On August 10, 1984, Nina Wung opened the doors of Portland Pharmacy on the corner of SE 43rd & Hawthorne Blvd. It was a medical pharmacy for people as well as pets with a few sundry items to support the business.
One of her customer’s suggested it would be convenient if the store carried pet food.
Nina loved animals so researching dog and cat food was interesting to her. She eventually decided she would do both her customers and their pets a good service by providing Science Diet for them. This proved to be a successful venture. Eventually she added Iams to the mix and pet accessories. The space at 43rd became too small and in 1993, she moved to a portion of her current location, 4242 SE Hawthorne.
Over time, the pet food business flourished as the pharmacy waned.
Her husband Steve quit his business in 2003 to join her at the store. They learned about specialty foods that could help pets with allergies and they developed the pet accessory portion of the store.
Portland Pet Supply now carries over forty varieties of food.
In the past ten years they went from 500 sq ft. to 4,500 sq ft in their current location. The business has expanded enough so their son Derrick decided to quit his engineering job two years ago to help run the family business.
His modern mind keeps them current in the world of technology.
You are invited to their 30th Anniversary Celebration, May 10. See their ad on page 4.