If you shopped for pet supplies online in the 2000s, you probably remember Drs. Foster & Smith. Maybe you bought their dog food, fish tank gear, or specialty cat medications. For a lot of pet owners—especially folks living in rural areas or small towns—they became the go-to place for things local stores just didn’t carry. But if you’ve tried to find their website lately, you’ve probably realized it’s gone. Here’s how it all played out.
How Drs. Foster & Smith Got Started
The whole story goes back to 1983, when two veterinarians, Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith, launched a tiny mail-order business out of Wisconsin. Their idea was pretty simple: animal health products and advice, sent right to your door.
Online pet stores were practically unheard of back then—heck, the internet barely even existed for most people. But mail-order catalogs were a big deal for pet owners who didn’t live near a major city or who needed items their local feed store didn’t offer.
Growth into a Pet Supply Powerhouse
It didn’t take long for their mail-order concept to take off. Drs. Foster & Smith started with a handful of veterinary medications and advice columns. Soon, they branched into pretty much every pet category you can think of—dogs, cats, fish, reptiles, birds, even horses. Their thick, colorful catalog became a fixture in pet-loving homes and vet clinics.
What really set them apart, though, was their in-house veterinary team. If you called with a question about a dog’s itchy skin or a cat’s weird behavior, you’d actually talk to a real vet or technician. That built a big trust factor.
Riding the E-Commerce Wave
By the early 2000s, Drs. Foster & Smith didn’t just stick with catalogs. They set up their own online store, making them an early mover in the e-commerce shift. Their website was one of the first major destinations for pet supplies, ahead of many bigger retail names. For years, pet owners ordered food, medication, litter, and accessories with just a few clicks.
At their peak, the company employed hundreds of people in Wisconsin. Their warehouse was massive, their call center handled thousands of customer calls a week, and they shipped all over the U.S.
Petco Steps In: The 2015 Acquisition
As pet e-commerce grew, so did the competition. National chains, big box retailers, and new online-only shops started crowding the market. In 2015, Petco—a major pet supply chain with stores everywhere—bought Drs. Foster & Smith outright.
At the time, Petco’s goal was to expand its online presence and pick up Drs. Foster & Smith’s loyal customer base. They promised to keep the in-house veterinary expertise and to fold the best parts of the old company into their operations. If you were a customer, you might not have noticed any big changes at first. Orders still went through the same website and warehouse, and the catalog kept showing up in mailboxes.
Under New Ownership: The First Changes
But over the next few years, you might have noticed a slow shift. Some product lines merged. Petco started to promote its own branded products on the Drs. Foster & Smith site. In other words, the brand you knew started blending with Petco’s way of doing business.
Demand for physical catalogs started dropping, too, as more people shopped on smartphones and laptops. The pet retail world was changing fast, and every company was trying to keep up.
The Closure Announcement: January 2019
Then, out of the blue for many customers, an announcement landed in inboxes and news feeds in January 2019: Drs. Foster & Smith was shutting down for good.
Petco confirmed that the Drs. Foster & Smith website, mail-order service, and all related operations would close permanently by spring of that year. Their website started showing a simple message about the transition, then began directing traffic straight to Petco.com.
This wasn’t a temporary move or a partial closing—it was the end of the line for the Drs. Foster & Smith brand.
Why Did They Shut Down?
There wasn’t just one reason behind the closure; it was more like a perfect storm of changes in retail and business direction. Petco’s official statement said the closure was meant to “streamline operations and better focus on our core business and customer.” In simple terms, they wanted to cut back on overlap, simplify their structure, and bring everything more tightly under the Petco umbrella.
Part of this was just the reality of running overlapping supply chains, websites, and teams. But the bigger issue was probably digital retail itself. By 2019, everyone was shopping online, and the competition was cutthroat. Chewy, Amazon, and other big names made it tough for older brands to keep up, even those with a strong reputation.
Petco was also dealing with its own business changes, including partnerships with health services like Express Scripts for pet medications. In the end, Drs. Foster & Smith’s separate identity didn’t fit with where Petco was headed.
What It Meant For Employees
For the people who worked at Drs. Foster & Smith’s headquarters and warehouses, the closure was a huge shift. About 289 employees were officially laid off as part of the shutdown. Many had spent years—sometimes decades—with the company in northern Wisconsin.
Some workers were offered the option to transfer to Petco roles in other states, but a lot of people just lost their jobs. Local news covered the story closely because Drs. Foster & Smith was one of the region’s bigger employers.
How It Affected Customers
If you were a longtime customer, you probably got an email or letter around early 2019, letting you know about the closure. Orders could still be placed for a short window, but all direct business stopped soon after. The company’s massive fish and aquarium division, known for specialty breeds and gear, shut down too.
Petco redirected customers to their own site and tried to offer similar products and deals. But for people who relied on the original company’s particular blends of pet food, veterinary advice, and niche items, it was definitely a loss. The personalized service and expertise the company was known for didn’t fully transfer over.
Blending Into Petco: What Happened Next
After the shutdown, the Drs. Foster & Smith name didn’t totally disappear overnight. Some Petco stores and online sections kept the branding around for a bit, mostly as a transition for customers looking for familiar products.
But as of now, the original Drs. Foster & Smith site is long gone. If you type it in, you’ll land on Petco’s website. The original buildings, including the old fulfillment center, were shut down. For information on business transitions like this, sites such as Serabusiness sometimes offer industry updates and commentary.
Did Petco Keep Any of Drs. Foster & Smith’s Legacy?
There are a few things Petco kept, mainly the focus on quality pet health products and building out their online pharmacy. But the unique hold Drs. Foster & Smith had—especially their personal touch for mail-order customers in far-flung places—just doesn’t exist in the same way now.
If you need certain pet medications or specialty items, you’ll find similar things at Petco’s online pharmacy or at competitors like Chewy. But that relationship customers once built with the original veterinarian founders? That’s gone.
Why Do Companies Like This Disappear?
If you’re wondering how a company with such a loyal following could vanish, it’s a good reminder of how quickly retail is shifting. Shopping habits, delivery expectations, and what people want from online stores are always changing. Even established names get squeezed when the market moves faster than they can adapt.
Acquisitions can bring in fresh resources, but they also lead to overlap—and tough decisions—when two brands don’t quite fit together anymore. In this case, Petco decided the Drs. Foster & Smith setup was no longer the best use of their resources.
The End of an Era — But Not Forgotten
The closing of Drs. Foster & Smith wrapped up more than 35 years of pet retail history. Whether you used their catalog in the 1990s, shopped online in the 2000s, or called their vet team for advice, a lot of pet owners share memories of the brand.
Now, the company mainly lives on in the way modern pet retailers do business online and the kind of personalized care they try to offer today. There aren’t many true mail-order giants left in pet supplies, but you’ll see bits of the old model in how companies try to reach rural and niche customers even now.
Wrapping Up: What’s the Status of Drs. Foster & Smith?
So, is Drs. Foster & Smith going out of business? They already did—back in 2019. They’re not coming back, and their website, catalog, and customer service are gone. If you’re looking for their products or services, your best bet is to check out Petco or search other specialty retailers.
The closure is a good example of how even big-name brands can fade out quickly when the industry shifts under their feet. For a lot of pet lovers, Drs. Foster & Smith was the reliable, friendly source they always counted on. Now, the market has moved on, but their impact sticks around in small ways, especially for those who knew them when.