From catnip to dog bones: Santa Paws comes to town; retailers cater to pet gift-givers for the holidays

Discount Store News, Nov 20, 1995 by Richard Halverson

Nationwide DSN report - When Santa comes sliding down the chimney this year, gifts for Fido and Fluffy, Dick and Jane's furry companions, won't be left out.

Discount and specialty store retailers are stocking their shelves with specially ordered holiday goodies for the four-legged set. Many of the items are suitable for year-round giving, others are packaged in special Christmas wrap.

PetsMart, Phoenix, for instance, adds about 600 skus of Christmas merchandise, including a leather coat for a pet iguana, which retails for about $9.95.

At Wal-Mart and Kmart, the offerings are a bit more prosaic, leaning toward rawhide chews in the form of Christmas wreaths and Christmas stockings full of chews and treats.

At San Diego-based Petco, Christmas gift sales amount to approximately an extra week's worth of sales, or about $5 million, according to Mark Reilly, gmm.

Holiday shopping for pets begins to affect sales two weeks before Christmas and hits its peak the week before, Reilly said. The sales pattern suggests that consumers shop for people first and then turn to their furry companions.

Dog and cat stockings at $4.99 to $8.99 are a big hit every year, Reilly said. Petco buys the stockings made to order from vendors like Vo-Toys and J&Y.

Other favorites include large-size cow bones from Pet Center, Nylabones (nylon chews) from TFH and hard rubber chew toys for dogs and cats from Kong.

Cat furniture makes a popular gift, Reilly said, although his chain offers furniture from its regular stock, rather than specially packaged for Christmas. Toy mice and catnip toys, mostly direct imports, also are big, he said.

Petco shies away from motorized toys since they tend to be noisy and frighten animals, Reilly added.

The American Pet Products Manufacturers Association's annual survey revealed that sales of pet accessories ($8.5 billion) surpassed those of pet foods ($8 billion) in 1994, for a total of $16.5 billion in sales for pet supplies, according to Bill Schoolman, executive director of APPMA.

Holiday gifts are just one cost aspect of having a companion. The APPMA survey showed that the average dog owner spent $1,100 in 1994 to care for his companion, while the average cat owner spent $560. Both figures include vet bills, which are estimated to be about 25% of the total.

According to the survey, about 53 million households, or 56% of all U.S. families, own pets.

Some dog owners said that they spend a total of $75 for holiday gifts for their pets, although the the average is $5 to $15, estimated Simon Handelsman, a Newburyport, Mass., consultant to the pet industry.

Dog gifts outsell cat gifts by a ratio of 2:1 or 3:1, Handelsman said.

This year's big seller is still unknown. In previous years, barking dog dishes and reindeer antlers and ears for dogs were hot gifts.

Pet clothes are always a huge seller at PetsMart, said spokeswoman Cozette Wasserman. The chain stocks flannel shirts, sweaters and fleece-lined denim and bomber jackets.

Pet Food Warehouse, a 28-unit superstore chain based in St. Charles Park, Minn., offers clear plastic Christmas tree ornaments filled with dog or cat treats, licensed NFL and college T-shirts for dogs and licensed collars.

Hartz Mountain offers a holiday collection including a Norman Rockwell Christmas gift tin containing 1.5 lbs. of Gravy Coated Yummies premium dog treats for $4.99.