Wild Birds Unlimited Owner Christie Lassen on the Joys of Working with Birds and People

Christie Lassen and her husband Marc purchased their Wild Birds Unlimited store in 2002. The acquisition was originally intended as a real estate investment. Two years earlier, a longstanding Wild Birds Unlimited store closed due to a fire, and the Lassens were looking to purchase the lot, which also included a coffee shop that they considered operating. But after speaking to the original owners of the Wild Birds Unlimited store, Christie says she realized she had stumbled upon an opportunity that was potentially much more fulfilling than either the coffee shop or the real estate.

“My whole life, I’ve always loved birds,” she said. “My earliest memories are walking through the woods with my dad as he squeaked out a little red Audubon bird call. So, the store was a perfect fit, even though I never sought it out.”

Rather than tear down or repurpose the Wild Birds Unlimited store, the Lassens decided to renovate and re-open the shop. Sixteen years later, that decision has not only brought Christie closer to her lifelong friends in the bird community, it has also helped her establish personal relationships with the people, businesses, clubs and organizations in her town. We talked to Christie about how Wild Birds Unlimited brought her closer to her community.

How did you first get involved with Wild Birds Unlimited?

Lassen: It all started with a coffee shop. My husband and I bought a property that had a Wild Birds Unlimited store and a coffee shop, which is what we were originally interested in. The Wild Birds Unlimited store opened in 1993, but it closed in 2000 due to a fire. The original owners still owned the store, but they were underinsured and hadn’t been able to rebuild it. We started talking to them and learned about what a great business it is and how loyal and passionate the customer base is. I’ve always loved birds, so we decided we should give it a go.

What do you love about working with Wild Birds Unlimited?

Lassen: There are so many things I love about this business, but I think I can narrow it down to the top three.

1. This business allows me to interact with people in a very therapeutic way. Watching birds is good for your health. It makes people happy. I was in nursing school when we started the business, and I was looking for opportunities that would allow me to work with people in a way that was therapeutically helpful. There are all sorts of studies that have shown how interacting with wildlife—even just watching birds in your backyard—can be beneficial to your mental and physical health.
2. The next thing is the customers. People who feed and watch birds tend to be nice people. They care about the environment, wildlife and nature. Those are the people I like to surround myself with.
3. The other thing I love is the individuality of owning a Wild Birds Unlimited store. Each of us gets to run our store in a way that works best for our market, and we can really let our personal passion shine through in our stores. It’s not a cookie-cutter template. At the same time, the resources and depth of knowledge offered by the Franchise Support Center make it so no owner is ever left to fend for them self.

What do you think your customers love about your store?

Lassen: The customers who come to our shop feel special. We take the time to really get to know them. We are in a smaller market, and we can really connect with our customers. We set very high standards for ourselves in terms of customer service. We are determined to take care of our customers, and Wild Birds has given us amazing tools to help do that.

I’ve also put a lot of work into making our store look and feel like an oasis. It’s like a big garden that you want to stroll around in. We want people to come in and see what’s new and to get excited to try it in their own homes and gardens. Plus, we’ve got a cat! He’s a ridiculous cat named Luther, and he lives in the store. Our customers are absolutely bonkers for him. He’s been in the shop for 13 years, and he even has his own Facebook page.

How is your store involved in the local community?

Lassen: We are very involved with our wild bird rehabbers here on the Olympic Peninsula. We promote and support two centers here: The Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center and Discovery Bay Wild Birds Rescue. We are licensed to transport injured birds and wildlife to those centers. We call it Relay for Wildlife, and we’ve taken countless birds to rehabbers both here on the Peninsula and elsewhere.

We are also big supporters of our two local Audubon Society chapters. We give community talks to any garden club, rotary, service club or any other organization that wants to learn about local wildlife and how to create a place for it in the community.

What kind of events do you host at your store?

Lassen: There’s always some event that we are hosting or preparing to host. We hosted our 14th annual Earth Day celebration in April, and we made it a really special event for our store. We had the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center give a live educational demonstration in our gardens, the Western Wildlife Outreach brought their Bear Awareness trailer, and we had booths for the Mountain Lion Foundation, Peninsula Friends of Animal and the Dungeness River Center. One of the highlights was a native Northwest flute player who played in our gardens throughout the event. It was a magical experience to see a man playing native flute music to a Redtail Hawk.

With more than 300 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada, Wild Birds Unlimited is the original and largest franchise system of backyard bird feeding and nature specialty stores. Recently ranked No. 2 overall and No. 1 in the Retail category on Franchise Business Review’s prestigious 2018 Franchisee Satisfaction Awards, there's no better time to join the Wild Birds Unlimited team. Click here to learn more.