After eight years of coming to your front door, Animal Palace Mobile Pet Grooming now offers a centralized location for pet owners to take their furry friends.
The new location, now called Animal Palace, is owned by Joyce Gropper. She decided to open a physical location in addition to the mobile trucks to better serve all her clients. “Some people can’t afford the mobile service but still want the high-quality service we provide,” Gropper said.
Once clients call in, they have the option to choose the service that best fits their budget. “If they call for mobile grooming and find that the price is out of their reach, we’re able to offer them the option to come in,” Gropper said.
Animal Palace is located in Royal Palm Beach in the Belvedere Business Park on Benoist Farms Road at Belvedere Road, for easy access from all of the western communities. “We are able to support the same client base, but now it’s about $20 cheaper for them to come into the salon,” Gropper said.
Animal Palace will continue to offer the grooming services its clients are accustomed to. “We will still offer the personalized service that we offer on the trucks,” Gropper said. “We have also hired more groomers for the salon to build relationships with clients who come through the door.”
In order to provide a transparent environment, the facility is equipped with cameras, so that clients can see their pets being cleaned and groomed. “We record every moment that their pet is with the groomer,” Gropper said. “The entire grooming area is covered by two cameras, this way clients can feel confident that their pet is not being abused.”
Animal Palace also performs background checks on its groomers. “We check to see if they have any criminal history of domestic abuse or any kind of criminal activity, and if they do, we won’t hire them,” Gropper said.
Animal Palace offers a basic package called the 14-step spa treatment groom, which includes everything from cleaning the ears to brushing out knots.
Other unique services are available at an additional cost and include the Fabulous Furminator treatment, which is a wash-and-combing process that reduces animal shedding by 60 to 90 percent if done on a four- to six-week basis. “This is great for people with allergies,” Gropper said.
Animal Palace also does “paw-dicures,” which are manicures and pedicures for animals. “Instead of just clipping the nails, we file them down with a drum, just like a nail salon would do,” Gropper said. “We actually sell the polishing pens here too, and they’re like using magic markers because they dry fast and are nontoxic.”
Gropper started Animal Palace Mobile Pet Grooming with her husband, Harris. As the former regional manager of a pharmaceutical company, Gropper felt that she wasn’t spending enough time with her children due to her constant traveling and working. “The quality of my own life was really poor,” Gropper said. “So my husband and I, [he] was a teacher at the time, wanted a career change.”
They both enjoyed working with animals, and so decided to start a grooming business. “He became the first groomer, and I stayed in the office part-time and really fell in love with it,” Gropper said.
Animal Palace Mobile Pet Grooming is also involved with animal rescue and adoption. “We try to place animals that no longer have homes with new owners,” Gropper said. “We typically get the animals from our own clients who have either passed on or are unable to take care of their pets anymore.”
Animal Palace is located at 8100 Belvedere Road, Suite 13, Royal Palm Beach. For more info., visit www.animalpalacepetgrooming.com or call (561) 420-0868.
Above: Animal Palace owner Joyce Gropper and groomer Juritza Beltran with poodle Diva.
