Merrick's Mutts and Butts is open for your pet care needs

Mutts and Butts owner Mike Silverman has kept operations running amid the coronavirus outbreak, but keeping profits high has been a struggle — the Merrick pet store is making less than half of what it was before, he said.

Silverman has been offering the community curbside pickup and free deliveries of pet food and supplies. Two or three customers are allowed inside Mutts and Butts at a time, and many customers wait outside for what they need, Silverman said.

Still, the business is taking a hit and making “less than half of what we usually do,” said Silverman, who has owned the spot since 1975. “And we’re doing twice the amount of work.”

All nine Mutts and Butts employees remain on the job, he said, including two 35-year-long staff members and several college-aged workers. In his years of owning the pet store, Silverman has never laid off anyone. “I can’t see laying anyone off,” he said.

However, he has never seen an event as impactful as this, he added, even when Hurricane Sandy kept the storefront shuttered for nine days.

Mutts and Butts is located at 2076 Merrick Road in Merrick. They can be reached at (516) 379-6391.

PetSmart, also on Merrick Road, has temporarily cancelled their grooming services, but they are also offering curbside pickups and deliveries. They are limiting the number of customers in the store to two family members at a time, who must stay six feet away from employees.

“Please support local businesses,” Silverman said, adding that what they bring to the community, including in school taxes, “makes towns what they are.”