To think pet food manufacturers are profiting massively

[Fleetheart]

Before the pandemic I always used to be able to buy 3 x cat food for special offer prices equivalent to £3.75 a box. Now there are no special offers, it’s £4.50 a box. This is a massive increase. Is it purina who are profiting here or is it our supermarkets? Either way it’s not really fair is it?

@MittensTheSerpent you are right; that is what I am after 😂

Furthermore the supermarkets will benefit from the business rates holiday; for Tesco that is £700million. So even with their extra costs they and their shareholders will be quids in. It’s true this is how capitalism works; but in a pandemic a lot of it is paid for by govt and that by extension is us- and we don’t need our prices going up as well to benefit shareholders rather than tax payers.
Admittedly this is a rather socialist argument and not one that is probably agreed with by many shareholders. And maybe a departure from my original point about cat food.

What Purina brand?

Like someone else said if it is Felix then the big boxes are still a lot cheaper than the smaller ones.

I use a small independent for wet food and it is cheaper than the supermarkets and dry is cheaper at Zooplus.

On the first day of lockdown my pet food went up by 30%. At that point, it wasn’t about supply problems or protective measures as it was already stuff that had been made. A couple of weeks ago, I had emails with a ‘special offer’ of 30% off. No thanks. Won’t ever be using them again.

Try petsathome i get 2 boxes of Sheba of 44 for £20, could get cheaper brand ,but they will eat that not cheap stuff

pets are a luxury. Animals are 'fussy' about things that poison them. Your cat will eat the food if it is sufficiently hungry or someone else isn't feeding it.

owning a pet means choosing extra costs.

It’s called a free market, not ‘profiteering’.

If you are not prepared to pay the price supermarket X is charging for pet food, or anything else for that matter, shop around for a better deal and take your custom elsewhere. That’s how a market economy works.

I sympathise op, I’m not a pet owner anymore but have been buying for a neighbour at 12 for £4.50 a box, I’ve just looked online and will try pets at home next time she wants cat food as it’s looks like it’s considerably cheaper there.

It’s not just cat food though is it, without offers lots of produce has become expensive and so weekly shopping has increased in price significantly these last few months. I mostly only buy own brands and cheaper versions but without offers it is expensive.

My annoyance currently is cereal, it’s one of the few things when cheaper versions are not usually the same(not talking about cornflakes/brandflakes etc) and I miss not having any offers as I would stock up when they were on. Luckily Cheerios were on offer at Tesco before lockdown at £1.65 for huge box and I bought several boxes every time I went in there....we only ran out about 2wks ago but it’s now back to buying cereal at an extortionate £3+ a box.

Your cat will eat the food if it is sufficiently hungry or someone else isn't feeding it.

You'd be surprised. Some cats will literally starve themselves, possibly not to death but certainly to the detriment of their health.

OP, I get what you mean, despite all the accurate comments about free markets. It can seem quite exploitative.

Thanks to those who recommended Zooplus though; I've used Fetch a lot but they don't combine the veterinary food I have to buy for one of my cats with the very narrow range of supermarket-type foods (basically a few of the Purina Gourmet foods) that the other, underweight and very fussy, will eat. (She has been investigated btw and there's no obvious cause for the food/weight issues.) I see Zooplus do have all these so they may be getting some big orders from me in future.

owning a pet means choosing extra costs.

Of course. No reason why one shouldn't try to buy the required products as cheaply as possible though.

I work for well known drinks company that is stocked at high volume in all the supermarkets. All offers were removed as week on week we are experiencing sales higher than Christmas. To the point now that our raw material suppliers cannot keep up with demand. If offers were in place people will buy even more. The prices are exactly the same as they always are, there just aren't any offers on them.

@DappledOliveGroves

I order from zooplus and for me prices have gone up on what I get!

Lots of offers have stopped, not just on pet food.

Setting offers is not that easy.

It’s not ideal but you can’t force companies to offer offers, especially when they may furloughed staff and lost money in other ways.

I miss the offers but YABU.

@fleetheart

Well, since you know business so well, what is the operating margin of the industry you're in?

Tescos is 3.89%.

Is you're lower than that?

Good god - it’s just business 101. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@mencken

pets are a luxury. Animals are 'fussy' about things that poison them. Your cat will eat the food if it is sufficiently hungry or someone else isn't feeding it.

owning a pet means choosing extra costs.

Well, yes it does mean extra costs but there's nothing wrong with shopping around and wanting to buy as little as possible.

For example, I shop at Morrisons and Tesco. Morrisons always have the dog biscuits I buy on some kind of offer - so why would I buy the same biscuits in Tesco and pay more when I don't need to?