The Pandemic Pet Boom Has Legs [View all]

Many pandemic winners are seeing their sales go to the dogs. Not the pet category. Americans are swiftly reversing newly acquired buying habits. Not all consumers who purchased a Peloton are still paying their $44-a-month fee, if they are keeping the bike at all. Others are canceling one or two of the streaming services they signed up for when they were living room-bound. Many are tapped out on cooking all their meals at home.

But some pandemic acquisitions have a way of hanging around. About 14% of people surveyed by the American Pet Products Association in February said the pandemic led them to get a new pet. And while human spending is shifting in big ways—from sweatpants to dresses, from supermarkets to restaurants—the things people buy for their four-legged friends hasn’t changed all that much.

As of April 2022, inflation-adjusted spending on pets and related products was 28% higher than in January 2019, compared with 9.6% growth for groceries over the same period. In an earnings call on Tuesday, J.M. Smucker, which owns brands such as Meow Mix and Kibbles ‘n Bits, said comparable sales for pet foods grew 10% in the quarter ended April 30 from a year earlier. Its consumer food sales grew by a more moderate 3%.

But don’t expect this pup to keep growing forever. Pet adoptions have slowed since 2020 and 2021... In all, the pandemic likely added millions to America’s pet population. There were 6.9 million more dogs in the U.S. in 2020 compared with 2016, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association... Not only have U.S. households added more pets during the pandemic, but a parallel trend has been the so-called humanization of our furry friends: More pet owners are opting for premium and fresh foods for their puppies and kittens.

And the trend could be inflation-proof: Early indications show that people might be more inclined to trade down on their own food than their pets’ kibble. Retailers such as Walmart have said they are seeing signs of consumers shifting to cheaper, private-label brands in products like deli meat. But both Chewy and Petco Health and Wellness indicated in their latest earnings calls that they aren’t seeing signs of a trade-down in pet food.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pandemic-pet-boom-has-legs-11654853400 (subscription)