Americans spent $72 billion on their pets in 2018. $72 billion. With a B. To someone like me, who owns multiple pets, this number does not seem too unreasonable because I love them so much that I can see myself spending any amount of money on them. I can imagine, however, that to someone without pets, this seems absurd. So I decided to figure out why we, as a country, are willing to spend so much on our pets.
Adopting or buying a pet comes with a fee, but the majority of spending comes after this initial step.
In fact, you can adopt a dog from a shelter for less than $200. Cats are typically under $100 if you adopt.
The main expense is food, costing $30 billion of the $72 billion spent in 2018. This makes sense of course, as it is the most basic necessity if you own a pet. However, this amount has increased in the past years mostly because people are now buying higher-quality, more expensive food.
The second-largest expense is veterinary care. Again, this makes sense - people are mostly worried about keeping their pets healthy. Ironically, the main reason for the increase in spending is because vet care has gotten more affordable, leading to people going to the vet more often.
The other categories of spending include over-the-counter medications, toys, leashes, beds, clothing, and other accessories. Services like grooming, pet-sitting, training, etc. make up the rest of the $72 billion.
This number continues to increase every year. One possible reason that younger people are more willing to spend so much on their pets is that many of them are either putting off having or never plan to have children. Therefore, they have more money to spend on their pets and are more willing to spend it.
https://www.valuepenguin.com/news/americans-spending-more-on-pets
This is very interesting as I personally do not have pets and always wonder why people love to treat their dogs to the same amenities as humans. After all, we tend to spoil those that we love. I think this illustrates the idea that if the price is reduced, the amount demanded increases. However if prices keep going down, people will eventually reach a threshold where they won't buy more.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post because I have both a dog and a cat, for both of whom, my parents buy a lot of toys so they have something to do and because the toys provide a way to play and bond with the pets making the numerous toys worth it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any pets, so this was an interesting article for me to read. I've always wanted a dog, but I never expected ownership to be so expensive. I think people spend so much on their pets because they spoil them, and some even see them as sort of "childlike" figures. This means that to make their pet happy, they would be willing to spend a lot of money.
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