Historic Spiezer Zoo

This was the pet store I used to work for in the 1990s. Spiez is next to Lake Thun, about 25 miles south of Bern in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland. Peter & Liselotte Bircher – the owners – taught me much about fish, business sense, people skills, and foremost, friendly customer service. I will always remember the good old times when I was a member of the Spiezer Zoo Team. I took these pictures in September 2005 during a visit there. Unfortunately, the Spiezer Zoo closed its doors in 2012.

The entrance.

Peter’s pride – his show tank – nobody else touched it.

Part of the aquarium walls and plant system.

A picture from the other side.

A plant system really sells plants. If you take care of it!

This view makes people wanting to have a planted tank.

The supplies were neatly stacked, the Swiss are really – well, Swiss!

The fish dry goods section.

The bird and rodent room, everything very clean!

Tons of cat and dog food were stored in the basement.

The bird food cellar, careful management was required to keep feeds rotated.

Various small parts and products were stored in small drawer units.

Peter only sold what he would have wanted to buy himself. Sometimes you had to talk Peter into selling you a certain fish.