After 42 years, Hoffer’s Tropic Life Pets in Milwaukee is closing its doors on April 2nd. Stop on by and get some sweet deals while they are open. Everything is now 50% off. Here is the website: http://tropiclifepets.com/main/. Check out Hoffer’s Tropic Life Pets facebook page for the most up to date information.
While there you can check out their awesome hand painted mural:
They are open M-Sat 10am – 6pm and Sundays 10am-4pm. It is the second largest independently owned pet center in the United States. The building is over 34,000 sq. ft. and it is emptying out fast.
At one point the store had (2) 12 foot diameter pits to house the alligators and turtles. We visited a month ago and only one alligator was left. 
All photos from Hoffer’s Tropic Life Pets facebook page, except for photo of alligator which we took last month.
The Frog Lady 
I remember this place from back in middle school when I had an aquarium! It was pretty much the gold standard for pet stores around us. Too bad it’s closing!
yeah, they had most of the back aquarium area taken apart when we went there a month ago, but that aquarium section must have been HUGE!
That a shame! Probably put out of business by crappy chains like Petco. They moved into our town and put most local pet stores out of business (well, ok, in one case it was a massive blessing.)
Yeah, we do have quite a few Petco’s and Petsmarts come into the area. But they also said that it was in part due to online sales that they couldn’t compete with. 😦 Sad times.