No need to drive to a neighboring community to pick up Bandit's cat food for Westland pet owners.

After a long wait, Premier Pet Supply shop opened its doors at 128 S. Merriman in the shopping center with Kroger and other shops. Open in the space formerly occupied by Hallmark, Premier Pet Supply provides goods for pet owners of all kinds: cats, dogs, birds, reptiles and more.

Shelves are stocked with food, toys, accessories and more to assist pet owners with all their needs. There are also two self-serve washing stations for cleaning messy pets.

Ashley Jackson, director of training and customer success for the company, said they noticed many of their customers at other stores in nearby communities such as Livonia and Canton Township were making the drive from Westland to shop. 

"There was already a need for this area," she said. "We had a lot of our customer base in this ZIP code, so we knew it would be a good fit if we could find it for sure."

Today, many of the customers are coming from the surrounding communities, including Westland, Garden City and Inkster.

The shop. owned by Steve Shamou, brings a pet supplies store back to the shopping center on the corner of Merriman and Cherry Hill: Pet Valu formerly operated in another building in the plaza, though closed in 2020 after the company closed all its United States stores due to the economic effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Shoppers have anticipated the store's opening for some time now, Jackson said. Employees began unofficially keeping track of how many people would approach the shop when they saw shipments arrive but before their doors were open. 

"Literally, there would be a huge pallet right here and people were grabbing a cart and getting ready to shop," she said. "People have been wanting us as soon as we started to get product in the door. We've been steady since we opened up."

Premier Pet Supply also operates stores in Novi, Beverly Hills and several other communities. Two more stores are expected to open soon as well: one in downtown Detroit and one in Riverview. 

More information can be found at premierpetsupply.com.

Contact reporter David Veselenak at dveselenak@hometownlife.com or 734-678-6728. Follow him on Twitter @davidveselenak.