Petco Announces New Nutrition Standards

m3rma1d

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"Today, we’re making a commitment to not sell dog and cat food and treats with artificial colors, flavors or preservatives – making us the first and only major retailer of pet food to take a stand against such ingredients. We’ll start removing products that don’t meet our new standards in January 2019, and complete the process by May."

Full announcement:
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/c/betternutrition-ceo-letter
 
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m3rma1d

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Yeah, huh? I mean I'm sure it'll be far from perfect but I think it's a great start! And surely it'll raise more peoples' awareness and mindfulness about what they're feeding to their pets, which is definitely a good thing. :)
 
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Bye bye Kit & Kaboodle !

*dancing a jig*
 

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Petco doesn’t carry kit and kaboodle. I work at a petco store part time as I attend college and from what the list of ingredients includes it seems pedigree, ceaser, milk bones, friskies, fancy feast, regular cat chow, and few others are going off the shelf. That’s not many to start with but I am concerned they won’t follow through with some of this. Seeing as my stores fancy feast and friskies take up a whole aisle. And is by far our biggest canned food sellers. We also have many people come in and buy in bulk on sale days so it’ll be interesting to see how much clientele my store looses from this. It is an interesting start but I’d like to see all of the big brands get booted. Nestle, Mars, and p&g to make room for better foods. I don’t ever see that happening though. Maybe someday when I retire I can open a mom and pop pet shop and not include those things lol.
 

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Petco doesn’t carry kit and kaboodle. I work at a petco store part time as I attend college and from what the list of ingredients includes it seems pedigree, ceaser, milk bones, friskies, fancy feast, regular cat chow, and few others are going off the shelf. That’s not many to start with but I am concerned they won’t follow through with some of this. Seeing as my stores fancy feast and friskies take up a whole aisle. And is by far our biggest canned food sellers. We also have many people come in and buy in bulk on sale days so it’ll be interesting to see how much clientele my store looses from this. It is an interesting start but I’d like to see all of the big brands get booted. Nestle, Mars, and p&g to make room for better foods. I don’t ever see that happening though. Maybe someday when I retire I can open a mom and pop pet shop and not include those things lol.
I'd wondered about that "whole aisle" you mentioned, too! How can they get rid of Fancy Feast?!

This makes me wonder more about the shelf purge sale I took advantage of a few months ago: I bought a load of canned Wellness Core and Nutro Natural Choice that our cats love. (I don't think they have any of the forbidden ingredients...) The Petco workers in my local store are always pretty up on things and the guy I talked with was surprised at some of the cuts, particularly Purina Muse (I'm pretty sure I'm getting that right), which he said was a huge seller. But they were making room for Weruva, Weruva, and more Weruva. Which seems odd to me despite Petco's long-time association with Soulistic, which is part of Weruva. Weruva is already sold in tons of stores here in Maine -- pretty much all the independents -- so I really wonder about that piece of Petco's business model, at least for New England, where Weruva is based and seems to have done a great job getting their product out.

cheesycats cheesycats , I think there's a place for your store. (I sometimes think about a combo shop that sells books and stuff for cats. Not very viable, I suspect! Particularly considering that I'm just not a businessperson! :p)
 
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m3rma1d

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Petco doesn’t carry kit and kaboodle.
Oops I stand corrected, thanks. :)
I wish they'd just stop making that particular crap altogether.

It will be super interesting to see which companies/lines gets the heave-ho, and if said offending companies will up their standards to keep people buying. And to see what people do... It's kinda all fascinating.
 

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Petco also doesn’t sell meow mix. The worst cat food they sell is friskies dry and that’s hitting the road by May 2019. Which I am soooo glad for. That stuff is total garbage. Almost on meow mix’s level though. Cat chow is exiting in January. Along with pedigree and begging strips and milk bones in dog section.
I’ve also been told by a higher up that’s the fancy feast and friskies canned is being reduced massively if not removed all together by May as well. So we shall see how this goes. I have no clue what they could be putting into that huge space. I do know there’s going to be a lot of old angry ladies who feed their ferals the stuff. We will surely loose customers over this. But there’s a Kroger right down the shopping center so I guess that’s where they’ll end up going.
 

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Petco also doesn’t sell meow mix. The worst cat food they sell is friskies dry and that’s hitting the road by May 2019. Which I am soooo glad for. That stuff is total garbage. Almost on meow mix’s level though. Cat chow is exiting in January. Along with pedigree and begging strips and milk bones in dog section.
I’ve also been told by a higher up that’s the fancy feast and friskies canned is being reduced massively if not removed all together by May as well. So we shall see how this goes. I have no clue what they could be putting into that huge space. I do know there’s going to be a lot of old angry ladies who feed their ferals the stuff. We will surely loose customers over this. But there’s a Kroger right down the shopping center so I guess that’s where they’ll end up going.
I can see this as being really good, but maybe not so only because you mentioned feeding the feral population. Not many people on a normal salary that feeds 30 stray cats out of the goodness of their heart is going to be able to afford something like Blue Buffalo or Clean Protein, most ferals do a lot of hunting and eating on their own and this food is a good supplemental thing for them if they have a stretch of time with failed hunts.
I don't love these bad brands but I kind of feel for people who are scraping their low pocketbook to just fill some hungry bellies and this is all they can afford.
On one hand I think PetCo is making a good stand but on the other hand, you're right, they'll probably lose some business over it.
My (usually worthless) opinion is kind of torn, 50/50...
 

