Home Depot To Stop Selling Pet Products

Home improvement retailer The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE: HD) plans to stop selling pet products in 2008. Overall, the company reported it's first ever yearly sales decline in 2007 yesterday, so perhaps it's wise to re-focus on core competencies. Especially with the state of the housing market.

Home Depot's pet product selection was highly limited in scope and brand selection anyway, with no dog houses, beds, indoor barriers, ramps or other common products a pet owner often adds to a home. Even so, this move signals a broader theme that may play out again soon: large retailers cutting back on pet products discretionary to their business models, but not necessarily to the consumer.
 

Pet Owner Spending Trends in the U.S.

A new report has just been published on nationwide pet owner spending trends.

The aging population, childless consumers and the ascendancy of high-income baby boomers are analyzed by their pet spending habits. Charts and tables are included using data from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics that highlight core trends in U.S. consumer spending by income, age, general region, and family composition.

The Pet Industry 2008 Strategic Outlook is our annual report, written for businesses marketing to pet owners.
 

Standard & Poor's Take on the Pet Industry

In a research note upgrading PetSmart (PETM) today, Standard & Poor's Equity Research notes "while we expect a slowdown in consumer spending to impact sales of discretionary pet supplies, we continue to believe underlying demographic trends for the industry remain very strong." Well put.