Dog Tidbits

In a previous post, I talked about how much Lisa and I liked Merrick dog food for our dogs Faith and Mac. One of the reasons was because — in owner Garth Merrick’s own words — Merrick Pet Care sold only to “the independent specialty pet market, ” which consists of locally owned and online pet shops. Merrick maintained that his company sold only to these pet shops because it was the independents who supported him when he began manufacturing dog food and cat food.

If you go to the Merrick Pet Care website, you can still see and hear Garth Merrick say those words in the video on the home page. Unfortunately, though, he’s no longer telling the truth. The sad fact is that for Merrick, profits trumped principle. He now sells to chain stores. It’ll be interesting to see how long the current version of the video remains on their website.

Merrick Pet Care follows a long line of independent companies such as Toms of Maine toothpaste (now owned by Colgate Palmolive), Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (now owned by Unilever), and Burt’s Bees skin care products (now owned by Clorox) that have sold out to national or global conglomerates. The companies couch their reasons for selling out in lofty-sounding terms. But the reason is simple: They put profits ahead of principles.

In Merrick’s case, Garth Merrick didn’t sell out the company, but he did betray his often-stated principle of selling only to “independent specialty” pet shops. Currently, Merrick is selling his dog food and cat food to Whole Foods and PETCO. There’s speculation that he also will cut a deal with Petsmart as well.

I learned that Whole Foods was selling Merrick dog food and cat food this past summer, when Whole Foods bought out Greenlife Groceries. Green Life was as locally owned organic grocery store in Tennessee with sites in Chattanooga and Ashville. Lisa and I discovered Merrick pet food there well over a year ago and began feeding it to Faith and Mac.

Last summer a friend of ours who’s a local vendor who sells his product to Greenlife told us that the store was being bought out by Whole Foods. (He also mentioned that Whole Foods had begun limiting shelf space to local vendors and replacing their products with Whole Foods’ own brand-name ones, many of which undersell the local products.)

When I asked one of the Greenlife employees if Merrick was going to continue selling to them now that they were owned by Whole Foods, she responded that customers loved the product and Whole Foods was negotiating with Merrick to keep selling their food. The food never left the shelves, even for a day.

This past weekend, Dale of A Natural K-9 blog alerted me that PETCO was selling Merrick dog food and cat food. I checked the PETCO website, and — sure enough — they were offering the whole gamet of Merrick pet food and treats. The prices are lower than what independent pet shops sell them at.

Apparently Merrick downgraded some of the formulas they use in making some of the food. Right now I gather that the change is mainly for the dry food. I assume Merrick made the change to meet the increased demand of selling to chain stores. Lowering the quality of a product to expand production isn’t surprising, though. Companies do it all the time to sell to conglomerates such as Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and Target. Many of the companies sell the products at reduced prices, so manufacturers compromise quality to maintain profits.

Lisa and I try to support local businesses. One reason we bought Merrick dog food was because Merrick sold only to independent businesses. Now that Merrick doesn’t do that anymore, we owe no more loyalty to the Merrick brand.

If we still want to buy Merrick pet food, we’ll purchase it from a local pet shop such as Aunt Sue’s K-9 Bakery & Pet Supplies or The Bone Appetit Bakery (website being updated) and not from Whole Foods or PETCO. We might have to travel further to buy it, but we’ll still be supporting local businesses.

I think, though, that we’ll look for another brand to buy. After all, there are plenty of high-quality dog foods to choose from. And some of them still sell only to local pet shops.

Garth Merrick’s decision to sell to PETCO and other chains also hurts the independent pet shops he claimed he wanted to support. One thing that separates local pet shops from chain pet shops is that the locals carry products the chains don’t. One of those products was Merrick pet food, which many people love. Now owners of local pet shops will feel the financial pain in reduced sales.

Merrick’s decision also hurts local communities. Now instead of $68 of every $100 spent on Merrick pet food staying in the community, only $43 will remain. That difference of $25 will go to PETCO’s corporate headquarters in San Diego, California and to Whole Foods’ corporate headquarters in Austin, Texas. Soon that $25 also will go to Petsmart’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

In his comment on my Merrick pet food review, Dale said that “[a] brand name can always be sold or changed. Its a business.” He’s so right. And Merrick is a good case in point.

For Merrick, profits trumped principle.