Pacific Northwest
Websitemudbay.com

Mud Bay is an American employee-owned pet store based in Olympia, Washington, with locations throughout the Pacific Northwest.[1][2] The company was founded in 1988, in a 1905 feed store at Mud Bay Road and Kaiser Road in Olympia.[3][4]

The first store on Mud Bay Road was originally called "Mud Bay Grainery", named after the previous occupant of the building, a health food store called "The Grainery".[5] The owners soon re-spelled the business to "Mud Bay Granary", referencing the storage building for grain. In 2000, they acquired eight more stores and became a chain.[4] In 2002, the company dropped the word "Granary" to become "Mud Bay" as it is now known.[5] The chain expanded to 13 or 14 by 2004,[4] and continued to expand through the 2009 recession: 17 stores by June 2009,[6] 33 by 2015,[7] 56 in Oregon and Washington by 2020.[8][9] It was named Pet Business retailer of the year, 2015.[10]

In 2015, Mud Bay announced that it would start an employee-stock ownership plan for its employees, effectively making it an employee-owned company.[11] The co-CEOs, siblings Lars Wulff and Marissa Wulff, were inspired by The Great Game of Business to do so. On August 20, 2015, the owners and employees signed a "declaration of worker ownership" at the company's annual meeting at Green River Community College. For a few years after that, many of the company's decisions were made by a team called "The 20", most of whom were elected by employee-owner peers. Since the company reached over 500 employees in 2020, most decisions are now made by the executives, with the goal of standardizing all the 50+ stores.[12][1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Rolf Boone (August 28, 2015), "Mud Bay offers employees stake in pet company: Growing pet-store chain offers employees opportunity to own a piece of the Tumwater-based company.", The Seattle Times
  2. ^ Heflin, Marissa (2020-07-14). "How Mud Bay Overcame the Challenges of Opening a New Store Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic". PetProductNews. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  3. ^ "About Us".
  4. ^ a b c Joanna Horowitz (August 19, 2004), "Premium pet-food store unleashes growth", The Seattle Times
  5. ^ a b http://mudbay.com/frequently-asked-questions-about-mud-bay [dead link‍]
  6. ^ Amy Martinez; Melissa Allison (July 3, 2009), "Pet-supply shops grow while other retailers fade", The Seattle Times
  7. ^ Mendelson, Seth (2015-06-30), "A Passion for Pets & People", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  8. ^ Kalaygian, Mark (2017-01-01), "Exponential Growth (Pet Business' Top 25 Retailers list)", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  9. ^ "Mud Bay Celebrates Opening Store in The Trails at Silverdale by Matching Donations to Local Pet Food Pantry". PRNewsWire. 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  10. ^ "Pet magazine names Mud Bay retailer of the year", The Olympian, July 9, 2015
  11. ^ Boone, Rolf (2015-08-25). "Tumwater-based Mud Bay, a store for dogs and cats, offers employees stake in company". The News Tribune. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  12. ^ Ross Reynolds (August 26, 2015), Mud Bay Pet Store Workers Claim Stake In Company, KUOW-FM
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