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Yeah, I didn't think a lot of foods they sell would be affected, but then I realized that canned Friskies has "natural and artificial flavors". It would be nice if Friskies changed that to all "natural flavors" (not that there's a huge difference between "natural" and "artificial" flavors in the food industry :/). As long as they didn't raise the price :tongue:.

Are there artificial flavors in Fancy Feast? Why are they getting rid of that?

It's odd that the feral feeders are even buying from Petco, because it is NOT the cheapest place to find the lower-end foods. I only buy food there if it's on clearance or there's a really good sale. Even the grocery stores usually charge less. The only plus to buying Friskies at Petco is that they have all the flavors.
 

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I think part of it is convenience. And at my store we have over 12 ft of fancy feast. So I think we probably have every single flavor Purina makes in my store. I don’t think even Walmart has that much lol.
 
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m3rma1d

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I can see this as being really good, but maybe not so only because you mentioned feeding the feral population. Not many people on a normal salary that feeds 30 stray cats out of the goodness of their heart is going to be able to afford something like Blue Buffalo or Clean Protein, most ferals do a lot of hunting and eating on their own and this food is a good supplemental thing for them if they have a stretch of time with failed hunts.
I don't love these bad brands but I kind of feel for people who are scraping their low pocketbook to just fill some hungry bellies and this is all they can afford.
Petco's prices have never been the cheapest for food, at least where I live? When we were a Purina Cat Chow family, it was always cheaper (the big bag) at the actual grocery store than at Petco. Hopefully people who are short on cash and feeding similar grades of dry to ferals will notice that..
PS totally not trying to argue with you, I really like you. :)
 

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You make some good points!
I guess I'm thinking Petco is making a good effort but might be shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to their offerings of food choices. People will either go elsewhere or buy something they really can't afford to feed cats they didn't ask for in the first place, which is kind of a lose lose situation.
No offense taken at all by your very good, and reasonably stated comment, m3rma1d m3rma1d . I like you, too! :hellocomputer:
 

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It's a marketing strategy IMO. They are not pushing companies to improve recipes but pushing people to buy high end/high priced food, which bring in more profit.
No artificial flavor/color/preservative eliminate Fancy feast and Friskies. But, I bet artificial vitamin K (menadione) will be tolerated, or all products from the same company will have to be removed.
 
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m3rma1d

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Just read this article on Pet Food Industry
Petco drops pet foods, treats with artificial ingredients | PetfoodIndustry.com
and this stuck out to me:

"Petco Pet Wellness Institute founded
As part of this initiative, in 2019 Petco will also launch the Petco Pet Wellness Institute: a coalition of experts from all spectrums of pet health and wellness. Together, veterinarians, nutritionists, pet psychologists, academic researchers, and other credentialed leaders will attempt to ensure Petco is offering the best information, education, and services – not only for nutrition, but for topics and issues affecting pets' overall health and well-being.

Part of the institute's mandate will be funding evidence-based research to help further understand and define industry-wide issues, including the effect of food and ingredients on pet health. While data around pet wellness is currently limited, the institute will help provide clarity and inform Petco's initiatives, ensuring the brand is continuing to meet the demands of modern pet parents."

Seems they're going all-in. I just hope it's not all corrupt and messy.
 

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Just read this article on Pet Food Industry
Petco drops pet foods, treats with artificial ingredients | PetfoodIndustry.com
and this stuck out to me:

"Petco Pet Wellness Institute founded
As part of this initiative, in 2019 Petco will also launch the Petco Pet Wellness Institute: a coalition of experts from all spectrums of pet health and wellness. Together, veterinarians, nutritionists, pet psychologists, academic researchers, and other credentialed leaders will attempt to ensure Petco is offering the best information, education, and services – not only for nutrition, but for topics and issues affecting pets' overall health and well-being.

Part of the institute's mandate will be funding evidence-based research to help further understand and define industry-wide issues, including the effect of food and ingredients on pet health. While data around pet wellness is currently limited, the institute will help provide clarity and inform Petco's initiatives, ensuring the brand is continuing to meet the demands of modern pet parents."

Seems they're going all-in. I just hope it's not all corrupt and messy.
Agreed, if it's corrupt, there's a chance it's doomed before it began.
It sounds like a good plan though, I hope they can pull it off.
I've been to Petco a few times (it's a bit of a drive, but we had fun) and some of the employees were so-so, and others were really excellent and good to talk to and had really good customer service and "people" skills.
I had a pet store (not Petco) employee mention the dog supplies we were buying, asked what types of dogs we had...then told us we should breed the dogs because we could make a lot of money. BAD ADVICE to hand out to the public. :confused: (She looked to be no older than 19 or 20, so maybe she just didn't know...but....yikes.)
 
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