If you’ve searched for Drs. Foster and Smith recently, you probably ended up on Petco’s website. That’s not a glitch. The company is gone, and has been for several years now. This article explains exactly what happened, when it happened, and what still exists under the brand name today.
Drs. Foster and Smith Already Closed — Here Are the Facts
There’s no ambiguity here. Drs. Foster and Smith ceased all operations in early 2019. This is not a rumor, a pending closure, or an ongoing situation. The company is done.
On January 28, 2019, customers received emails announcing the shutdown. The official closure date was February 12, 2019. If you visit drsfostersmith.com today, it redirects straight to Petco.com. The standalone site no longer exists.
You may still see articles or search results phrasing this as “Is it going out of business?” — but the answer is historical. It already did.
What Drs. Foster and Smith Was Before the Closure
To understand why this closure mattered, it helps to know what the company actually was.
Drs. Foster and Smith was founded by two veterinarians — Dr. Race Foster and Dr. Marty Smith — in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It started as a mail-order pet supply retailer and grew into one of the largest online pet supply stores in the U.S.
What set it apart from general pet retailers was its vet-backed credibility. The founders weren’t just business owners — they were practicing veterinarians. That gave the brand real authority in product recommendations and educational content.
The company also ran several companion properties:
- LiveAquaria — a specialty site for live fish, coral, and aquatic animals
- PetEducation.com — a library of vet-authored articles on pet health and care
The combination of a trusted catalog, educational content, and specialty niches built a loyal customer base that general retailers struggled to replicate.
Petco Bought the Company in 2015, Then Shut It Down Four Years Later
Petco announced the acquisition in 2014, and the deal closed in early 2015. At first, Petco kept Drs. Foster and Smith running as a separate brand. The plan was to let it operate independently alongside Petco’s own retail and digital business.
The founders were expected to stay with the company after the sale. LiveAquaria and PetEducation.com were also kept intact.
Then, in January 2019, Petco reversed course completely.
Petco announced it would permanently shut down all Drs. Foster and Smith operations. 289 employees in Rhinelander were told their jobs would end within 60 to 120 days. For a small regional economy like Rhinelander’s, losing nearly 300 jobs at one of the town’s largest employers had a real and measurable impact on the community.
The warehouse was emptied. The catalog stopped. The website got redirected. That was the end.
Why Petco Chose to Close It Rather Than Keep It Running
This is the question most business readers want answered: why buy a company and then shut it down four years later?
The short answer is competitive pressure plus strategic consolidation. Here’s how that played out.
The Online Pet Market Got Much More Competitive
Between 2015 and 2019, both Amazon and Chewy scaled aggressively in pet supplies. Chewy in particular grew rapidly, offering a wide product range, fast shipping, and strong customer service. That kind of competition makes it very hard to profitably run two separate e-commerce brands — especially when one of them overlaps heavily with your main brand.
Running Two Brands Created Redundancy
Petco was already investing in its own digital operations. Maintaining Drs. Foster and Smith as a parallel e-commerce platform meant duplicating costs across technology, marketing, customer service, and inventory management. At some point, the math stops working.
Petco Shifted to One-Brand Consolidation
Petco’s broader strategy during this period moved toward a unified omnichannel model — one brand, one platform, both online and in physical stores. Keeping a separate legacy e-commerce brand didn’t fit that direction.
This pattern isn’t unique to Petco. It’s common in retail consolidation: a larger company buys a well-regarded niche brand, keeps the name alive briefly, then absorbs the customer base and closes the original operation. Think of it like a national bookstore chain buying a respected independent shop. They might keep a few titles under the original store’s label, but eventually the location closes and the name fades into a product line. The business is gone; some branding lingers.
What Still Exists Under the Drs. Foster and Smith Name
The company is closed, but the name hasn’t completely disappeared. Here’s what still exists:
Some Private-Label Products
Certain products — particularly aquarium and pond foods, along with a few dog and cat staples — still carry the Drs. Foster and Smith label within Petco’s ecosystem. These are private-label offerings, not products from an operating business. The name is on the packaging; the company behind it no longer exists.
LiveAquaria
This is the one genuine exception. When Petco closed Drs. Foster and Smith, it made a specific decision to keep LiveAquaria running. Approximately 59 employees were retained to continue that operation. LiveAquaria’s “Divers Den” section — which offers hand-selected live aquatic animals — also continued after the closure.
So if you’re an aquatics hobbyist, LiveAquaria is still an active option. But it’s operating as its own division now, not as part of the Drs. Foster and Smith brand.
The Website Redirect
Visiting drsfostersmith.com brings you to Petco.com, with a message indicating that the brand is now “part of the Petco family.” There’s no separate storefront, no catalog, and no vet-authored content hub. The redirect is essentially a customer retention move — it captures people who still type in the old domain.
What This Case Tells Business Owners and Managers
The Drs. Foster and Smith story is a clean example of several things that happen regularly in business, even if they’re not always this visible.
Acquisitions Don’t Always Mean Preservation
When a larger company buys a smaller one, it doesn’t guarantee the smaller brand survives. The acquisition may be about capturing customers, removing a competitor, gaining catalog assets, or accessing a loyal niche audience. The original brand is often a means to an end, not the end itself.
Scale Changes the Math
Drs. Foster and Smith was a strong business on its own terms. But inside Petco’s structure, with Amazon and Chewy both growing fast, the economics of running a parallel brand shifted. What made sense as a standalone operation didn’t make sense as a subsidiary.
Brand Name and Business Are Not the Same Thing
This is worth stating directly for anyone searching for old suppliers or evaluating business continuity. The Drs. Foster and Smith name still appears on some products. But the company — its operations, its people, its catalog culture, its customer service — is gone. When you’re evaluating whether a supplier or partner still exists, check for corporate continuity, not just a brand name.
For more practical business case analysis and straightforward coverage of real-world business decisions, visit Step Business Journal.
Local Footprint Still Matters in E-Commerce
Drs. Foster and Smith was an online business, but it had a significant physical presence in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. When it closed, nearly 300 people lost jobs in a small town. Online businesses often get discussed as though they have no local economic impact — this case shows that’s not true.
The Bottom Line
Drs. Foster and Smith went out of business in February 2019. Petco acquired it in 2015, kept it running for four years, and then shut it down as part of a broader consolidation strategy. The closure eliminated 289 jobs in Rhinelander and ended one of the most trusted vet-backed pet retail brands in the country.
The drsfostersmith.com domain now redirects to Petco. Some products still carry the brand name. LiveAquaria continues to operate as its own division. But the company itself is gone, and there are no plans to bring it back.
If you’re a pet owner looking for a replacement, Petco carries many of the same product categories. For aquatics specifically, LiveAquaria remains a strong option. And if you’re a business reader, this case is worth studying — it shows exactly how a well-run niche brand can be acquired, kept briefly, and then quietly dissolved when the numbers stop making sense.
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