FLEMING ISLAND \u2013 Mary Hardin had the perfect credentials to open\u00a0a Woof Gang\u00a0Bakery and Grooming in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She\u00a0knew that\u00a0she had\u00a0a perfect location. Her background was in banking, where she helped\u00a0struggling\u00a0businesses. She knew Fleming Island\u00a0had a huge dog-loving community.\u00a0And more than anything else, she had a sincere passion for dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, the corporate Woof Gang officials in Orlando remained hesitant.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were focused\u00a0on Jacksonville and larger cities,\u201d Hardin said. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Where’s\u00a0Fleming Island?\u2019 You had to find it on a map. I\u00a0had to\u00a0push them a little bit,\u00a0and finally they were like,\u00a0well, OK,\u00a0if you really want\u00a0it,\u00a0we’ll\u00a0approve\u00a0it. But we had to push them to\u00a0approve\u00a0it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ten years later, Hardin’s location at 1960 East-West Pkwy,\u00a0has been expanded twice. More\u00a0impressively, it\u00a0has become the second\u00a0busiest in\u00a0the Woof Gang\u00a0franchise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You only need a copy of her finances, not a map, to find her store.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Woof Gang is a\u00a0franchise with 450 stores that are open or under development in 34 states and Canada\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0all are independently owned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fleming Island store is in the Fresh Market strip center\u00a0off County Road 220. It is a busy hub of activity\u00a0where\u00a0regulars\u00a0create\u00a0a steady flow of grooming,\u00a0treats\u00a0and nutrition needs.\u00a0On\u00a0a customary week, Hardin’s 15 full-time groomers clip, cut and fluff about 300 dogs a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh\u00a0yeah, it looks like a bomb explodes\u00a0(with hair)\u00a0for a little\u00a0while\u00a0(in the \u2018Spa\u2019),\u00a0and at the end of the day\u00a0it’s\u00a0all cleaned up,\u00a0and then we start all over again,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone stays busy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hardin supports several dog-themed projects. She hosts holiday gatherings for animals, and\u00a0in 2024, she organized a fundraiser for a\u00a0puppy\u00a0that was hit by a car and needed surgery to save her\u00a0right legs from amputation or\u00a0euthanasia.\u00a0With\u00a0more than 10,000 Facebook followers, Hardin’s\u00a0loyal customers donated more than $6,000\u00a0in one hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was more than enough to pay the surgeon. The leftover money was given to the Clay Humane Society to pay for other surgeries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn’t imagine being faced with something like financial euthanasia,\u201d Hardin said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0just not fair to the dog. Especially a\u00a0fourth month-old puppy.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0got her whole life ahead of her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hardin and her husband stumbled onto Woof Gang Bakery while they\u00a0were\u00a0on\u00a0vacation. She\u00a0instantly knew\u00a0she wanted to be involved, even if it meant leaving her banking job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought I would leave my banking job,\u201d she said. \u201cI would go into struggling businesses and work with them and help them solve some of their problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow,\u00a010 years later,\u00a0it’s been\u00a0great. We\u00a0employ 26 people and\u00a0we’ve\u00a0been doing great here. This community\u00a0has\u00a0been amazing. I\u00a0live here. I\u00a0work here.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been\u00a0fantastic.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0been a nice 10-year adventure here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hardin said unlike other pet megastores, when a dog is dropped off for grooming, it is assigned to a single groomer who washes, cuts, cleans,\u00a0fluffs\u00a0and grinds nails from start to finish to minimize the stress on the pet. The average time a dog is at Woof Gang is between an hour to\u00a090 minutes, which means it\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0spend hours waiting nervously in a cage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOther\u00a0places, you might see 25 dogs barking in a cage,\u201d she said. \u201cThey do dogs in\u00a0an assembly line.\u00a0They wash them.\u00a0Another dries\u00a0them. Then they cut\u00a0them. Then they do their nails. Small dogs might be there for\u00a0four or five hours.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0very stressful\u00a0for the dogs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0also common for regulars to set Spa appointments as much as three months in advance for their personal groomer, Hardin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Besides pacifying hundreds of local canines, Hardin said another benefit of Woof Gang Bakery and Grooming is keeping local dollars within Clay County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people have their dogs groomed here, or buy your treats or your dog food, the money stays here versus spending your money online,\u201d she said. \u201cI live here, and I spend my money in our community, too. I believe in shopping\u00a0local.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even if you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0find the local city on a map.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FLEMING ISLAND \u2013 Mary Hardin had the perfect credentials to open\u00a0a Woof Gang\u00a0Bakery and Grooming in 2016.\u00a0 She\u00a0knew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":["post-179373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-argyle","tag-clay-county","tag-doctors-inlet","tag-eagle-harbor","tag-fleming-island","tag-green-cove-springs","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-keystone-heights","tag-lake-asbury","tag-margaret","tag-middleburg","tag-orange-park","tag-pace-island","tag-penney-farms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}