Just Pets sets up vending machine outlet

At the entrance to the eMart supermarket in Tabuan Jaya, one of the suburbs of Kuching, the state capital of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, is a vending machine that sells basic items for cats and dogs. The automated product dispenser, which catches the attention of passers-by and shoppers alike with its colourful banner as well as its proximity to the shopping trolley station, is owned and operated by Just Pets, a pet supplies retail chain that has five branches in the so-called Cat City (“kuching” means cat in Malay).

What is literally an out-of-the-box concept is the brainchild of Anthony Yeo, who founded Just Pets with his wife Rachel Chai 15 years ago. It is meant to address the perennial problem of pet lovers and rescuers – where to get emergency supplies when all the pet shops are closed. “It’s my husband’s idea,” Chai told PET worldwide in an interview. “Sometimes, we get calls from customers saying they have an emergency. They need some food for the strays, or maybe you will see in the vending machine that there are milk bottles and milk. That’s the most important item for those who are out of milk, or have rescued some cats or kittens or puppies.” The vending machine’s most frequent buyers are animal lovers who feed or rescue strays outside of the store’s operating hours, pet owners who run out of pet food when shops are closed, and breeders who need to find milk substitutes when their new litters of kittens or puppies are birthed by mothers that cannot produce milk. Launched in 2022, the machine carries basic necessities for the survival of felines and canines: canned cat and dog food, milk substitutes for neonatal felines and puppies, and nursing kits. Vitamins, supplements, hair and skin products, and similar items are not available at the 24-hour sales channel because “all these are much more technical” and require someone to explain their usage as well as to check whether they are the best products to address the specific pets’ needs, Chai said.

The vending machine is also constrained by technical considerations from carrying a more extensive product range. Apart from only being able to hold a fixed number of products at any given time, the sensors that the machine is equipped with are unable to register some items, particularly those that…