The Morning Ledger: Pet Owners Resort to Cheaper Food as Inflation Weighs on Wallets
A cat stands next to cans of Blue Buffalo’s Blue Wilderness food. General Mills, owner of the brand, is seeing the effects of pet owners trading down

The Morning Ledger: Pet Owners Resort to Cheaper Food as Inflation Weighs on Wallets

Pet food—typically one of the last places animal owners look for savings—may no longer be sacrosanct.

When dog and cat owners cut back on spending for themselves, pet items, especially food, are among the last areas where changes are made. But with inflation straining wallets, pet parents have already been cutting their spending, particularly when it comes to discretionary products such as toys.

Now things are getting more serious.

With the cost of pet food up nearly 11% from a year ago, according to the July consumer-price index, animal owners are trading down from more expensive gourmet brands or shifting to smaller pack sizes, finance chiefs and analysts said.

Premium dry dog food, for instance, is losing share at an accelerating rate—down 2.9 percentage points in the three-month period ended in July compared with a year earlier—and across all income groups, suggesting that the desire for savings is broadly felt, Max Gumport , a U.S. packaged foods analyst at 法国巴黎银行 , told CFO Journal's Jennifer Williams .

“In times of recession or economic stress, first you trade down on your own food, then your kid’s food and then your dog’s food. That’s what history would suggest,” Gumport said. “This time is appearing to be different.”

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