Pet Parents are Finding Empty Food Shelves in Their Local Pet Stores

Many people adopted pets at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, however, those new pet owners are struggling to find necessary food items for their furry friends. 

The issue, like most things in life, has many factors. 

First, there are just more pets, in general, to feed now, and more pets mean higher demand. Pet stores are having trouble keeping up and keeping products in stock. Pet food manufacturers are dealing with labor shortages and supply chain issues. 

One manufacturer was dealing with a shortage in cans, and has now begun making their own. 

"In general, everything is taking longer to arrive, and everything is more expensive. So we're going to have to raise prices on everything,” Beacon Hill's My Zone Blue's owner, Pedro Mejai said. "We're losing business because there are orders we can't fill. So we have to tell our customers we're out of stock of some things."

PetSmart is feeling the effects of the pandemic, too. 

"...With this increase in demand, we have seen shortages from manufacturers of wet food that have affected our canned food supply in our stores and online. We are committed to doing all we can to help pet parents feed and care for their pets and are actively working with our manufacturing and shipping partners to ensure supply is increased to better meet the current demand," PetSmart said in a statement this week.