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RACHAEL AND I WENT to Walmart the other day to stock up on dog food—and came away with a severe case of sticker shock.
We feed our two dogs a daily menu of dry food mixed into a delightful mash with a little canned wet food. Our go-to brands are Purina Dog Chow for the dry food and Pedigree Chopped Ground Dinner for the wet food.
The cost of the 40-pound bag of Purina dry food has barely budged. The price of the 12-can pack of Pedigree wet food, however, has jumped from about $12 to nearly $20.
What’s going on? Doing a little research, I discovered that Pedigree dog food is made by Mars Petcare, a subsidiary of Mars—yes, the same company that makes M&Ms and Twix bars for us humans. I sent a note to the people at Mars Petcare and got the following response back:
We’re sorry you are disappointed in the increased pricing. Our top priority will always be the happiness of your pet. Increasing our prices will allow us to maintain our standards and quality to ensure that our treats include the ingredients and flavors that your pet loves.
Being a former PR guy, I can appreciate the spin in this nice note, but I’m not buying it. Yes, roaring inflation has made everything more expensive over the past couple of years, and pet food is no exception. But to raise the price of canned dog food by 60% overnight, without an obvious market or supply-chain shock driving the increase—clearly, something beyond ordinary inflationary pressures is at work here.
The answer came to me as I scanned the pet food shelves at Walmart. There were literally dozens of brands of bagged dry food to choose from—Purina, Iams, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Blue Buffalo, Nature’s Recipe and more. The choices were much more limited, however, when it came to wet food. We had maybe 10 choices of canned food, and all of them had gone up significantly in price. What’s more, all these wet food choices came from the same two or three suppliers.
This, it seems to me, was a classic case of an oligopoly of producers taking advantage of price inelasticity to increase profit margins. Economically speaking, price elasticity measures the sensitivity of demand for a given product to changes in price. An inelastic product is one where demand stays relatively static when its price or other supply factors change. Marketers love situations like this because they can raise prices without suffering a huge fall in sales or profits.
Inelastic markets typically occur in situations where consumers don’t have much choice when it comes to adequate substitutes. The market for pet products is one such market. Why? We pet owners are obsessed with our furry companions and are willing to pay up to take good care of them. Many of us are even willing to spend extra on so-called “organic” pet food, even though the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate the labeling of organic foods for pets.
I’m not one of those pet owners. Until research provides clear evidence of the benefits of pricier “natural” pet foods, I’m happy choosing a “regular” product that has the right mix of protein, fiber and nutrients. The fact is, all the products on the Walmart shelves, whether regular or organic, are highly regulated and use real meat by-products. The difference in prices have a lot to do with the branding of the product and the advertising dollars that go into it.
As an educated buyer, I’m willing to switch brands if my favorite product becomes significantly more expensive than another product with a similar mix of quality ingredients. My willingness to switch brands based on price is where I, as a consumer, gain power during inflationary times like these. I can do so through the important economic principle of the substitution effect, defined as the decrease of sales that happens when a product’s price rise causes consumers to switch to a cheaper alternative.
Those cheaper alternatives don’t necessarily have to be in the same narrowly defined category. If, for example, a sudden shock in the supply of coffee beans makes ground coffee outrageously expensive, I could drink tea instead.
In the case of dog food, I have many competitive choices for dry dog food—which is likely why prices haven’t increased that much. With fewer choices for canned dog food, however, I’m at the mercy of sharp price increases, such as those I’m seeing on Walmart’s shelves.
For our household, what are the alternatives as we strive to keep our dogs healthy and happy without breaking our limited budgets? Well, we could cut back on the wet canned food, or eliminate it altogether and stick with dry food only for our dogs. While I suspect my Cassie would be fine with this, Rachael’s fussy Cavachon likely wouldn’t be happy with this option.
We could mix gravy in with the dry food to make it more appetizing. Both dogs would love that, and there would be no change in the nutrients they’re getting.
Another more radical option: We could cook up the ground venison in our freezer and mix some of that into the dry meal. The venison comes from a buddy who hunts my property up north. We know that venison is grass-fed and free of hormones, and we have plenty of it.
We’re still weighing our options as we work through the last of the canned dog food. At times like these, a little creativity goes a long way toward staying on budget and retaining our power as consumers.
James Kerr led global communications, public relations and social media for a number of Fortune 500 technology firms before leaving the corporate world to pursue his passion for writing and storytelling. His debut book, “The Long Walk Home: How I Lost My Job as a Corporate Remora Fish and Rediscovered My Life’s Purpose,” was published in 2022 by Blydyn Square Books. Jim blogs at PeaceableMan.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesBKerr and check out his previous articles.
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I have two cats. While cat food usually costs more per pound than dog food, they typically eat a lot less of it. The locally based Wegmans chain dominates the supermarket business here in Rochester, NY. For most products, I find their house brand as good as, frequently better than, national brands. For cat food, however, my cats seem to prefer national brands but not the premium ones.
The supply of cat food still seems to be spotty at times, with many varieties frequently available only in sizes that are either too small (and much more expensive) or too large for two cats. I usually end up buying the 7 lb. bags of Purina One, or Iams if Purina isn’t available,
One of my cats refuses to eat wet cat food. I give the other one about a quarter of a 6.5 oz. can per day as a treat. I also give both cats dry treats that I buy in large quantities that seem to last forever.
Cat litter was also in short supply during covid, it was the only thing that I hoarded. I used to buy 40 lb. boxes of Wegmans clumping litter or, if they were out of stock, house brands from either BJ’s or Walmart. Since I’m 73 and carrying 40 lb. boxes down the stairs to my basement where the litter boxes are is hazardous, I’ve switched to Wegmans lightweight litter. It’s slighly more expensive per container, but about the same volume only weighs 17.5 lb. I’m not sure what’s different about the lightweight litter, it seems to perform the same.
