As the name might suggest, a Yukkuri Pet Shop is a shop that deals in Yukkuris. Seen in several numbers of strips and drawings, they're the equivalent of real world pet shop, giving prospective owners the full assistance needed with their Pet Yukkuris.
Often, these shops price their Yukkuri according to "grade", along with the Badges system, where Yukkuris intended for keeping as companions or pets are the most expensive, but still cheaper than conventional pets due to the fast breeding rate of Yukkuri, and Yukkuri intended as livestock, food for predatory Yukkuri or "defective" (ill, weak, with damaged accessory) sold for a nominal price, often for torture purpose.
Pet Yukkuris are said to be of the highest grade, and are normally trained/conditioned to be obedient and less selfish than wild ones, often by trained personel and adult Yukkuris directly in the shop.
Furthermore, due to the high number of "defective" and "livestock" Yukkuri among the regular ones, Pet Shop may sell "new" accessories to owners who want to "fix" a Yukkuri with a damaged accessory. The accessory are often harvested in the same shop.
Another "secondary" product sold in Pet Shops are additional Stalks, for consumption uses, taken from livestock yukkuris.
Structure and selling strategies
While is still unknown if in Gensokyo Yukkuri Pet Shops are individual shops or some kind of franchising, led by the Factory or it's Yukkuri safe alternate, however they still are in close contact with the ubiquitous factory, and some stories delve in common selling strategies, such as the organization of the shopping space.
As such, most Yukkuri Pet Shops will put rare/platinum and golden badged koyukkuris in the best cages, placed near the entrance, allowing customers to interact with them and be smitten with the cute, well-behaved and innocent looking pets. Going further towards the back of the shop, the next cages are occupied by silver badged koyukkuris, entire families and adult yukkuris: since most customers prefer to train and buy only koyukkuris, usually silver badged individuals and below have a somewhat limited shelf life, being returned to the Factory and breeders when they hit adulthood.
As such, while still made able to interact with customers and still marketable, they're not seen fit to lure customers in. However, if they manage somehow to "plead their case" and get bought, they're safe.
Further inside the Yukkuri Pet Shop, there are the Bronze Badge: bronze badge cages and beyond are insonorized, and while gold and silver badge are seated in nice looking, clean cages, allowing customers to speak and see them playing and cheerfully hopping around, bronze badges are cooped up in small pens, all close together, usually yelling at the top of their lungs, but unable to bother other yukkuris and the customers.
Some other shops may keep very small koyukkuris, especially the premature ones, still unable to speak clearly and be much a bother, in small boxes, where they're free just to jump and pounce together around: as bronze yukkuri as meant as budget products, or for kids (who could afford them by tapping on their allowance), they're just meant to be cheap and somewhat healthy, and may be noisy and unruly. Even so, the closeness to the predatory-type cages allows to quiet them down.
Past them, there are the no-badge cages, little more than crates, similar to the bronze badge ones, filled with squirming, oblivious koyukkuris. In an example of "luck of the draw", the crates can hold quarrelsome and nice, shitheads and niceheads, bothersome and polite koyukkuris, allowing the customers with heavy budget constraints, or abusive Anons, to get a pet and try to train it personally.
Furtherly in the back, there are livestock Yukkuris and kos, placed in containers, and sold by weight. Unsuitable for training, they're scooped with a tap, plastic bags and gloves and sold for consumption by predatory types and snakes, divided by type.
The last cages are usually given to defective inviduals: damaged, injured yukkuris with broken accessories, or returned ones, often prone to fit of Anti-yukkuritis.
Hovering above the silver, bronze, no-badge, livestock and damaged cages there is the livespace of predatory types, endlessly flying in the store, and so able to be observed by customers. As a general rule, Predatory-types aren't allowed to eat gold and silver badges, and are usually fed with the most unruly bronze and no-badge individuals.
Behind the counter, or in other corridors, the shopkeepers and shop assistants keep steady supplies of pet food, replacement accessories and Yukkuri toys. Also, many Pet Shops may have a small laboratory, to fit yukkuris in some special products, such as Yukkuri Clocks or Piko Piko Balls.
Counterfeits
Pet Shops may offer some "modifications" to Pet Yukkuris, much like some pet shop used to crop ears and tails from dog, such as plugging up the anyaru and the pee hole of Mini-yukkuris to sell them as talking phone straps, or perform first aid and direct the owner to a veterinarian if the need arises.
Another fad leading to undue "modifications" to Pet Yukkuris is the phenomenon of "Aquatic Yukkuris". While the only known Aquatic races are the Shelled and Aquatic variations of Yukkuri Marisa and Yukkuri Nitori, the high demand for them has pushed some unscrupolous Pet Shops to commercialize counterfeit Yukkuris, as "Normal" Marisas forced to to float on their hats and sold as the Aquatic breed, or stripped of their hats and given a normal conch shell, or even Yukkuri Reimus given fake, waterproof ribbons and forced to use them as rafts to be sold as "Aquatic companions" for the "Aquatic Marisas". As for the "Fake non-shitting Mini-yus", those counterfeits have a tragically short life, as, even if they don't fall in water from their fake and/or worn out accessories, they're bound to develop Anti-yukkuritis because of the unnatural condition they're forced to bear.
However, to "make up" for those radical flaws, counterfeit Yukkuris are usually sold at a lowest price than their more fortunate brethen, much as livestock, food grade and "torture" Yukkuris.
Non-Yukkuri merchandise
Also, Yukkuri Pet Shops are known to sell several items meant to help into Yukkuri Care, much like regular pet shops would. Also, due to Gensokyo rules allowing for mistreatment and outright abuse of Yukkuris, they may also cater to this less wholesome target.
Among the sold products there are:
- Yukkuri Castration Kits: a DIY solution to prevent unwanted pregnancies between yukkuris.
- Yukkurariums: ranging from small cages to furnished plexigrass tanks, they're solution to hold and keep Yukkuris in safety
- Yukkuri Chow: food suited for Yukkuri consumption. It may range from pellets to wet food, and it's usually blander and less tastier than sweets, thus allowing the owner to feed Yukkuris without having them grow up spoiled and unwilling to taste anything but sweets
- Replacement Accessories: while in the wild a Yukkuri with a damaged accessory is bound to die of anti-yukkuritis and face the repulsion of its brethen, a pet yukkuri can always receive a replacement accessory, often taken from food grade and damaged individuals, but before it starts to carry the "death stench" that make stolen accessories unwanted by yukkuri. A complex code allows the shop keeper to match accessories with age and type
- Yukkuri toys: a complete selection of toys for koyukkuris and adults yukkiri alike, the bulk of which is composed by the "Yukkuri Dolls", life-sized reproduction of yukkuris and koyukkuris, able to stifle loneliness in pets
- Abuse accessories: an entire line of accessories catered to make yukkuri lives the most miserable possible. Ranging from yukkurariums fitted with sandpaper, injuring their feet whenever they hop or crawl, to replacement accessories that already took the "death stench" that hurts Yukkuris so much. Other accessories may include electric swatters, capsicin-based pellets and Yukkuri dolls designed to puff puff or harass Yukkuris at every occasion.
