Janice Maes, the owner of FurEver Wild and Needful Things is considering a number of different ways that her business can provide an added benefit to her community. Tinkess Photo

WILLIAMSBURG – When Janice Maes, the owner of FurEver Wild, a raw pet food and treat producer took stock of what she had in her store, located at 4322 County Road 31 in Williamsburg, she realized she had an interesting situation. One half of the store was well stocked, with the raw pet food and treats she sells, but out of necessity many of these had to be kept in a refrigerator. Meanwhile, on the other side of the store, she had a lot of space and empty shelves and tried to decide how she could fill them without investing a lot of money in stock, at least until she had a better idea about things like what her potential customers would be looking for and where she could obtain the best prices. With that in mind, she decided that the empty part of her store would become a vintage/pre-owned store, and with that decision, Needful Things was born.

According to Maes, it is very much a work in progress. “I took possession last September, (2024),” said Maes, “And I opened Forever Wild storefront about mid-November. It’s my raw dog food. I have nine blends now and then, I have my organ topper, so technically, 11 blends, okay, and then raw treats. And then I’ve also got all my dehydrated treats that I do as well.”

“My raw dog food is frozen, and it doesn’t go on shelves very well,” continued Maes. “And dehydrated treats don’t take up a lot of space. So, I thought I can put everything that’s Forever Wild on the one side, and then I kind of have an empty store that’s sitting here doing nothing with all these lovely shelves.” Maes decided that a thrift store is the kind of business that stands the time, so she thought she would give it a try.

“I’ve hit up some estate sales, and I’m working with a lady who does clean outs of estates,” said Maes. “Downsizing, stuff like that. People hire her to sort through their collections and get them up for sale and auction them off and then there’s always stuff that she says it’s still good, but it ends up in a dumpster.

“She says it’s pretty heartbreaking sometimes, like all this crystal you’re seeing here, all came from her, she was cleaning out and nobody wanted it. It’s so sad she couldn’t sell it. So, I thought maybe someone won’t pay what it’s worth, but someone will pay a few dollars. So, that’s just kind of where I’m at. “It’s just a way of helping pay the bills and fill the shelves.”

Needful things is located at 4322 County Road 31 in Williamsburg, just south of the lights on the west side of the road (there is a parking lot across the road.) She is open from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday, Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday is normally 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. She is expecting to be changing her hours in the future, so following her on Facebook is the best way to get the latest information. Her phone number is 613 299-8801.

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