Surprised no one has posted this yet. My dog too won’t eat plain dry food. We have to mix wet dog food or something in.
We’re “members” of our local “warehouse club” BJ’s andy they have chicken roasters for $4.99 just like Costco.
I feed my lab in the morning and mix chicken that I’ve pulled off into her dry food. A roaster lasts two weeks! For some reason, the chicken seems to stay good if I leave it on the roaster. If I pull it all off at the beginning, it does smell after a week or week and a half. So it does take some space in the fridge…
my kids feed her at night and mix in canned wet food- she sometimes doesn’t eat that, but she LOVES her “chicken breakfasts”. $5 for two weeks- can’t beat it!
I too use Pedigree can food with dry food to feed our Shepard, Mountain cur, and Coon hound. I noticed the same price hikes from Wal-Mart here in Fayetteville Georgia and will be looking to find an alternative soft food as well. Those Pedigree Beef cans are our dogs favorite flavor, but times are tough so we all need to change. We use Pet Shed generic for our heart worm monthly meds and flea medications. Big savings over purchasing them from the Vet. If generic is good enough for my meds, Tessa, Charlie, and Rhett can do generic too.
Glad to know I’m not alone, Mark! Thanks for the tips on Pet Shed for the heartworm and flea/tick meds – yes, those are expensive as well. It all adds up!
Mark, thanks for posting about Pet Shed for dog meds. This was new to me and it’s always interesting to learn about lower cost options for those. The prices we pay for Sentinel (heartworm) and Simparica especially (flea) are quite high.
I checked out the Pet Shed website and the prices are indeed much less than what I’m used to paying. I saw a comment that vet prescriptions aren’t required, for some meds at least, and so I called Pet Shed to ask why. I got a human on the line quickly, and she explained that it’s because they’re an Australian company. They ship from their warehouse in Singapore, the shipping fee on a modest order to the U.S. is $9.99, and she told me shipping time is at least 3 weeks.
Does this align with your understanding, and what’s been your experience with them?
Jim, interesting article and good comments. We’ve long used a good quality dry food, with a very small amount of gravy, bacon bits, or acceptable table scraps added for flavor, and our dogs have thrived.
I get a kick out of the proliferation of TV ads for “gourmet” dogs foods, with their accompanying lofty prices. I suspect they do more for the humans than the dogs.
Agree about those TV ads, Andrew. A friend of mine fed his dog pieces of hot dog for years and the dog lived to the age of 16. I wouldn’t do that with Cassie, but it does say something so-called gourmet dog food.
My husband and I were just (kind of) joking that we spend more money on our dog’s food than we do our own. We are very particular about what we feed our dogs. They are currently getting a mixture of high-end kibble (about $3-4/pound) and human grade food (beef/sweet potato/carrot/pumpkin).
Over the past few weeks, we’ve found human-grade beef at the grocery stores for $1.97/pound. We probably purchased at least 100 pounds and froze it.
There’s a lot of debate about what exactly goes into ‘by-products’, but there’s some thought that it often contains dead and dying livestock that can’t otherwise be sold for human consumption. Because these by-products are rendered (basically cooked to the point where nothing can survive), the nutritional value of it is questionable.
We splurge on kibble so we can avoid by-products and, hopefully, avoid some of the contamination issues (molds/fungus) that occasionally cause the death of dogs. https://phys.org/news/2021-01-pet-food-recall-dogs-die.html
I was always under the impression that “by-products” in pet food are bad for your pet. But after reading your article, I searched a bit and there’s conflicting information. For example, “premium” pet food brands will try to scare you away from by-products, as they’re simply discarded meat “unfit” for human consumption.
But then I read an article from Tufts university that said animal by-products in pet food are just “clean” organ meat, such as liver/heart/kidney, and are safe for your pet to eat. I also saw other articles from veterinarians claiming the same.
Also, some pet foods will list organs like liver in the ingredient list, and then say it’s free from added by-products since they no longer have to list “by-products” in the ingredient list.
Apparently there’s also an added benefit of feeding your pet animal by-products. This means less of the animal is wasted during processing, and less animals have to be slaughtered as a result. There’s also less animal waste to dispose of through incineration which is helpful for the environment.
In conclusion, I will be “downgrading” my cat’s food so I can save a little money and help out the environment a little in the process.
Good points, Brent. I don’t have a big problem with the fact that canned foods are made from meat byproducts, as the industry is pretty heavily regulated. It’s the cost that’s leading me to other alternatives. 🙁
Reading this I was thinking beef stew, but why not venison? And weren’t dogs formerly fed table scraps?
We’ve always fed our dogs only premium dry dog foods. Mainly Costco’s Kirkland premium. Highly rated. All of our dogs have lived long, healthy lives. We had a yellow lab that lived till she was 18. However the venison sounds like a great option.
Jim, your experience got me thinking about the impact such increased costs have on families with one or more dogs, but are also lower income. This must be a real squeeze for them.
I know the average annual total cost of a dog or cat is about $1,000. It must be higher now.
There are obviously a lot of variables with regards to how much a dog costs per year, but I’m guessing these days $1000/year is definitely towards the low end of the scale.
There’s a huge shortage of veterinarians and vet support staff right now. A few years ago, an office call typically cost $30-$40. These days it’s more likely to be $55-$70.
Veterinary care is in the process of changing right now. Clinics were almost always owned by a veterinarian or group of vets. These days, big corporations are starting to buy practices. I’m not sure if it will be a good change or not. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-you-trust-private-equity-to-take-care-of-your-dog/
If it works like human health care, buying practices will not be good cost wise.
Jim, if you choose the radical option, Cassie will eat a pricey gourmet meal.