If you’re walking along Grand Boulevard in Brookfield’s downtown, it’s easy to glance over Snails to Tails Pet Center. The pet store at 3644 ½ Grand Blvd. is rarely open to the public, according to nearby workers and village officials alike.
While the appearance would suggest the dilapidated store is abandoned, it officially remains open. According to Google, Snails to Tails is open Friday through Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on Thursday. Live fish could be seen swimming in tanks through the dust-streaked windows on Friday, Aug. 7.
Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s community development director, said the pet center remains open officially, though with a number of code compliance and property maintenance issues. She said its business license is actively being reviewed by the village, and ongoing issues could result in the license being revoked or allowed to lapse without renewal.
“With the two inspectors that we have, they’ve been out there quite a few times [in the last two years] because there’s been some citations for both code compliance and for property maintenance,” Popovic told the Landmark. “We’ve been in touch with the business owner on his business license and also regarding some of the compliance issues, and we’ve been in touch with the property owner.”
Popovic said the village had received a complaint from the public about the store appearing to be vacant.
“It doesn’t seem to be open any time that any of us staff have seen it,” she said. “We did look into whether it was a vacant property with the new vacant property registration that’s required. The business owner did come into adjudication to indicate that the property was not vacant, and that was rather recent.”
The Landmark could not contact the business owner, who, according to business cards visible through the store’s windows, is Ray Kobelt. The phone number on two signs visible from out front was disconnected when Landmark reporters called, and the phone number on Kobelt’s card was not available.
According to the property records search through the Cook County Assessor’s Office, the store is owned by Renzy Realty Inc. That business is located at 3742 Grand Blvd., though its offices were closed on Aug. 7 and appeared as vacant as the pet store, if less dilapidated.
Patrick Georgeson, an area resident and longtime customer, said he used to frequent Snails to Tails and had known Kobelt directly, having bought a turtle from him about 20 years ago. He said he believed the store to have been open to the public at some point between 2020 and 2023, but D, an employee at Daisy’s who wished not to share his full name, said he’d never seen it open in the five years the ice cream shop has been in business next door.
Georgeson, who had left a note on the store’s front door asking Kobelt to call him, said he had seen the lights on inside some of the lizard tanks in the store as recently as Wednesday, Aug. 5.
Georgeson said kids used to be known to frequent the shop after school, which he said Kobelt told him annoyed him. He said Kobelt had told him that larger chain pet stores like Petco had come to him to source fish during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 when they could not find them elsewhere, suggesting he may have taken up that business and let Snails to Tails fall to the wayside.
In the meantime, Popovic said village staff had received both formal and informal complaints over the years from village residents about the continued presence of live animals within the business. She said village inspectors had only been able to enter the shop at preapproved times.
“If for some reason you find it open, let me know,” she said. “It’s never been open for any of the staff.”
