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.
Tags: Merrick
November 2nd, 2010 at 9:19 am
[...] For Merrick, Profits Trump Principle [...]
November 13th, 2010 at 8:11 am
I found your info. on Merrick very interesting. My dogs have been eating BG chicken for almost 2 yrs. w/o issue. Recently one had 2 bloat episodes (w/o torsion) due to the food sitting in his stomach and fermenting instead of digesting and passing through. Our other 2 are passing gass out both ends which they have never done and everyone is licking their feet. I can only assume it is a change in the food formula. I have contacted the company and gotten no response. Do you have any further info. you could pass along or point me in a direction. I am searching for a new food and my dog is having a pexy to help prevent any further episodes. I hate to think the food causes this but I am not left with much else. Thanks
November 13th, 2010 at 9:56 am
That’s an troubling development. As far as I know, Merrick has only reformulated the dry food. A pet shop owner told me that after a company begins selling to chain stores, they alter usually alter the dry food first and that it takes a year or so before they reformulate the wet food. He mentioned that he stopped carrying Nutro after Mars bought it out because the quality of the food dropped so much.
However, that doesn’t mean that Merrick hasn’t already changed its Before Grain food formula yet. And you won’t know unless you receive a response from Merrick or can compare an old label to a current label.
Lias and I haven’t started looking for an alternative wet food yet. For a dry food, we give Faith and Mac Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul. We’ve also used their wet food as toppers without any problems. You’ll have to buy Chicken Soup at an independent pet shop, though, because chains like PETCO and Petsmart don’ sell carry it. Once we do find a good replacement for Merrick’s food, I’ll blog about it.
By the way, the pet shop owner told me that one reason why small companies that don’t sell to chains tend to have higher quality food is because they don’t advertise much. Instead, they put the money they could have used for advertising into their food. Large companies such as Purina and Mars sink millions into advertising instead of into their food.
Perhaps someone could suggest an alternative wet food they use in a comment.
December 25th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
I work in the pet food industry and have seen firsthand the entree of Merrick into the national store segment. There were no formulation changes mandated by any chain stores. This is false. It is very common for unfounded rumors to spread among the independent stores when brands make a decision to go national. The reality is that brands like Merrick get unfairly criticized in order to sway consumers to other brands that have remained exclusive to the independents. In my opinion, this is a very unethical practice. Finally, one of the reasons small pet food companies sell to Petco and not Petsmart is because Petco generally does not undercut independent stores in price. Go see for yourself and set the record straight!
January 25th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
I have to say I’ve been a huge Before Grain fan for my cats – two of them have allergies to Chicken and so I can only feed them BG Turkey Can food (can’t feed their dry cause it has chicken it) – with new canned food with expiration dates of Sept 12 I see a complete difference in quality of the food – consistency and color completely different and I keep getting hard inetible chunks in each new can – and like the Cheryl the dog owner same thing happened to me with my cats – GAS!! and Diarrhea!!! and when I found some old cans with Jul 12 dates (the old formula I’ll call it) no issues at all – no GAS & No Diarrhea – I too called the company about my findings and they told me point blank nothing has changed which is obviously a lie – I open an old can next the new can and they’re completely different foods! I need to find another food or thinking about switching to RAW! so I don’t have to rely on these companies selling out all the time and giving us poor quality after getting us hooked and used to Superior Excellent Quality. Merrick in my opinion SOLD OUT!!! SHAME ON THEM!!!
January 25th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for your comment. I didn’t mean to imply that PETCO or any other chain store “mandated” changes to the foods’ formulation. What I said was that Merrick changed some ingredients to less expensive ones in order to keep their profits up.
I compared prices for Merrick wet food in the PETCOs in Cleveland, TN and Chattanooga, TN to the two independently owned pet shops in Chattanooga. Both PETCOs undercut the independents in their regular price and steeply undercut them in their special “club” price.
But all that aside, by selling to chains such as PETCO and Whole Foods, Merrick is hurting local communities. If you buy the food at an independently owned shop, $68 of every $100 spent there stays in your community. But if buy the food at a chain pet shop, only $43 of every $100 stays in your community. The loss also means that less tax dollars will be reinvested in your community as well.
January 25th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had trouble with the food, too, Elena. If you still have the cans from the new and old Merrick food, take a look at the ingredients to see if there were any changes or substitutions.
If you find a good alternative food, please let us know.