Petco partners with Freshpet for dog food subscription
- Petco and Freshpet have partnered to create a dog food subscription service.
- Meals start at $3 a day and include ingredients like chicken, beef, salmon, fruits and vegetables.
- Freshpet is known for its refrigerated meals, which it markets as fresh and without preservatives.
Petco has partnered with pet food brand Freshpet to offer a dog food subscription service.
According to a March 22 release, the pet food delivery service will allow customers to create custom subscription meal plans for their pets that it says are created by veterinary nutritionists for dogs.
Here’s how the service works, according to the release:
- Customers will complete a short questionnaire on Petco’s website.
- The questionnaire asks questions about the dog’s attributes, sensitivities and health goals.
- Customers then receive a personalized meal plan that includes feeding guidelines that are based on factors like breed, age, body type and activity level.
- Then, shoppers can select a delivery window to have the food delivered to their homes.
Petco says the meal plans start at $3 per day. The meals include ingredients, such as chicken, beef, salmon, eggs, fruits and vegetables. Petco and Freshpet, which is known for refrigerated pet foods marketed as fresh and without preservatives, say the meals won’t include ingredients such as powdered meat. The meals are steam-cooked, and they’re kept refrigerated until they reach the customer’s home, the release said.
"As shoppers seek healthier, real food for their pets, they're also looking for solutions that provide added convenience,” said Scott Morris, co-founder and president of Freshpet, in the release. “Our partnership with Petco allows us to deliver on both – creating customized healthy meal plans delivered to consumers' doorsteps."
At launch, Freshpet’s custom meals are available in 15 states that include California, Texas, Florida and New York. According to the release, the custom meals will be available across the U.S. by the end of the year.
Petco earlier this year expanded its shop-in-shop partnership with Canadian retailer Canadian Tire. Petco shop-in-shop experiences will roll out at 90% of Canadian Tire’s 1,700 retail locations this year, Retail Leader previously reported.
As Retail Leader Pro chief analyst Elizabeth Lafontaine noted, spending in pet categories has remained strong despite continued economic pressures on consumers.
“In a post-pandemic world where consumers also face pressures from inflation, it appears that spending on pets has not been diminished even as disposable income is constrained,” Lafontaine said. “Consumers appear to be more price resistant for themselves than they are when spending on their pets. This presents an interesting opportunity for the retail industry as it grapples with how to meet consumer demands and also focus their assortments during a time of pullback on spending.”