The short version: close to each store, Pet Station wins the map in most of its towns, and it is not close. Across all 75 store and search combinations the chain averages rank 2.79, and 56 of those 75 sit in top three territory. Truckee ranks first at every single measured point on every search. Two stores break the pattern, both in Reno. Fixing those two is a much smaller job than it looks.
One note on what this measures: the grid reaches about three miles out from each store, the area most walk-in customers search from. It does not measure farther out or right next to a competing chain. A wider grid would test how far the strength holds.
Every store was checked on five searches: pet store, pet supplies, dog food, cat food and dog wash. Each search is measured from 49 separate points laid out in a 7 by 7 grid around the store, roughly a mile apart, so the grid reaches about three miles in each direction. That matters because search results change depending on where the customer is standing. A store can rank first in its own parking lot and vanish two miles away, and a single search from the office would never show it.
The number in each cell below is the average position across those 49 points. Lower is better. The small number underneath is how many of the 49 points put that store in the top three, which is what fits in the map results people actually see and tap.
| Store | Market | Reviews | pet store | pet supplies | dog food | cat food | dog wash | Store avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truckee | Truckee CA | 136 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.00 |
| Tahoe City | Tahoe City CA | 122 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.349/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.06 |
| Susanville | Susanville CA | 190 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 2.049/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.20 |
| Incline Village | Incline Village NV | 63 | 1.149/49 | 1.548/49 | 1.249/49 | 1.449/49 | 1.149/49 | 1.26 |
| Gardnerville | Gardnerville NV | 183 | 1.448/49 | 2.049/49 | 1.449/49 | 2.847/49 | 1.049/49 | 1.72 |
| Robb Dr | Reno NV | 165 | 1.842/49 | 2.540/49 | 2.040/49 | 1.747/49 | 1.844/49 | 1.96 |
| Spanish Springs | Sparks NV | 123 | 1.646/49 | 1.842/49 | 2.443/49 | 3.336/49 | 1.248/49 | 2.06 |
| East Sparks | Sparks NV | 191 | 1.646/49 | 2.045/49 | 2.939/49 | 2.442/49 | 1.745/49 | 2.12 |
| South Lake Tahoe | South Lake Tahoe CA | 229 | 2.149/49 | 2.449/49 | 2.346/49 | 2.447/49 | 1.449/49 | 2.12 |
| Carson City | Carson City NV | 46 | 1.349/49 | 1.949/49 | 2.836/49 | 3.130/49 | 3.232/49 | 2.46 |
| North Reno | Reno NV | 198 | 1.348/49 | 2.339/49 | 2.738/49 | 2.838/49 | 3.833/49 | 2.58 |
| Reno (S. McCarran) | Reno NV | 216 | 1.748/49 | 2.835/49 | 5.718/49 | 7.39/49 | 1.845/49 | 3.86 |
| Longley | Reno NV | 139 | 2.932/49 | 2.441/49 | 5.126/49 | 4.034/49 | 5.316/49 | 3.94 |
| Midtown Reno | Reno NV | 33 | 4.910/49 | 4.812/49 | 7.011/49 | 5.919/49 | 13.21/49 | 7.16 |
| South Meadows | Reno NV | 43 | 6.41/49 | 5.010/49 | 9.51/49 | 10.20/49 | 5.326/49 | 7.28 |
Sorted best to worst. Each cell shows average rank, then how many of the 49 measured points land in the top three.
Truckee ranks number one at all 49 points on all five searches. Not top three. First at every measured point, on every search. Close to that store, there is no visibility problem to solve at all.
Tahoe City and Susanville land in the top three at all 49 points on all five searches, averaging 1.06 and 1.20. Just behind them: Incline Village at 1.26, Gardnerville at 1.72, Robb Dr at 1.96.
The pattern is clean. In the 6 towns with no national chain the stores average rank 1.39. In the 9 Reno, Sparks and Carson City stores they average 3.71. Two different competitive situations, and they need two different plans.
Each square is one measured point on the ground, and the number in it is where the store ranked from that spot. Top of the grid is north. Click any search above to switch all 15 maps. Stores are ordered by their overall average across all five searches, strongest first.
Every other store in the chain averages between 1.00 and 3.94. South Meadows averages 7.28 and Midtown Reno averages 7.16. That is the entire visibility problem in the chain, sitting in two Reno stores.
The businesses beating Pet Station in Reno are not big. That is the part worth sitting with.
Pet Station has 2,077 reviews across the chain and ratings from 4.2 to 4.8. A shop with 22 reviews is outranking that on product searches. So reputation is not what is holding those two stores back.
What the smaller shops have is pages and profiles that clearly say what they sell and where they are. That lines up exactly with what we found on the website: no city name in any page title, no local content on any location page, and one shared page for services that actually differ store to store. Google is matching the searches to whoever answers them most clearly, and on those product searches it is not Pet Station.
Dog wash is the service that sets them apart, and chain wide it averages 2.92. Six stores land in the top three at all 49 points for it, and Truckee and Tahoe City rank first at every point.
Then there is Midtown Reno, averaging 13.2 with 1 of 49 points in the top three. It is the single weakest result anywhere in the chain. In that part of Reno eight independent groomers rank ahead of them, including In & Out Pet (avg 5.88), La Casa Del Perro Feliz (avg 6.12), Nevada Natural Dogs (avg 9.86). They offer the service. The search does not know it.
Before this ran, Carson City looked like the weakest spot in the chain on paper, because it has 46 reviews against a well liked local competitor with 353. The ranking data says otherwise. Carson City averages 2.46 and ranks in the top three at all 49 points for both pet store and pet supplies.
Benson's Pet Foods & Supplies does beat them, but only on the product searches: pet supplies, dog food, cat food. So Carson City is not a visibility problem, it is a narrower product search gap against one strong rival. Worth fixing, but it is not the fire. The fire is in Reno.
Ranking analysis run July 20, 2026. Every figure on this page comes from that run. Review counts and ratings pulled from Google on July 18, 2026.